Why Was Paramonga Built as a Fortress?

In 72 BC, Moroni , who had just been given the command of all the Nephite armies, recognized the importance of erecting defensive walls of stone and strengthening the Nephite cities, many of which were built like forts. Of these, Mormon wrote: “he [Moroni] had been strengthening the armies of the Nephites, and erecting small forts, or places of resort; throwing up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies, and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land” (Alma 48:8).

In fact, Mormon added: “the chief captains of the Lamanites were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security” (Alma 49:5), and also “thus were the Nephites prepared to destroy all such as should attempt to climb up to enter the fort by any other way, by casting over stones and arrows at them” (Alma 49:19).

Now, in the Land of Promise, since much of this work was done with stone, we should see evidence of the forts Moroni had built and the defensive walls he erected “all round about the land.”

While there are no such evidences of stone forts and defensive walls in the Heartland or the Great Lakes locations, and the stone buildings in Mesoamerica do not resemble forts in any way, including few stone walls that were meant to keep an invading army out of the land, we find the existence of scores of such walls and forts in the area of Andean Peru.

Top: Map of the central coast of Peru; Bottom: The site of Paramonga on top of a hill overlooking Paramonga Valley

 

One such major city built as a fortress is found along the north central coast of Peru, in the northern lands settled by the Wari, and is the impressive fortress of La Fortaleza de Paramonga, which was built on a hill southwest of Pativilca city and north of the Pativilca River, providing a sweeping unobstructed panorama view of entire valley. The four-layered, staggered pyramid was an important religious settlement along the coast, similar to Pachacamac, and was built behind seven enormous stone walls with a view overlooking the entire area, and thought to resemble a European medieval castle.

Of this area, Miguel del Estete, Spanish conquistador and chronicler, who was called “the chronicler soldier” at the time, and author of The discovery and conquest of Peru, which remained unpublished until the 20^th century, wrote: “and another day we went to sleep in a large town that is called Parmunga, which is next to the sea, has a Strong House, with five blind fences, painted of elaborately on the inside and outside with its walls carved, the way it is done in Spain, with two tigers (pumas?) at the main entrance.”

Another chronicler, Pedro Cieza de León, passed Paramonga during his trip from the City of the Kings (Lima) to Trujillo in 1541, and described it by the following: “There is one thing worth seeing in this valley, which is a fine well-built fortress, and it is certainly very curious to see how they raised water in channels to irrigate higher levels. The buildings were very handsome, and many wild beasts and birds were painted on the walls…[and] in these days the fortress only serves as a witness to that which has been” (Pedro de Cieza de Leon, “The travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon, AD 1532-1550,” Chronicle of Peru, Chapter 70, Cambridge University Press, 2010).

The high walls at Paramonga—the city is completely enclosed by several walls that really impressed the Spanish chroniclers who thought it reminded them of a European castle

 

This fortress, called Paramonga—named after the nearby modern town of Paramonga, as its original name is unknown—was an important city constructed at the border of the former kingdom of Chimor in Peru, whose capital was the metropolis of Chan Chan. It is located on the Fortaleza River, which originates in Ancash in the foothills of the Cordillera Negra (“Black Range”), which is part of the Cordillera Occidental, one of three mountain ranges in the Andes west of central Peru.

The Fortleza River, which feeds the town and fortress , runs through the Paramonga Valley and  is 62 miles long with a 890 square mile drainage system. The river has a highly irregular depth, that in the months of June to October it does not reach the Pacific Ocean—in other months its waters are intensely used for cultivation throughout the valley. It crosses the province of Barranca from east to west and passes through the valley to the Pacific Ocean, with its mouth located just north of town.

Paramonga is often called a fortress due to its staggered pyramid of four levels of enormous proportions constructed on a hill, behind five staggered high walls—the outer ones being nine hundred feet long by six hundred feet. The interior of the fort is divided into small houses, separated by lanes. It is partly covered with a smooth coat of plaster, on which were painted colored representations of birds and beasts. The ruined fortress stands at the extremity of a plain, close to the foot of some rugged mountains, about a 3½ miles from the sea. Many centuries after it was built, the Chimu defended the fortress against the Inca. 

The narrow, switchback entrance into the upper precincts of Paramonga

 

The entrance into the upper fortress of Paramonga is through a narrow, uphill switchback, where the doorways are double reinforced for barricading against attack. The seven defensive walls surrounding the city were guarded by a large, impressive and likely impenetrable gatehouse. Small storehouses and residential buildings were at the top of the hills surrounding Paramonga's center, but modern. Today, agricultural sugarcane fields bury much of the remains of what was once an important city.

Chan Chan is also along the coast, a little north of Paramonga, and is another well defended site, composed of royal compounds, referred to as ciudadelas or citadels, which were elaborate, labyrinthine compounds surrounded by high walls made of adobe bricks covered in mud plaster and reliefs. These Ciudadelas were composed of long, narrow corridors leading to spaces with different uses, such as large, open plazas with central platforms for ceremonies, storage facilities, and even large wells. It would be difficult for someone unfamiliar with the citadel to navigate their way through these areas.

Questions to ask?

 

What should be, but is seldom, if ever, asked is “Why would a large city along the coast of north-central Peru, be built with such defensive precision. Seven walls? Double gates? Narrow passages leading to the entrance gates? From such construction, one might conclude that these builders were somewhat afraid of attack, probably by regular incursions of a heredity enemy.

While such attacks aare not suggested by historical evidences in the heartland or Great Lakes, and neither by Mesoamerican construction, the Book of Mormon shows the Nephites constantly under attack or involved in wars with their perennial enemy, the Lamanites. Since most of the cities in Andean South America were  built as forts, or with defensive walls around them, it might be concluded that South America was the Land of Promise.