Peru Central - Huaraz, Cordillera Blanca and Chavin de Hauntar

August 24, 2017 Derek Boniecki

A carving from the archeological site of Chavin de Hauntar

The TransAmerican Highway along the coastal desert of central Peru

The Trans-American Highway

Cordillera Blanca above Huaraz

Huaraz

The streets of Huaraz

Guinea Pig for sale in Huaraz

Lunch

Huaraz

Huaraz main market

A photographer waiting for clients in the main square of Huaraz

Hills above Huaraz

Ancient ruins above Huaraz. The ruins are from the Wari Culture - a pre-Inca culture of the coastal Peru.

Wari culture ruins near Huaraz

Wari culture ruins

Cordillera Blanca forma he hills near Huaraz

Our crew

The valley of Quillcayhuanca

The ancient Wari culture ruins in the valley of Quillcayhuanca

Our basecamp fro exploration in the valley of Quillcayhuanca

Our basecamp area from he hills above

Nevado Huantsam 6,385m

Nevado Huantsan 6,385m

Pucaranra 6,150m

Crossing the Andes not he way to Chavin de Hauntar

The village of Chavin de Hauntar

The archeological site of the Chavin de Hauntar

Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological site in Peru, containing ruins and artifacts constructed as early as 1200 BCE, and occupied until around 400–500 BCE by the Chavín, a major pre-Inca culture. The site is located in the Ancash Region, 250 kilometers (160 mi) north of Lima, at an elevation of 3,180 meters (10,430 ft), east of the Cordillera Blanca at the start of the Conchucos Valley. This archeological site is a large ceremonial center that has revealed a great deal about the Chavín culture. Chavín de Huántar served as a gathering place for people of the region to come together and worship. The transformation of the center into a valley-dominating monument made it a pan-regional place of importance. People went to Chavin de Huantar as a center: to attend and participate in rituals, consult an oracle, or enter a cult.

The ceremonial center of Chavin - the ancients did use hallucinogenic substances and practice cannibalism. When in the XIVth century a monk Fray Antonio Vasquez de Espinoza came to that place, local residents told him that pilgrims from the remotest places of Peru used to come to Chavin. As it was noted by the monk, that place was as significant for them as Rome or Jerusalem for Christians. Pilgrims used to perform some ritual actions and made offerings to their gods. And in the period of flourishing of Chavin, offerings would come from such distant places like modern cities of Peru - Trujillo, Cajamarca, Lima, Huanuco, Paracas. And in its turn, the handmade goods from Chavin – ceramics, fabric, golden items – were found hundred kilometers away from it. Chavin was, if one can say like that, in fashion on the vast territory of Peru, where traces of its style in architecture and art were found.

In the III-IVth century B.C. due to some unknown reasons Chavin ceased to be a ceremonial centre (maybe some crisis of ancient religion took place) and in the beginning of our era local peasants started to settle down on top of the previously majestic ruins.

Copy of the stone inscriptions from the Chavin temple compex

The underground caverns of Chavin - the realm of high priests and drug induced ceremonies. Archaeological excavations enabled to restore some details of the life of ancient Chavin. As long as it was a religious centre, sacrificers, naturally, were its main characters, who used all means of influence on psychic. Sessions of hypnotism where hundreds of people participated were regularly held at the central Square Plaza. Charming dances under the accompaniment of majestic sounds of huge seashells, incomprehensible noise of water from the underground canals, all this served the sacrificers.

Canals, more than 3 km long, were the height of engineer art of the Chavinians, they were laid even under the underground tunnels. Canals served the two purposes: practical – as drainage, overflow system (it was especially important for deep areas) and ritual – for psychologic influence on the audience that did not understand the origin of the powerful sound and conceived it as something supernatural.

While performing the ritual, sacrificers used different hallucinogens. The hieratic plant is cactus San Pedro, the image of which, including in the hand of a sacrificer – is a widespread subject in the Chavin art. Cactus San Pedro contains mescaline – alkaloid that causes optical and acoustic hallucinations. With its help the sacrificers would fall into a trance, transforming into a totem animal – jaguar, condor, snake, cayman, and when believed, it helped the sacrificers to contact the higher powers, learn the mysteries of being and possibly to influence the current of events. This process is described in the Chavin art in detail. During excavations they found small delicate pipes made of birds' bones, which, according to archaeologists, were used to inhale drugs through the nose.

It is interesting but the galleries were not illuminated by anything. Unlike all other underground structures on the planet, here they did not find any traces of torch soot or anything like that. It also might be the means for «brainwashing» during the ceremonies. When a drugged newcomer, was blindly taken along the dark underground tunnels under the accompaniment of obscure sounds of running water, meeting with the main deity Lanzon, unexpectedly illuminated by a single ray of light from the top, should act as a lightening bolt. In the tunnels there are small rooms (2x2 m) where the initiation or psychologic preparation of sacrificers to rituals might have taken place.

The feline head on one of the temples in Chavin

There were very unusual stone heads on the outer wall of the complex at the height of 12 m (39.37 feet). Unfortunately only one of them remained at its place, but in the storage you can see more than a dozen of these heads. All of them bear the zoomorphic features. The one on the wall is a half-man-half-jaguar; there are heads with features of birds, etc. There are also very strange heads – with secretions from nose. It is thought that they depict different stages of transformations after using the drugs: from the phase of nausea, bleeding from the nose that can be the result of sniffing the powder, to complete transformation into a totem animal.

The obelisk of Lanzon. The god for whom the temple was constructed was represented in the Lanzón, a notched wedge-shaped stone over 15 feet tall, carved with the image of a supernatural being, and located deep within the Old Temple, intersecting several galleries.

Lanzón means “great spear” in Spanish, in reference to the stone’s shape, but a better comparison would be the shape of the digging stick used in traditional highland agriculture. That shape would seem to indicate that the deity’s power was ensuring successful planting and harvest.

The Lanzón depicts a standing figure with large round eyes looking upward. Its mouth is also large, with bared teeth and protruding fangs. The figure’s left hand rests pointing down, while the right is raised upward, encompassing the heavens and the earth. Both hands have long, talon-like fingernails. A carved channel runs from the top of the Lanzón to the figure’s forehead, perhaps to receive liquid offerings poured from one of the intersecting galleries.

Huaraz market

Huaraz

Rabbits for sale in the market in Huaraz

Huaraz

The main market in Huaraz

Huaraz

Lima

Lima - Church of San Francisco

Oratorio in the Church of San Francisco

Catacombs in the Church of San Francisco

Lima