Chiclayo and Sipan

The cathedral in the main square of Chiclayo

On my trip up north I basically zoomed through Chiclayo, stopping for just long enough to see the sites of the Sipan tomb and Sican pyramids at Tucume before jetting out east. Although it was a short trip, it was great!

Tucume is a site with 26 adobe pyramids that they have just begun to excavate

A lot of people may have heard of/seen parts of the Sipan story, which is Indiana Jones-ish in its tale. In 1987 a truck driver and a few friends decided to look for a tomb under what was thought to be a small hill in the middle of sugarcane plantations. They found what they were looking for and looted over $1.5 million worth of gold and silver before the police caught notice (because others wanted a piece of the action there was a gunfight near the tombs, drawing the police attention). The main archaelogist of the region was able to protect the area and they began excavating and attempting to recover what the thieves had tossed aside (ceramics, shell jewelery, textiles, copper). To their surprise they found a series of tombs filled with more gold, silver, copper, shell and textile products than what the grave robbers had originally uncovered. In the main tomb, they found the coffin of the "Lord of Sipan", which was filled with over 400 pieces of precious metals and surrounded by 8 persons who apparently willingly sacrificed themselves at the time of their Lord's death.

A replica of the tomb of the Lord of Sipan

At the tomb, you can see replicas of the coffins with the buried subjects and the valuable pieces and a nearby museum has painstakingly restored every piece found and displays them individually with special lights and cooling systems specific to each item. It's absolutely incredible to think about the great (non-economic) worth of the gold, silver, and copper items and it's such a shame that this worth was not valued by the Spaniards and grave robbers, who tended to melt down the most exquisite works of art into bricks to sell abroad. Seeing this site reminded me of how much has been lost to melting fires, and made me grateful to think that at least a small idea remains.