My Travels In Peru

Ancient Lima Revisited

Our imaginary journey takes us back to Lima.

Ancient Lima bears no resemblance to the present-day city. In fact, when we talk of ancient Lima, we talk of a people and culture that spread along the coast of central Peru, from its origin at the mouth of the Rimac River. We arrived at the peak of their civilization, near the end of the sixth century. To put the time frame into perspective, the Limans were contemporaries of the Mochicans of northern Peru and of the Romans, at the end of their empire.

We will visit three Liman cities located within the boundaries of the modern city: Maranga, in the district of San Miguel; Huallamarca, in San Isidro; and Pucllana in Miraflores. The Lima people lived in a confederation of autonomous cities, all sharing the same culture and religion, with Maranga as their capital. It was a pilgrimage destination. For this reason, it had the largest concentration of high priests and functionaries.

The immensity of the city struck us immediately upon arrival: it was huge! The largest of its three pyramids was enormous. It must have been 300 m long by 130 wide and 30 high. Four football fields could have fit in there with room to spare! This was the grand palace: the home of the city's ruler (also the head of the confederation), his family, and his administrators. Completely constructed from adobe, it had five platforms, each connected to the others by ramps. On either side of it sat a smaller one; and all three faced the main square – a humongous space that separated the nobility from the working class.

Three long streets ran parallel to the square. On the one facing the square lived the potters, with their workshops on the main floor and living quarters on the second. Behind it was the weavers' street and on the last one lived the metal workers. There were other trades, of course, but these predominated. Behind the last street was a large canal, and beyond it was farmland. On the end of the square closest to the sea lived the fishermen. Guesthouses for pilgrims and travelers were on the opposite end. Farmers and hunters lived outside the city's perimeter wall, surrounded by verdant fields, thanks to the canal that brought water from the Rimac for irrigation and human consumption.

The royal palace and the two smaller ones were constructed as stepped pyramids. No expense was spared on the construction of the grand palace. The exterior walls of each of the five levels were finished with a smooth layer of mud and exquisitely painted with geometric designs in red, blue, and yellow colours. Each had a different motif, but diamond patterns predominated. The palace had no fewer than five terraces and courtyards, used for different purposes. The highest one was the religious and ceremonial terrace, where sacrifices were offered to the gods. It was for the exclusive use of the priests and the nobility. Ceremonies took place there only at night under a full moon. Those involving the working class were held on the lowest terrace, which was capable of holding thousands of people. These were the only occasions that the general public was allowed access within the confines of the great pyramid.

Its chief priest and governor was the most charismatic person one can imagine: a combination of the Dalai Lama and the great Gandhi. His voice was soft and melodic and well modulated, so that it rose and fell in resonance with the listeners' ears, with mesmerizing effect. He had his people in a trance taking in every word he said. His performance explained at once how he had been able to rule this great city and command so much respect throughout the confederation. I also understood immediately that these religious ceremonies were not staged so much to praise and appease the celestial gods, as they were to maintain the citizens in awe of their leader. As long as people believed in his divine powers, he could rule in relative tranquillity. To keep them in that state of mind, he had to simply repeat the ritual; and as long as there would be celestial bodies in the sky, there would be religious ceremonies to be celebrated.

The city of Maranga changed the life of the Rimac Valley people. The big canals that brought water from the river made it all possible. If we had arrived five or six centuries earlier, we would have found many small villages along the shores of the river and no city. The people were constrained to live close to the river for irrigation of their small farms, which allowed them not much more than subsistence living. The farmers traded with the fishermen on the coast so that both could have a more balanced diet. The completion of the first canal was the game changer. It was a massive undertaking, but it converted the entire landscape, turning desert land into fertile farms, and in no time the population of the area skyrocketed. Who made it all possible? It was the people whose descendants inhabited the three palaces.