Pachacamac Ruins

[Martin Hash]

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My wife, Gwynne, and I have been to Lima, Peru a number of times. The first time was a decade ago and after a week, we thought we'd seen everything, then my son got married to a Peruvian girl, and they had my grandson, Felix, in Lima, so we visit a lot now; turns out, Lima is chock full of things we haven't seen. One of the most impressive is the amount of old ruins scattered around the city, all under varying amounts of archaeological study; we've gotten so we can recognize the signs that indicate a ruin is coming up, huaca (Peruvian artifact) nearby. They can be anywhere: there was a giant ruin plus small museum at the zoo; take a right past the elephants, you can't miss them. We've been to at least a dozen ruin sites just by accident. For example, one afternoon we were at a restaurant in town and noticed one of the archaeological ruins signs down the street. We decided to walk there and see what it was; it was a huge dig, 40 sq. km., with accompanying museum, called Pachacamac. This place is much older than the Incas, established about 200 AD, and lasted 1300 years before the Inca conquered them. What makes it truly odd is that the entire site is literally surrounded by modern buildings. When you stand on the top of one of the pyramids, the horizon is the city skyline.