Moai

  Ancestor worship was common throughout Polynesia with the idea that an important person's mana (spiritual power) continued to be effective and able to influence the outcome of events long after their death.  The only place in the world that these statues were made to such huge size is Rapa Nui.  On Easter Island when a chief or important member of a tribe died, a statue was ordered from the quarry at Rano Raraku and transported across the island back to his or her villiage, where it would be placed in such a way as to overlook the village and their decendents.  The Moai were not faced out to sea, they were faced inwards in order to watch over and protect their own people.

  Once the Moai were transported to their final resting place the finishing touches to their faces were made and the eyes made of coral were set in place.  The Rapanui believed that once the eyes were put in place on the Moai the spirit of the ancestor would then possess the Moai.  Some Moai also had hair tied in a bun on the top of their head.  It looked a bit like a hat but was the traditional way that the Moai wore their hair at that time.  The rock that they used for the hair was red. The Moai were set on stone platforms when they were put in their final position.  The stone platform held either the corpse of the ancestor underneath it or they cremated the body on the platform behind the Moai and then buried the ashes beneath.  

  To make a Moai the Rapanui had to go through various stages.  The Moai were all made out of volcanic rock and carved with obsidian stone tools.  First of all they would select a piece of stone in the quarry and carve it on its back with all the detail except for the eye sockets.  The back of the statue was carefully cut away from the bedrock in the form of a keel, and the released Moai slid down the slope using a system of ropes and pulleys.  It was then lowered into a preprepared pit and stood upright so that the carving of the back could be completed.  The Moai was then transported to its final position by being pulled with ropes while being rolled on a series of logs.  The quarry still contains more than 397 Moai in various stages of completion.

  All of the statues on Easter Island were at one point thrown from their platforms.  Many were broken and all have suffered from being exposed to the elements and the islands harsh climate.  The Moai were all pushed over by the Rapanui, there are two theories of why.  One is because of tribal wars caused by the lack of resources left on the island which led to clans attacking each other in search of supplies.  In their raids they destroyed the other clans Moai.  The other theory is that the islanders simply lost faith in the Moai having seen generation after    generation of their ancestors invest all of their time and energy into these Moai and never felt that they were receiving anything from the gods in return.  Many Moai have since been stood back up into their original positions, however some were too badly damaged to be restored.  

  The Moai are really special, not just to visitors but especially to the Rapanui.  My favorite area was definitely the quarry at Rano Raraku because there are so many unfinished but incredible Moai.  Wallking around there was fantastic.  The Moai with the hair were the ones I liked the best because of all the detail they show.  Easter Island is an amazing place full of wonderful and interesting history that we can all learn from.  Drew

Rapa Nui

   The first people to reach Rapa Nui came from Polynesia some time between 600 and 900 AD.  They had to travel over 2000 miles in a small boat bringing everything they needed to start a new society on this uninhabited island - animals, plants, enough people to start a new population, together with the knowledge and cultural beliefs to enable the community to thrive.  When they arrived the island was a Polynesian paradise, up to 70% of the land was covered with palm trees and edible plants and there was an abundance of sea birds and fish.  

  Most people think that the Rapanui chopped down all the trees on the island in order to transport the Moai from the quarry to their resting places and in doing so wiped themselves and the trees out.  However we learnt that when the first inhabitants came to the island they bought Pacific rats with them on the boat.  These rats had no predators and food was plentiful so they multiplied over and over again.  The rats loved eating the nuts of the palm trees which were plentiful.  They gnawed through the palm tree nuts to the extent that they couldn't germinate, preventing the trees from successfully reproducing.  The Rapanui also chopped down trees to make room for crops, to use as fire wood and later on for statue transportation too.  Betwen all of these factors damage to the islands tree population and ecosystem may have now been done.

  The original houses on Rapa Nui Island were called hare paenga.  They had foundation stones around the bottom, with carved holes on top.  Branches were placed into the holes, tied together at the centre and longer branches were then placed on top creating a sturdy wooden frame.  Then the Rapanui placed dried leaves, reeds and grass over the frame and left a small opening at each end of the hut for light and ventillation with a door in the middle.   Because the houses looked like upside down canoes they are often called "boat houses".  All over the island there were small oval huts made of stone called hare moa. There are no windows or doors in them.  They were chicken houses and they had no visible openings to stop chicken thieves from other villages.  At night a farmer would put his chickens in the coop through a small hole and then put a stone in the hole so that chicken thieves couldn't find the door and therefore keep the chickens safe.  

  In 1722 on Easter Sunday a Dutch explorer looking for Terra Australis found Rapa Nui, from then on it was known as Easter Island.  They anchored off the island for a week and then moved on.  Almost 50 years a Spanish expedition arrived from Peru and claimed the land.  After 6 days on the island the Spanish left and never came back to follow up their claim of Easter Island.  In the 1850's Peru had abolished slavery and was in need of cheap labor.  In a series of raids on the island, up to 1500 Rapanui were forcibly removed by Peruvian entrepreneurs, including many of the chiefs and wise men.  Many of the islanders died on the journey to Peru and only 15 were ever returned to Rapa Nui.  In 1883 Chile had defeated Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific and wanted to expand their empire.  They saw the potential of the waters surrounding Easter Island and in 1888 a deed was presented to the islands king giving Chile "full and entire sovereignty" over Easter Island.  The  document was in Spanish and the Rapanui translation only offered "protection and friendship" to the island from Chile.  

Easter Island is still  part of Chile however today the governing is all done by the Rapanui. Chile helps pay for schooling, hospitals, power and water supply, paved roads and fuel.  Only Rapanui can own land on Easter Island.  There  are about 5500 people living on the island, the official language is Spanish although the Rapanui speak their native tongue Rapa Nui which is a Polynesian language.  Easter Island was formed by volcanoes coming out of the ocean.  Two of them now have underground fresh water in them which is the islands fresh water supply.  The capital of Rapa Nui is Hanga Roa, it is a small town with little shops, restaurants and markets. Easter Island was an amazing place to visit.  It was so relaxing and quiet and the beach was beautiful with its coconut palms, lovely warm water and pinkish coloured sand.  We swam there for hours.    We had loads of fun driving around in our little Suzuki Jimny and saw heaps of Moai which were incredible.  I'd love to come back to Rapa Nui one day.  Hannah.

 

Santiago

  Santiago is located in the Central Valley between the coast and the Andes mountain range.  It is the capital of Chile and was established by the Spanish in 1541.  The Spanish invaded Chile through Peru and for many years Chile was under Spanish rule until after 7 years of warfare it gained it's independance in 1817.  The indigenous inhabitants of Chile are the Mapuche Indians, they speak Mapundungun.  They were farmers, fisherman and the women are still well know today for their wonderful weaving.  Toki (axe bearers) were their leaders.  The  Mapuche had interactions with the Incas, both peaceful and confrontational however they were never conquered by the Incas.  The Sharman (Machi) would hold ceremonies to cure diseases, ward off evil, change the weather and bring good harvests by using medicinal herbs, ritual, prayer and animal sacrifices.  These rituals are still practiced today.  There are still 100 000 Mapuche living in Chile today, while others blended with the Spanish and created modern day Chileans.

  We caught a cable car that took us 300m above the city of Santiago on San Cristobal Hill.  The cable car ride was extremely steep and felt a little dodgy.  It stopped half way up the hill to drop people off at the zoo, so we thought we would visit the zoo on the way back down but the cable car didn't stop so we missed out!  The hill was named after a rich Spanish family - San Cristobal.  The Mapuche name for  San Cristobal was Tupahue meaning "Place of the Gods".  There is a sanctuary on top of the hill, at the peak is a 22 metre statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, underneath her is a small chapel.  There was also a large, beautiful garden surrounding the statue and the view from the top over Santiago was amazing.  

  We walked through Parque Forrestal which is a long park through the city along the Providencia.  The park is inbetween two main roads and has the Mapocho River flowing along side it.  The Mapocho River flows from the Andes and divides Santiago in two.   In the park there were heaps of big old trees, statues and fountains, artworks, monuments and people riding bicycles, walking their dogs or just sitting and relaxing.  There were also people entertaining the people in their cars at the traffic lights by playing musical instruments, dancing or doing acrobatics for money.  It looked pretty cool.  

  We were only in Santiago for a day because we were heading off to Easter Island the next morning so we didn't get to see a lot of the city.  I really enjoyed listening to the band and watching the acrobats perform their tricks at the traffic lights.  Drew

Vina Del Mar

We arrived in Santiago and drove straight down to Vina Del Mar which is a large city on the coastline of Chile.  It is part of the port city of Valparaiso, which is the largest and most important port in the country.  In the 19th century a massive earthquake destroyed most of Valparaiso so there aren't many of the original buildings left there today.  Vina Del Mar means "vineyard of the sea" and was named that because the area is so rich with seafood.  It  is also one of the most visited beaches in Latin America, even the Chilean President has a summer house there called Cerro Castillo.  We thought Vina Del Mar was quite similar to the Gold Coast in Queensland.  

We had a nice time relaxing and going to the beach.  The water was freezing cold because the current straight from Antartica moves along the Chilean coast.  There were lots of kids playing in the water getting dumped by waves that landed on the shore.  Drew and I had a great time running into the waves and playing in the sand.  There was an icecream restaurant right on the beach that made giant icecream sundaes, milkshakes, cakes and waffles.  Ordering was difficult because all of the menus were in Spanish and the waiter didn't speak English, but we kind of guessed what things were by looking at the pictures. We all had a different icecream sundae, mine was with fruit and cream.  They were so big that all of us could have shared one!  There were lots of food stands along the beach, we got some churros and fruit juice on one of the days we were there and on another we got hand spun fairy floss on a stick.  

We went for a long walk along the bay to check out the surf, there wasn't any because the bay is too deep, so that's why the waves break straight on the shore.  There were small markets, a couple of sand carvings, statues and a fountain along the boardwalk (that had people washing the sand of themselves in!).  We went to a restaurant and ordered an asado which is a Chilean spiced meat grill that had chicken, pork chops, steak, sausages and potatoes all cooked in an onion gravy and served in a pot.  It was meant to have blood sausage but we weren't that keen so we got extra pork sausages instead.  The cool drinks were all served in glass bottles which tasted a lot better - yum!

There was a small museum just up the road from our hotel in Vina Del Mar called The Fonck Museum.  It is one man's collection of South American artefacts that were put into a private museum after he had died.   A tour guide showed us around the museum and she explained the exhibits to us.  Upstairs there were quite a few South American animals and insects including armadillos, turtles, flamingos, pumas and skunks.  They also had a live Chilean spider called arana de rincon that is similar to the white tailed spider at home.  If the spider bites you its venom creates a huge ulcer that eats away at the skin.  If you're not treated it gets worse and worse and you can eventually die or have to have your limbs amputated.  Once a female arana de rincon has mated it can keep on having sets of babies without having to mate again.  Once the museum caught a female spider and put her in a glass display dome and she had babies who escaped through the ventillation holes in the dome so they had to close the museum down and fumigate it.  

  This photo is of Tzanzas (shrunken human heads) made by the Jivaro Indians from the Amazon.  The heads were reduced to the size of a man's fist.  The Jivaro Indians were fierce warriors who lived in small individual communities and were constantly at war with each other.  The Jivaro believed that they had to avenge their dead relatives and if they didn't they feared that their dead relatives would bring them bad luck.  They would fight with another tribe, decapitate a victim, peel the flesh from the skull and throw the skull away.  Then they would sew the eyes and ears closed, seal the mouth with sharp palm pegs and boil the head for 10 minutes.  The Jivaro would then dry the head and put hot rocks inside, put it on a stick and place it near a fire.  As the head shrunk they would pull the stones out and put smaller ones in, when it shrunk a lot they would put hot sand inside to let it keep shrinking.  Even though this was a long process the hair and facial features would survive.  Once the process was finished the Jivaro would wear the Tzanzas around their neck or put it on a stick to show their power.  They believed that by wearing the head they would gain their enemies magical personal power called arutam.

  This is an actual mummy found buried in the Chilean desert, she is a woman in her 20's and she's over 1000 years old.  We also saw lots of jewellery that the Mapuche indians wore including earings, lip jewellery, head dress and necklaces.  The guide said that the Mapuche were really cool because they invented and wore lots of different types of piercings and the piercing people today aren't as cool because they're just not original.  The Mapuche also invented the game of hockey, it is played exactly the same way now as it was back then with goals at each end and the same number of players, even the sticks and the rules are the same!  We saw lots of other interesting artefacts including a climbing post that they would climb and sit on top to pray as they believed it helped them get closer to the gods by being high.  There were also clay pots, tools, clothing, musical instruments and a display all about Easter Island.  It was an interesting museum.  Hannah

Machu Picchu

  Machu Picchu is located in the Urubamba province, 80km from Cusco. To get to Machu Picchu we had to take a 2 hour bus ride from Cusco to the train station and then a 2 hour train ride to the town below Machu Picchu called Aguas Calientes.  We then took a 20 minute bus ride up the mountain, 7970 feet above sea level.  The road was really skinny and the cliff dropped off about half a metre beside you.  Machu Picchu is actually the name of the mountain located behind the city, it means "Old Mountain".  It is called old mountain because the mountain is leaning to one side.  The Incas believed that young mountains grew straight up.  

  The Incas began building Machu Picchu in the mid 1400's, construction was never completed because the Incas were continually adding new buildings.   When the Spanish came to Peru the Inca's were worried that they were going to over throw the city so they fled Machu Picchu in 1572, taking everything with them (including their ancestral mummies).  However,  there was no record of the Spanish ever finding Machu Picchu.  Our tour guide thinks that the most realistic explanation for this was that the Spanish were told that the Incas had deserted the city so there was no need for the Spanish to find and conquer Machu Picchu as there was no reward in it for them.  The city was rediscovered in 1911 by archaeologist Hiram Bingham.

Machu Picchu was built to honour a sacred landscape, the mountains are almost completely surrounded by the Urubamba River which comes from the Andes and also flows into the Amazon.  The Inca's called the river Vilcamayo meaning "sacred river".  The rising and the setting of the sun aligns with the religiously significant surrounding mountains during solstices (the longest day and the shortest day of the the year) and during equinoxes (the two days of the year when day and night are exactly equal).  The Southern Cross or "Chacana" was one of the most important constellations to the Incas as the stars in the constellation represented the spirits of the animals that lived on earth.  When the Southern Cross at its highest point in the sky it is directly above the mountains of Machu Picchu.  The stars were so sacred to the Incas that they wouldn't look at them directly, they would only look at the stars in reflecting pools that they carved out of stone and filled with water.

  The sun was also precious to the Incas, when the sun set in the long winters they were worried that it would never return.  When the sun was the furthest from the earth they would perform ceremonies and "tie" the sun to a sacred Intihutana (a hitching post made from stone) preventing the sun from going any further and ensuring its return.  They would also tie a llama to the Intihutana and sacrifice it to Inti the sun god.  Although human sacrifices occurred it was much more common to offer animal, liquid and dirt sacrifices to the gods.  These offerings were made at the alter of the Condor and other sacrificial alters within Machu Picchu.  Offerings are still made today at Machu Picchu by members of the New Age Andean religion.

  Machu Picchu is made up of over 200 buildings as well as the many terraces scaling the mountains.  Terraces were used to plant crops like corn, pumpkin, squash and potatoes. Incans had a gluten free diet because they grew no wheat, they had issues with their bones such as osteoporosis  because they continually chewed coca leaves which stopped them absorbing calcium.  Machu Picchu is roughly divided into an urban sector and an agricultural centre as well as an upper town and lower town.  Only about 800 people lived in the city at a time.  The temples are in the upper sector where the hierarchy lived and the warehouses are in the lower sector where the common people lived.  There was also a huge tower built out of stone that is assumed to have been used as a look out tower for defence by Incan scouts that were able to see enemies from far away.  Machu Picchu was built with drystone walls with no mortor.  It has survived many earthquakes.  They say it wasn't finished as the Incas kept building and adding new things to this wonderful city all the time just like we do today with our own cities today.

  Machu Picchu was an awesome experience, it was a strange and mysterious feeling being above the clouds.  Machu Picchu is a phenomenon of architecture and engineering that we would struggle to build today.  Many of the resources used in the construction of Machu Picchu had to be brought in from other areas including all of the soil since the mountains are made of rock. They also transported pink granite and other special materials from different mountains, everything was done by hand.  The Incas piped in their water supply by building stone channels to the city from the mountains above.   They also built a drainage system throughout the city and the terraces to drain away excess water.  The Incas were way ahead of their time to build something so sophisticated and breathtaking as Machu Picchu.  Drew

  P.S. thanks for coming with us Aunty Nic, you're awesome -  and thanks Uncle Rus, Maddy and Reese for suprising her with a ticket - you guys rock!

Ollantaytambo and Pisac - The Sacred Valley

Ollantaytambo is an Incan city built in the 15th century, it is a royal estate built for the emperor Pachacuti. It is 9000ft above sea level in the Andes mountains.  Pachacuti was a warrior, conqueror and an exceptional leader, he helped make the Incan empire.  He killed two of his brothers and also two of his sons so that they wouldn't take over  the throne.

  The Incas had a quarry 5 km away that they used to get huge stones from to build the walls of the city.  Some stones weighed over 60 tonnes and took 350 men 1 to 2 years to get each of the large stones from the quarry to the city.  The Incas were very clever because they carved stone blocks coming out of some of the walls so that on the winter soltice (the shortest day of the year) when the sun shone the shadows from the blocks all lined up perfectly so they then knew that spring was coming.  They knew that they would soon have to plant their summer crops like their four different types of corn - white, yellow, red and purple.

So the city wouldn't tumble during earthquakes the Incas put small stones inbetween large stones so that the big stones had room to move without falling over.  They also had a water supply from the Patakancha River nearby that they used for irrigation of their crops that were growing on many, many terraces that they built.  The Patakancha River is called the chocolate river as it is chocolate brown during the wet season because it carries the mud from the Andes.  The Inca believed that the river was male and it flowed into the ocean which is female and fertilised it.  

We visited some smaller Inca ruins at Pisac.  What I found interesting was that there were lots of little holes in the mountain behind the ruins.  The tour guide told us that they were actually graves of the Incan ancestors.  The mummies were so important to the Incas that if the family moved to another place they would take their dead ancestors with them.  They were more important to them than all of their other possessions.  The mountains were so steep that to bury the dead the family and the mummy had to be lowered down from the top of the mountain on a platform to the grave.  They would then make an opening in the mountain and would put the mummy inside with some personal posessions for the afterlife.  They would build a wall surrounding the mummy with the body sitting up looking through a window so it could watch over its family and so the family could visit and see the mummy.

  The mummies are now all gone because grave robbers for many centuries have been taking them and their possessions.  Some have also been taken by archaeologists and put in museums around the world.  On our way back to Cusco we went to Chinchero where we saw women weaving traditional blankets and cloths out of llama wool.  They dyed the wool with natural products like cacti, leaves, bark, corn and flowers.  First they would wash the wool to clean it with water and a grated root which made soapy bubbles.  Then they would put hot water in a pot and add some colour and dip the wool in to dye it.  They would dry the wool and then spin it by hand ready to be woven.  Some cloths took 2 to 3 months to finish, each familiy had their own pattern which they wove by memory.  I thought the cloths were creative and beautiful.  Hannah

Cusco

Cusco is an ancient Incan city located over 10 000 feet above sea level in the Andes mountain range in Peru.  It was once the historic capital of the Incan empire, Maccu Picchu is to Cusco what the Vatican is to Rome.  The Incans first arrived to Cusco in the 13th century and constructed the city to a definite plan including the chanelling of two rivers around the town.  Incans had a law that when a man died, his title went to one of his sons but his property was controlled by a body or corporation made up of his other relatives.  Each new title holder had to build a new house and add new land to his empire which helped the Incan empire itself expand.

  In 1533 the Spanish lead by Pizzaro conquered Cusco, the last Incan princess was married into the Borgia family (an extremely powerful family of the pope in Rome) and Christianity then spread through Cusco and the nation.  From this time buildings in Cusco were constructed with a Spanish influence.  Legend has told that the entry to the hidden Incan city of gold is hidden beneath The Church of the Society of Jesus of Cusco, in Cusco Palazo (square).  We went into the church and the guide took us down to the basement and showed us the entry to the labyrinth of tunnels that the Incans built when the Spanish were coming.  The Incans knew that the Spanish were after all of their precious metals, especially their gold so they hid their treasures in an underground city of gold surrounded by a maze of tunnels.  Many people have tried to find the hidden city of gold by entering the labyrinth but no-one has ever returned.  For safety the tunnels were closed many years ago.  The alter in this photo is one of the last surviving large golden alters left in Cusco, the Spanish stripped most of the gold they found and took it back to Spain.

  Cusco was such a wonderful city, it was surrounded by amazing mountains, had spectacular old buildings, the people were so friendly and colourful and of course there were llamas!  It was a nice place to relax and enjoy Peru once you were used to the altitude.  We found the altitude hard to cope with because there wasn't as much oxygen in the air as we are used to. It made us feel exhausted and light headed so we had to stop and rest frequently.  Aunty Nic gave us some coca tea and coca & eucalyptus lollies to help with the altitude.  Peruvians use coca leaves to help increase the haemoglobin in the blood which helps increase oxygen intake.  Coca leaves are also used to make a drug called cocaine but luckily chewing on the leaves does not have the same effect!

  We had a walk around Cusco on Saturday night when the Peruvians celebrate the weekend with fire crackers.  In the afternoons they make giant stands out of bamboo and reeds and then decorate them and cover them with fire crackers.   When the night falls the town comes to the square to witness  this amazing fire cracker show.  Bands play the Peruvian version of jazz music, cars stop in the street and kids play around in the sparks.  Speaking of sparks one of them hit me in the head, it hurt!  We  were all losing it as we would never dream of doing this at home because it was so dangerous (as I found out) but it was so fun.  Sparks were flying everywhere, rockets were being set off aswell, all the car alarms in the street started going off, it was fantastic!  Drew

Chan Chan, The Chimu Kingdom

,  The origin of the Chimu is a legend of a mythical character called Tacaynamo a leader of an army who came from the sea.  The culture became a powerful state in 850AD until 1470AD when the Inca conquered them by blocking their water supply from the mountains above.  The Chimu were then banished from the kingdom.  The city of Chan Chan covers 24km2 and consists of 10 walled compounds.      20 000 to 30 000 people lived in the city, but in the Chimu territory there were up to    500 000 inhabitants.  The Chimu grew lima beans, corn,  pumpkin, sweet potatoes, yucca, pepper and many other things including fruits like plums, avocado and pacae (small berries in a pod).  They also fished, farmed cattle and hunted.  They grew cotton, cane and totora reed.

In Chan Chan, religion was the most important, powerful influence on the people.  The culture was dedicated to the moon (Si) because they considered it more powerful than the sun as one could see it during the day as well as at night.  When the moon didn't appear it was because it was in another world punishing thieves.  Solar eclipses were celebrated as the triumph of the moon over the sun.  The stars were considered to be Chimu ancestors, the biggest and brightest stars were the important and noble people, the smaller, dimmer stars were the less important people.  Other gods were Ni, the god of the sea and Alaecpong the god of stone.

  The Chimu decorated the walls of the kingdom with pelicans, other sea birds, waves and fish made out of mud and clay.  There were diamond patterns everywhere that symbolise the fishing net and circle patterns that represented the moon.  The city was built adobe style, just like the houses in Santa Fe.  If the Chimu were building a new area in the city they would dedicate burials to the structure of the building by burying dead in the walls and under the floor.  The Chimu would also sacrifice people and bury them with offerings like pottery and sea shells in honour to the sea.  When the Chimu died their bodies were mummified in an upright foetal position to represent being in the womb.  They were burried sitting up with their possessions  around them.

The city of Chan Chan had more than 100 giant square wells that were not only for water but were used to grow reeds, be garden parks and on a full moon were used for ceremonies of fertillity because the moon was reflected in the water.  The city also contained a funeral platform where the kings would be placed after five days of ceremonies.  Chan Chan had many corridors, ceremonial squares, temples, plazas, storerooms and halls, it was absolutely massive.  But my favorite thing about Chan Chan was a little ginger kitten at the front gate that Maddy stayed and played with for the whole time we were there.  We all wanted to take the kitten home and would have liked to have sneaked it into Uncle Rus's bag.  Hannah

Huaca De La Luna

  

Huaca de la Luna (The Temple of the Moon) is opposite Huaca del Sol (The Temple of the Sun) in Trujillo.  In between the two temples is the ancient city of La Ciudad Moche (The Moche City) that is still being excavated.  This area was the capital of the Moche culture between 400 and 600AD.  Its actual area is 120 hectares and much of it has not yet been excavated so there are still many secrets to discover.  The Spanish conquerors were the first to use the names sun and moon, they assumed that the temples had been built by the Inca's in honour to their main gods, the bigger one to the sun and the smaller to the moon. However the city was built by the Moche over 900 years before the arrival of the Incas.

Every 100 years or so the Moche would build a new temple for the gods by completely covering or sealing the existing temple and building a new temple on top. The Temple of the Moon is actually about 5 or 6 temples built one on top of the other so archaeologists can not excavate all of the temples as they would have to destroy one temple to get to another.  Many secrets of the Moche will never be discovered.

  The Plaza of the Sacred stone had more than 60 skeletons scattered across the floor, they were all male.  The Moche used to sacrifice humans to stop the rains in El Nino phenomenon.  Interestingly on the other side of the mountain the Moche would sacrifice humans in El Nina to make it rain.  Prisoners would be chosen to be sacrificed by fighting with each other.  The loser of the battle would be sacrificed to the gods by the priest who would slit the prisoners throat to collect the blood and then cut of the head.  The priest wore a robe with a belt that was decorated with human skulls.  Sacrificed men were not buried, their bodies were left for the gods spread on the floor, with time sand would cover them.

  It was interesting to hear about human sacrifices as we haven't heard about it anywhere else.  I was thinking about sacrificing Hannah but mum and dad sadly said no, besides the Moche only sacrifice men....  (so you better watch out Drew - from Hannah)  There was a really well preserved iconography in the Temple of the Moon that depicts the god Ai-Apaec (The Decapitator) taking a knife in his left hand and the head of a prisoner in his right hand.  He wears a serpent belt that ends with a condor head.  The condor is Peru's national animal.  Drew