Lima — Huaca Pucllana

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Under what looked like an ordinary hill of dirt, like the picture at the right, in the middle of Miraflores, one of the busiest districts of Lima, an amazing archeological site was hiding. Uncle Nelson remembers walking on the hill when he first came to Peru in the 1940's. It is located just a few blocks from where he now lives. Early in the 1980's, the site began to be excavated. Unfortunately, large chunks of it had already been destroyed by modern construction. It was originally much bigger than it is today, but, as you can see at the right, it is still quite impressive.

Here are two views of the style of mud brick construction used for the walls at Pucllana...

These two pictures at the right of Henry and Kathy can give you an idea of the scale of the structure, and Joan is shown at the left near the top of one of the ramps which allows visitors to see the top of a section of it....

Here are a couple more views of the complex...

At left below is our guide at Pucllana, the last in a long line of wonderful guides that we had wherever we went in Perú. This one (I'm sorry I don't remember her name) was not only knowledgeable and friendly, but also had a delightful sense of humor. She was quite amused that her picture was being taken.

And at right is a view of the complex showing some important landmarks in the background. At the left is the balloon sign proclaiming the location of a Wong's, Lima's answer to HEB (grocery store). We were always glad to find one of these establishments when we needed supplies of any kind. And the imposing structure on the right is Santa Maria Reina, the church behind which Uncle Nelson lives. There is a large Marianist school on the grounds as well.

As adjuncts to the archeological site there was (of course) a souvenir store, a small but informative museum, and a garden/zoo. The latter was small, but offered some interesting life forms...

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