Chavin

"The mystery surrounding the ancient civilization of Chavin, a prosperous and mystifyingly unfortified civilization high in the Andes Mountains of Peru in 1,000 B.C., has plagued historians for thousands of years, but recently the veil that shrouded the truth for centuries has been removed and facts have come to light. One of the most surprising ancient civilizations this world has ever seen, historians have learned that Chavin was an intricate society which used methods of total control, manipulation, and religious ritual that have only recently been understood.."
~Digging for the Truth: The Real Temple of Doom

Saturday, September 20th 2008

How many times in your lifetime do you get a chance to see a god ?
housed in the central cruciform chamber of a labyrinthine series of underground passages in the ancient temple in Chavin you can find The Lanzón is the colloquial name for the most important statue of the central deity of the ancient Chavín culture of the central highlands of Peru. Thousands of years ago the most important devotees would be led into the maze of pitch-black tunnels, eventually coming face to face with the sculpture's snarling mouth and upturned eyes. The worshipers' disorientation, in addition to the hallucinogenic effects of the San Pedro cactus they were given before entering, only heightened the visual and psychological impact of the sculpture. Years passed, the temple was forgotten and sealed and the original statue once a god in those lands patiently awaited its rediscovery surviving the Spanish conquest and other countless rise and fall of cultures and religions..

But as usual I get ahead of myself. If you remember I finished my ice climbing experience with a hurt shoulder and a bad cold from hiking through a snow storm. One day of rest just won´t do... So I spent the day after mainly working on this blog and realizing that two consecutive days of doing nothing will drive me crazy. So together with Oded and Orit (who I met at the ice climbing and needed some time to adjust to the altitude) we decided to tour Chavin: a nearby archaeological site on which we knew almost nothing about. After a short inquiry we found that an organized tour will cost as much as a public transport, so we registered to one in one of the many small agencies.

After a good breakfast we went and boarded our bus finding out that the majority of our partners to the tour are a small class of 16 years old schoolgirls from Lima and their teacher. The road led us south of Huaraz and than east with the guide explaining various things in Spanish. We stopped for 15 minutes near the beautiful lake Querocoha for a photo opportunity with the lake and some local Llamas and Alpacas and it was than that we discovered that we are an attraction! the school girls stood in line to get their pictures taken with us almost completely ignoring the exotic animals.. The bus climbed up through the Kawish tunnel at 4555m at which point we gave the girls altitude sickness pills and got sweets in return. After a stop for lunch, we got to the main attraction of the day: the temple of Chavin.

We paid a little extra for an English speaking guide for our small group which was money well spent - the guide walked us through the site explaining in great details the things we saw such as the underground water tunnels the great plaza, the black and white portal and the importance of the number seven throughout the site. We than descended into the maze of tunnels once walked by secretive priests and tribes chieftains and finally got to meet face to face the once proud god of the realm still in in original stand after all those years. The tour took roughly two hours and was fascinating especially since the site is in such a good condition and the whole experience reminded me an Indiana Johns movie.

The experience ended with a tour in the small local museum and getting back to Huaraz at around 19:00.