Note 361 — Chapter LXVIII

The ruins in the valley of Chimu or Truxillo are a league and a half from the port of Huanchaco. It is not known when they were built, but in the time of Pachacutec, the ninth Ynca (about A.D. 1340 to 1400), a powerful chief reigned in this valley, called Chimu-Canchu. After a long war with the Ynca’s son Yupanqui, the Chimu consented to worship the sun, and to abandon his own idols, consisting of figures of fish and other animals.

The ruins of the Chimu’s city cover a space of three quarters of a league, exclusive of the great squares. These squares, seven or eight in number, vary from two hundred to two hundred and seventy yards in length, and from one hundred to one hundred and sixty in breadth. They are on the north side of the large edifices or palaces. The walls surrounding the palaces are of great solidity, formed of adobes (bricks baked in the sun) ten or twelve yards long and five or six broad in the lower part of the wall, but gradually diminishing until they terminate in a breadth of one yard at the top. Each palace was completely surrounded by an exterior wall. One of them, built of stone and adobes, is fifty yards high, five yards broad at the bottom, and gradually tapering to one at the top. In the first palace there is an interior court, in which are chambers built of stone, and plastered within. The lintels of the doorways consist of a single stone about two yards long. Some of the walls are adorned with panels and tasteful patterns, and ornaments sculptured on the adobes. There is also a large reservoir, which was formerly supplied with water, by subterranean aqueducts, from the river Moche, about two miles to the north-east. The second palace is one hundred and twenty-five yards east of the first. It contains several courts and chambers, with narrow lanes between them. At one of the extremities is the huaca of Misa, surrounded by a low wall. This huaca is traversed by small passages about a yard wide, and it also contains some large chambers, containing cloths, mummies, pieces of gold and silver, tools, and a stone idol. Besides these palaces there are the ruins of a great number of smaller houses, forming an extensive city. Rivero Antiq. Per.

In 1566 one Garcia Gutierrez de Toledo paid 85,547 castellanos de oro (£222,422) as the fifth or royal share of the treasure found by him in the huacas of the grand Chimu; and in 1592 the royal fifth of further treasure discovered in these tombs amounted to 47,020 castellanos (£122,252). The value of the whole was £1,724,220 of our money. This will give some idea of the wealth concealed in these burial places. There is a tradition that there were two priceless treasures in the form of fishes of gold, known as the great and little peje, in one of the huacas.

The curiosities that have been found in the Chimu ruins are very interesting:—such as mummies in strange postures, one in an attitude as if about to drink, with a monkey on his shoulder, whispering into his ear.