Near Lima, there is an archaeological enclosure whose constructions conserve the mysticism and religiosity of their past. Its name: Pachacamac. When traveling this sanctuary, where hundred of years ago the natives surrendered cult to the sun and to the Earth, one can feel the magic attraction of a place that will always be sacred.

At the time of the sunset, on the pick of a rocky mountain, the natives of Pachacamac saw a burning fire. The scene was not a hallucination, they were observing the red walls of the Temple of the Sun that seemed to be fire languages, as the chronicler Cieza of León refers. In the temple, seemingly consumed by the fire, they surrendered cult to Pachacamac, the orderer of the Universe and controller of the balance of the world. During the apogee of the Wari culture (650 a.c.), thousands of pilgrims arrived to the place -located at 33 kilometers south of Lima- to consult the oracle and to surrender homage to the powerful god.

Nobles and peasants trusted in Pachacamac who allowed them to see the past and the future. It is known that it was so much the fear and the respect they felt, that not even priests could look or talk face to face to the Sun, they used to speak to him giving him the back and nobody dared to bother it, because the capricious divinity was able to cause tremors or big earthquakes.

The worshipped image of the god Pachacamac has been conserved until our days. In 1938, it was found by Alberto Giesecke in the Templo Pintado and today is exhibited in the museum of place. The visitors look with curiosity the thin trunk where anthropomorphous representations, plants, birds and felines are carved.

Many years have past and even now many people feel astonished when traveling by the halls of Acllahuasi, the Temple of the Sun or the Temple of the pyramids.

STONE TEMPLES
As if they were bricks of mud placed in arrays and put together with some type of paste, the walls of the call Templo Viejo (Lima Culture, 200 A.C.) are seen. Although the sprinkle has melted the walls, there are still remains of other constructions, as the group of adobitos and the Temple of Urpiwachak.

According to the Spanish chroniclers, the influence of Pachacamac reached the Central Andes. Some authors denominate it Templo Pintado and it is believed that in certain moment it replaced to the Templo Viejo.

A ramp, in the center of a truncate pyramid was the most interesting construction made in the sanctuary during the era of the Ishmay Culture (1000 to 1450 A.C.). In the lateral parts there are rooms that were surely used as deposits or warehouses to storage corn, fruit and cloths. In their constructions one can see the effort of this town that ended up transforming Pachacamac into a great ceremonial centre where the main intention was to surrender cult to the gods.

THE INCA INFLUENCE
According to the chronicles, in this house Hernando Pizarro and Miguel de Astete stayed, when in 1533 they arrived to Pachacamac.

In the highest part of a rocky hill, facing the sea, is the amazing Temple of the Sun that was of a red color and seemed to catch fire in the summer afternoons.

They were the Inca who decided to build the temple in honor to their god, the Sun, however the fear to Pachacamac, the divinity of the Wari, stayed during centuries. The temple is a truncate pyramid whose different levels communicate to each other by stairways.

The corridors, made of stone, lead to the summit, an ideal place to contemplate the horizon where two legendary islands rest: Cavillaca and her small daughter. Cavillaca, a beautiful young lady, was coveted by all the huacas (gods) of the neighboring districts. One day, the god Cuniraya Viracocha -that walked disguised of beggar- deposited his own semen in a fruit that she ate.

After nine months, she gave birth to a baby girl. Several weeks later, the beautiful young gathered to all the huacas of the region, to discover who was the father of her daughter... "because she will crawl to her progenitor's arms", the heart-stricken mother thought and expected.

And the baby girl crawled to the beggar's arms; and when seeing it Cavillaca took her daughter and run towards the sea until they both disappear. Desperate, Cuniraya Viracocha took off its ragged clothes and got dressed with inspired elegance; but it was in vain, he could not make anything, Cavillaca and her daughter had become islands...

The horizon -with its legendary islands- is not longer seen, once again we are back in time with the historical data, the conclusions of the investigators that affirm that Pachacamac, also, was a sacred place for the Inca. The sons of the Sun arrived to the Square of the Pilgrims, represented by a double array of columns, to surrender cult to their burning god that observed them from the sky.
One of the better known temples of this era, is that of the Mamaconas or Temple of the Moon or Acllahuasi that means house of those "chosen women." Here almost 200 maidens lived; they were dedicated to the cult and service to the Sun, the Inca and the nobility.

The green lands irrigated by the waters of the Lurín river can be observed from the Palace of the Inca priest Taurichumbi, located at the top of a rocky mountain. According to the chronicles, in this house Hernando Pizarro and Miguel de Astete stayed, when in 1533 they arrived to Pachacamac.

To visit Pachacamac is to admire the work of generations of people that believed in the cult to the "Lord of the Land", it is to learn of their imaginative legends and to enjoy the marine landscape, where until today the beautiful Cavillaca is still resting.