The river Rimac has witnessed the development of a number of cultures in the are now covered by Lima, where the huacas continue to reveal a pre-Columbian history which -to a greater or lesser extent - survives the battering or modernzation.

When the millions of inhabitants currently crowded into the Peruvian Capital speak of their history they confine themselves to the Vice-regal period. One or two may occasionally recall Pizarro and his decision to found a city far from the incas "center of the universe" (Cusco) and fewer still will point out that Nicolas de Ribera el Viejo was the city's first mayor, but it is likely that not many will accept that there was a pre-Hispanic city here.

The evidence, nevertheless, is abundant. In Maranga and Pueblo Libre areas you can see a series of man-made mounds ("huacas"), part destroyed or abandoned but still impressive and several hundred yards in diameter.

Similar though smaller mounds can be found in San Isidro and Miraflores areas and, in general, in all the traditional districts of the Capital. The fact that they have survived is almost miraculous given Lima's uncontrolled growth since the nineteen fifties, but builders have not seen fit to level these cultural remains and cover them with concrete.

The "huacas" or building remains covered by earth or waste generally represent a later occupation of this territory, in the period archaeologists refer to as the Early Intermediate -100-600 AD, more or less. These local cultures flourished at the same time as Nasca and Mochica cultures although they are generally thought not to have developed as far as their neighbors on the coast to the north and south.

Later documents speak of the lords of Ichma, who will have superceded those of Maranga and other local groups. It is most likely that the land between the rivers Chillon and Lurin was the subject of ethnic rivalry just as other coastal valleys were. The basic cause of this rivalry was and is water, as the rivers are highly seasonal, depending on the rains in the highlands.

An inevitable witness to these confrontations would have been the river Rimac. The name means "talking stream" from which derives its oracle-like quality.

A small sanctuary was built on the site now occupied by the Lima Cathedral and its proximity to the river suggests that it was a center of worship for a water cult.

Building churches on the ancient sites of worship was already a well tried Christian practice; the church had adopted and sanctified sacred places in ancient Rome. However the Rimac temple would not have impressed the followers of Pizarro or the evangelical zeal of Padre Velarde.

The Spanish were more interested in the connection between the Rimac deity and the largest sanctuary on the coast: Pachacamac. Indeed the brand new Spanish capital was connected to that of the Lord of the Earthquakes by a road, used by the "chasquis" or messengers, who probably reported to the priests of Pachacamac that Francisco Pizarro's brother Hernando was on his way to sack their temple. But when he arrived the riches were all gone.

From the perspective of the indigenous priests of Pachacamc the oracle of the river Rimac would have been a minor deity. The power of the Lord of the Earthquakes extended along the coast as far as the old territory of the Mochica. It is possible that the culture reached its maximum area of influence under the protection of the Waris who dominated the central highlands around 700 AD.

However the Incas kept their privileges, towards the end of Tawantinsuyo the oracle of Pachacamac was ambivalent regarding the winner of the war between Huascar and Atahualpa, bringing upon it the wrath of the latter and undoubtedly its own destruction, as happened with the sanctuary of Apo Catequil in Huamachuco. But Atahualpa was held at Cajamarca and the priests of Pachacamac avoided such humiliation. We have no details of the early Limenos's worship of the oracle of the river Rimac.

Tauli Chusco, the last priest, took the secrets of his religion to his grave and the "talking stream" now silently contemplates the deafening racket of its new neighbors.