Chan Chan

Chan Chan
UNESCO world heritage
	Chan Chan
National territory:	Peru
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	(i) (iii)
Reference No .:	366
UNESCO region :	Latin America and the Caribbean
	History of enrollment
Enrollment:	1986 (session 10)
Red list :	since 1986

Chan Chan was the capital of the pre-Columbian Chimú Empire and was located on the Peruvian Pacific coast, west of today's city of Trujillo .

history

The city was built around 1300 and still extends over an area of 28 km². It was probably the largest city of that time on the South American continent and one of the largest in the world, which was built from adobe. In its heyday, the city was home to around 60,000 residents and had amassed a sizable fortune in gold, silver and ceramic art objects.

Chan Chan could not be defeated by the Incas by military force. Therefore, in 1470, the attackers diverted the Río Moche , which flows through the oasis , so that the conquest of the city was possible due to the soon occurring water shortage.

After the Inca conquest, the city lost its importance. The city was not destroyed by them because they placed more emphasis on expansion than wealth. But that changed suddenly when the Spaniards conquered the Inca Empire. Not much remained of the Chimú culture.

Chan Chan today

The first reports about the site come from the pen of Antonio de la Calancha . The at least five accumulated culture sequences were examined by Max Uhle in stratigraphic excavations. He published his findings in 1913 in Las ruínas de Moche . The report stated that the settlement by the Mochica and the Chimú was separate. Other researchers who worked at Chan Chan were Ephraim George Squier , Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier , Julio Tello and Johann Jakob von Tschudi .

Today there are only huge areas of adobe buildings and a few ballrooms, in more or less poor condition. In addition to the massive destruction and looting, first by the Inca and then by the Spanish conquerors (who broke open the graves), there was later natural erosion from earthquakes and severe storms. The floods in 1925 caused particularly severe damage. In addition, the El Niño weather phenomenon that has occurred in recent years has contributed to erosion.

The capital of the Chimú originally consisted of nine autonomous districts, each ruled by a different successful ruler. They were worshiped like kings . Each district contained tombs with extensive additions of jewelery, ceramic objects and dozens of skeletons of young women.

The Tschudi area, named after the Swiss researcher Tschudi, is best preserved. The palace is now known as Palacio Nik-An. This area is being restored and is open to tourists. Here you can still see some of the ballrooms with their splendid decorations. Until 1998, the clay buildings were given a special glaze to protect them from being destroyed by the precipitation. But that year El Niño was so violent that steel scaffolding had to be built to prevent the small structures from being washed away.

The places to be visited in Palacio Nik-An are: 1. Plaza Cerimonial Principal 2. Corredor de Peces y Aves 3. Sala del Alfarcillo 4. Audencias 5. Segunda Plaza Ceremonial 6. Huachaque Ceremonial 7. Plataforma Kuneraría 8. Depositos (Colcas) 9. Sala de 24 Hornacinas (niches)

By 2016, a mass grave from the middle of the 15th century with 140 ritually killed children and over 200 llamas or alpacas was excavated on an area of 700 m ² near Chan Chan . The boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 14 had their chests opened, presumably to take out their beating hearts. From a deposit of mud, researchers conclude that the sacrifice could have been made to appease gods in the event of heavy rain or flooding.

World Heritage

In 1986, UNESCO declared Chan Chan a World Heritage Site . At the same time, the ruins were entered on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger due to the increasing destruction caused by climate change . The rise in groundwater and illegal settlements on the site are currently causing problems.

Chan Chan
Protected excavation zone
Wall decoration
altar

literature

Karen Olsen Bruhns: Ancient South America. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 1994, ISBN 0-521-27761-2 , pp. 290-308.
Jerry D. Moore: Cultural landscapes in the ancient Andes. University Press of Florida, Gainesville 2005, ISBN 0-8130-2822-1 .
Otto Holstein: Chan-Chan, capital of the Great Chimu. in: The geographical review; 17.1 New York 1927, pp. 36-61.
Circuito Turístico Chimú, brochure of the museum, n.d., Trujillo, Peru.

Web links

Commons : Chan Chan - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
Status report 2006 of the World Heritage Committee , p. 106 ff. (PDF; 725 kB, English)

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e Rolf Seeler: Peru and Bolivia - Indian cultures, Inca ruins and baroque colonial splendor of the Andean states . In: DuMont art travel guide . 1st edition. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4786-3 , p. 199-203 .
^ Children's mass grave discovered in Peru science.orf.at, March 6, 2019, accessed March 6, 2019.

-8.1083333333333 -79.075Coordinates: 8 ° 6 ′ 30 ″ S , 79 ° 4 ′ 30 ″ W

[:0-1] A ^b ^c ^d ^e Rolf Seeler: Peru and Bolivia - Indian cultures, Inca ruins and baroque colonial splendor of the Andean states . In: DuMont art travel guide . 1st edition. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4786-3 , p. 199-203 .

[2] Children's mass grave discovered in Peru science.orf.at, March 6, 2019, accessed March 6, 2019.