Condor Lake
| Condor Lake | ||
|---|---|---|
| Geographical location | Peru | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 6 ° 51 ′ 0 ″ S , 77 ° 42 ′ 0 ″ W | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 2900 m | |
| surface | 1 km² | |
The Condor Lake (Spanish: Laguna de los Cóndores , or Laguna de las Momias ) is an approximately 1 km² lake in the Amazon region in the Andean high mountains of northern Peru . It is located at an altitude of 2,900 m, 71 km from the provincial capital Chachapoyas and a day's journey on foot and by mule from the small town of Leymebamba (36 km). In Leymebamba, various guides offer 3-day tours with a visit to the site.
Mummy find from the Condor Lake
In 1997, members and employees of a shepherd family discovered some tombs on a hillside, in which they, looking for gold and jewelry, found Inca-style buried mummies of the Chachapoyas (Sachapuyas). In doing so, they destroyed many of the mummies and also the natural protective coat made of plants, which for centuries protected the graves not only from looters but also from decay. The authorities only found out about the existence of the tomb when the shepherd family and their employees reported one another because they had argued over the sale of stolen grave goods. In 1997, an emergency excavation was initiated to protect the archaeological objects from further destruction by moisture and souvenir-hunted visitors.
Today all 219 mummies from the tomb of the Condor Lake are in the Museum of Leymebamba, where they are researched using an X-ray machine and are stored and preserved under conditions similar to the protective vegetation cover on the Condor Lake. For some time the name of the lake was controversial until a clay pot was found in the tomb that clearly depicts a condor . This clay vessel can also be seen in the Leymebamba Museum. Some mummies were examined in Innsbruck and Vienna in 2006. Until the end of July 2006 they could be seen in the Technisches Museum Wien.