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.

Texts and photographs: Rolly Valdivia Chavez

Pachacamac Ruins Stone temples