Estamos en Chiclayo

January 31, 2019January 24, 2019 C C 0 Comments

Heading northwards, Chiclayo – in the province of Lambayeque – was our next destination in Peru…

There’s not a lot to do in Chiclayo, so our main reason for an overnight stop was to visit the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum in the small town of Lambayeque, just a short minivan ride away 🙂

We’ve arrived at the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum.

The museum did not disappoint 🙂 The building was in the shape of a Moche temple, and inside was a reconstruction of the tomb of Lord Sipán – a member of the highest ranking in Moche culture.

The actual tomb of Lord Sipán was discovered in 1987 by 2 Peruvian archaeologists. He was buried with jewellery and ornaments – all of which were a sign of his high ranking in society. His body was found buried with the bodies of 6 other people, and also the bodies of a dog and a llama…

The tomb reconstruction in the museum was brilliantly done – you entered along a ramp, which took you to the third level of the tomb… and then as you walked through the museum you found yourself going down to the next layers of the tomb, so you could see the discoveries made at each level of the actual tomb during excavations.

On display were heaps of jewellery, and ceramics – and also the funerary jars that were unearthed. There was an overwhelming amount of gold everywhere!

The only downside was no pictures allowed – all mobile phones, cameras etc. had to be left outside in the secure locker area… obviously they take the ‘no picture’ rule seriously!

The museum – the only pictures that we were allowed to take were of the outside.

Although our main reason for visiting Lambayeque was the museum, we wandered around the town as well and discovered some other nice buildings…

A nice church sits on the square in Lambayeque.

The region of Lambayeque is also famous (in Peru anyway!) for being the land of King Kong – it would therefore have been wrong of us not to try this Peruvian delicacy… Our first taste of this VERY sweet Peruvian biscuit – of which there are a few varieties – was in the town of Lambayeque… with 4 biscuit layers and manjar blanco and a sweet sugar-ladened pineapple paste between the layers – nothing like a sugar boost before hitting a museum!