Day 948
Chan Chan
Now after our arrival in Peru, which coincided with some heavy rain causing everywhere to turn to mud and the problems that created, it made me somewhat reluctant to go to the biggest mud city in the world. Tom was convinced I’d love it and as usual he was spot on. Chanchan or ‘Shining Sun’ was the capital of the ‘Chimùes’, a complex of 9 walled cities constructed of adobe, covering an area of 20sq kilometres. It is classified as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO. One of the cities has been partially repaired so we could wander the streets and see the carvings along the walls. I stood still, closed by eyes and I could almost feel the movement of the spirits of the previous occupants passing me by. The city was founded in around 650AD and by the time it was besieged in 1470, causing much of the infrastructure to be destroyed, it was home to approximately 100,000 people. Unfortunately after the attack only around 10% remained. The Spanish then destroyed a lot of the city searching for gold and silver rumoured to be buried in the walls. Fortunately with its UNESCO status, hopefully what remains will be preserved.
