Sun and Moon Temples

General information

Destination
Trujillo, Peru

Program details

Delve into the bygone wonders of the Mochica culture, which inhabited Peru more than a thousand years ago. This exciting tour takes you to visit one of the best preserved religious centres of the Mochica people: the temples of the Sun and the Moon. Located just south of the city of Trujillo, these magnificent structures date as far back as the fifth century AD.



The temples (or ‘huacas’ as they are here known) used to be the centre of the Mochica culture, which developed and thrived between the years 100 and 900AD.



Both huacas are separated by an ample 500 metres, which used to contain the urban centre that housed the Moche elite. Part of this town of the privileged is still preserved underground. The archaeological complex includes two awe-inspiring pyramids and an array of other buildings with exotic names such as the Huaca de las Estrellas, the Huaca del Cerro Blanco and more. The site even contains the stunning Spider geoglyph, a large-scale illustration produced on the ground which can only be clearly seen from the air.



On this tour you can also visit the workshop of a traditional artisan Moche family and the Museum of the Moche Huacas. This museum complements visiting the huacas for it contains representations of the Moche culture’s everyday life. It also contains a collection of ceramics of great beauty and neatly explains the intricacies of its decoration’s symbols. This tour is quite a blast from the past.



Languages

English and Spanish.