Peru Guide
Around Lima
Pachacamac
Opening time: Daily 9am–5pm
Price: $3; guides cost $8 for a small group.
Telephone: 4300168
PACHACAMAC is by far the most interesting of the Rimac Valley's ancient sites; well worth making time for even if you're about to head out to Cusco and Machu Picchu. The entry fee for the citadel includes admission to the site museum, which merits a quick browse around on the way in; allow a good two hours to wander around the full extent of the ruins.
Originally one of the most important centres of pilgrimage on the Peruvian coast, Pachacamac functioned from around the time of Christ as a very sacred location which, even in pre-Inca days, housed a miraculous wooden idol, evidently representing, through intricate carvings, a two-faced humanoid, believed to have been the deity, Pachacamac, controller of earthquakes. No one was allowed to look at the idol, not even the high priests. Entering the ruins, after passing the restored sectors, which include the Templo de La Luna (Temple of the Moon) and the Convento de las Virgenes del Sol (Convent of the Sun Virgins, or Mamaconas), you can see the later Inca construction of the Sun Temple directly ahead. Constructed on the top level of a series of pyramidical platforms, it was built tightly onto the hill with plastered adobe bricks, its walls originally painted in gloriously bright colours. Below this is the main plaza, once covered with a thatched roof supported on stilts, and thought to have been the area where pilgrims assembled in adoration. The rest of the ruins, visible though barely distinguishable, were once dwellings, storehouses and palaces. From the very top of the Sun Temple there's a magnificent view west beyond the Panamerican Highway to the beach (Playa San Pedro) and across the sea to a sizeable yet uninhabited island, which appears like a huge whale approaching the shore.
A taxi to Pachacamac and back from Miraflores can be found from around $35. Buses leave every two hours for Pachacamac from Avenida Abancay and around the Parque Universitario on Calles Montevideo and Inambari in Lima Centro. Alternatively, many of the tour agencies in Lima offer half-day tours to the site.