Huaca Chotuna

Archaeologists recently found a tomb at this site containing the bodies of 11 women who had been sacrificed. The complex consists of a series of truncated pyramids and enclosures covering an area of approximately 20 hectares. The pyramids reach a height of 40 meters, and in one part of the complex great walls 4 meters high enclose patios and other mounds made of adobe, partially covered by sand. Chotuna has a special significance for the Department of Lambayeque because it’s the site identified with the Legend of Naylamp, the mythic founder of the Moche culture, who is said to have come ashore with his people on a flotilla of rafts. The story goes that when his tomb was defiled it unleashed a curse; 30 days of rain and flooding that drowned crops and destroyed towns.