The Temples of the Sun and the Moon are more than 700 years older than Chan Chan and are attributed to the Moche period. They are on the south bank of the Río Moche, about 10km southeast of Trujillo. The entrance price includes a guide. The Huaca del Sol is not currently open to visitation as research continues on the site.
Huaca del Sol is the largest single pre-Columbian structure in Peru, although about a third of it has been washed away. The structure was built with an estimated 140 million adobe bricks, many of them marked with symbols representing the workers who made them.
At one time the pyramid consisted of several different levels connected by steep flights of stairs, huge ramps and walls sloping at 77 degrees. The last 1500 years have wrought their inevitable damage, and today the pyramid looks like a giant pile of crude bricks partially covered with sand. The few graves within the structure suggest it may have been a huge ceremonial site. Certainly, its size alone makes the pyramid an awesome sight.
Size isn’t everything, however. The smaller but more interesting Huaca de la Luna is about 500m away across the open desert. This structure is riddled with rooms that contain ceramics, precious metals and some of the beautiful polychrome friezes for which the Moche were famous. The huaca (tomb or grave) was built over six centuries to AD 600, with six succeeding generations expanding on it and completely covering the previous structure.
Archaeologists are currently onion-skinning selected parts of the huaca and have discovered that there are friezes of stylized figures on every level, some of which have been perfectly preserved by the later levels built around them. It’s well worth a visit; you’ll see newly excavated friezes every year, and the excellent Museo Huacas de Moche is a long-time-coming permanent home for numerous objects excavated from the site. There’s a research center and theater as well.
As you leave, check out the souvenir stands, some of which sell pots made using the original molds found at the site. Also look around for biringos , the native Peruvian hairless dogs that hang out here. Their body temperature is higher than the normal dog and they have traditionally been used as body warmers for people with arthritis.
Combis for the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna pass Ovalo Grau in Trujillo every 15 minutes or so. It’s also possible to take a taxi (S15).
