Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
from the Arabic word for 'barter') served as a site where nuns gathered on Sundays to ex-
change their handicrafts such as soaps and baked goods. Continuing on, to the left you can
enter the
cell
of the legendary Sor Ana, a nun renowned for her eerily accurate predictions
about the future and the miracles she is said to have performed until her death in 1686.
Finally, the
Great Cloister
is bordered by the
chapel
on one side and the
art gallery
,
which used to serve as a communal dormitory, on the other. This building takes on the
shape of a cross. Murals along the walls depict scenes from the lives of Jesus and the Vir-
gin Mary.
Museo Santuarios Andinos
( 20-0345;
www.ucsm.edu.pe/santury
;
La Merced 110; admission S20; 9am-6pm
Mon-Sat, 9am-3pm Sun)
There's an escalating drama to this theatrically presented mu-
seum, dedicated to the preserved body of a frozen 'mummy,' and its compulsory guided
tour which starts with a beautifully-shot 20-minute film about how Juanita, the so-called
'Ice Maiden,' was unearthed atop Nevado Ampato in 1995. Next, well-versed student
guides from the university lead you through a series of atmospheric, dimly lit rooms filled
with artifacts from the expedition that found the 'mummy.' The climax is the vaguely
macabre sight of poor Juanita, the 12-year-old Inca girl sacrificed to the gods in the 1450s
and now eerily preserved in a glass refrigerator. Tours take about an hour and are conduc-
ted in Spanish, English and French.
MUSEUM
JUANITA - THE 'ICE MAIDEN'
In 1992 local climber Miguel Zárate was guiding an expedition on Nevado Ampato (6310m) when he found curi-
ous wooden remnants, suggestive of a burial site, exposed near the icy summit. In September 1995 he convinced
American mountaineer and archaeologist Johan Reinhard to climb the peak, which following recent eruptions of
the nearby Sabancaya volcano had been coated by ash, melting the snow below and exposing the site more fully.
Upon arrival, they immediately found a statue and other offerings, but the burial site had collapsed and there was
no sign of a body. Ingeniously, the team rolled rocks down the mountainside and, by following them, Zárate was
able to spot the bundled mummy of an Inca girl, which had tumbled down the same path when the icy tomb had
crumbled.
The girl had been wrapped and almost perfectly preserved by the icy temperatures for about 500 years, and it
was immediately apparent from the remote location of her tomb and from the care and ceremony surrounding her
death (as well as the crushing blow to her right eyebrow) that this 12- to 14-year-old girl had been sacrificed to the
gods at the summit. For the Incas, mountains were gods who could kill by volcanic eruption, avalanche or climat-
ic catastrophes. These violent deities could only be appeased by sacrifices from their subjects, and the ultimate
sacrifice was that of a child.
