Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There & Away
The minibus terminal at the corner of San José and Lora y Lora in Chiclayo has regular
buses to Lambayeque (S1.50, 20 minutes), which will drop you off a block from the Brun-
ing Museum.
FERREÑAFE
074 / POP 34,500
This old town, 18km northeast of Chiclayo, is worth visiting for the excellent
Museo Na-
cional Sicán
(
www.sican.perucultural.org.pe
; adult S8; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun)
. Sicán
culture thrived in the Lambayeque area between AD 750 and 1375 (
Click here
)
, around
the same time as the Chimú. The main Sicán site at Batán Grande lies in remote country
to the north and is best visited on a tour from Chiclayo (
Click here
)
or Pacora (
Click
among the largest tombs found in South America. Enigmatic burials were discovered
within - the Lord of Sicán was buried upside down, in a fetal position with his head separ-
ated from his body. Beside him were the bodies of two women and two adolescents, as
well as a sophisticated security system to ward off grave robbers: the red-colored
sinabrio
dust, which is toxic if inhaled. Another important tomb contained a nobleman sitting in a
cross-legged position and wearing a mask and headdress of gold and feathers, surrounded
by smaller tombs and niches containing the bodies of one man and 22 young women. The
museum is worth the ride out and it's never crowded. Guided tours from Chiclayo to Fer-
reñafe and Túcume cost around S50 per person, or grab a
colectivo
(S2.50) from Prado
just east of Peña.
Combis
for Ferreñafe (S2) also leave frequently from Chiclayo's Ter-
minal de Microbuses Epsel.
TÚCUME
074 / POP 7900
This is a little-known
site
(adult S8; 8am-4:30pm)
, which lies around 30km to the
north of Lambayeque on the Panamericana. A vast area - with more than 200 hectares of
crumbling walls, plazas and no fewer than 26 pyramids - it was the final capital of the
Sicán culture (
Click here
)
, who moved their city from nearby Batán Grande around AD
1050 after that area was devastated by the effects of El Niño. The pyramids you see today
are a composite of structures made by several civilizations; the lower levels belonged to
the Sicán while the next two levels, along with the distinctive surrounding walls, were ad-
ded by the Chimú. While little excavation has been done and no spectacular tombs have
been found, it's the sheer size of the site that makes it a memorable visit.
