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Show ANCIENT CITY IS CHAN-CHAN Today Nothing but a Mass of Ruini, but Was Flourishing Before Pi-zarro Pi-zarro Ravished Peru. Chan-Chan Is not, as the name would indicate, a place in China. It is one of the oldest cities in Peru, or in the world. The Chimus, who built Chan-Chan, are supposed to have been an elderly race when the Incas were yet barbarians. After a time the Incas In-cas became civilized and powerful owl captured Chan-Chan. Then Pizarro came to plunder and wifcck the city and massacre the inhabitants. So much of the Chimus' history is deducted de-ducted from the remains of Chan-Chan and old Spanish narratives. The people who inhabited the old metropolis were moon worshiper?. The moon, they said, was the most worthy deity of nature, for it shone not only at night but also In the day. whereas the sun could shine In the day only. The sea was supposed to be under the special protection of the moon, because the latter controlled the tides. Images of fish and other sea creatures and temples to both moon and sea were therefore built by the Chimus and many have been uncovered un-covered In the ruins of their city. , Chan-Chan has since the time of Pizarro Pi-zarro been a heap of wreckage. There are palaces, workshops, factories and great battered pyramids built up In terraces and surmounted by buildins5' These nre the mounds in which the Chlmu dead once lay. Like the Egyptians, Egyp-tians, these people burled with their dead many articles of their personal property. From one of these mounds a Spanish adventurer obtained $3-000.000 $3-000.000 worth of gold and silver. For many years Chan-Chan yielded to the Spanish coaquerors fabulous sums ot gold. |
