Built a millennium before Machu Picchu, the mud-brick pyramid Huaca Pucllana is among the city’s oldest archaeological sites, with ongoing digs revealing its secrets beneath Miraflores.
By Day or Night
Guided tours are mandatory. While the one-hour daytime tour offers a partial climb up the adobe pyramid and a visit to the lackluster garden and wildlife areas, the pyramid’s mystical appeal comes alive in the 30-minute evening tour.
Site Museum
The site museum is far too small for the amount of artifacts that have accumulated in the 40-plus years of formal excavations, and a 20-minute walk-through is sufficient before your tour.
Sacred Temple
The fenced-in 6-hectare archaeological site is a fraction of its original size yet ongoing excavations continue to reveal its ceremonial past. The seven-platform huaca ("temple" in Quechua), surrounded by storage rooms and plazas, has a view of the coastal culture’s greatest deity, the sea.
Adobe Bookshelf
Stood vertically and spaced apart like books on a shelf, a unique adobe-laying method made Huaca Pucllana resistant to seismic shifts. Adding strength was the fact that with each new leader came a new temple, built directly on top of the pre-existing structure.
Huaca Pucllana Restaurant
The open-air terrace faces the ancient mud-brick pyramid and you can justify paying the steep prices as a contribution to ongoing excavations and research.
