Huaca de la Luna
The friezes of the Huaca de la Luna decorate the walls of the ramps leading up to the top ceremonial platform.
The temple is built alongside the Huaca del Sol on the Bank of the Rio Moche by the Moche (200BC - 850AD), made with thousands of mass produced mud bricks. The bricks were amassed in columns and built upwards in layers with connecting ramps to ceremonial courtyards. 
At the huaca de la Luna there were many brutal adult male sacrifices to the deity known as `Ayapec`, a pre Quechua word translating as all knowing. Human sacrifice also included the consumption of human blood by the Lord of Sipan, who was a Moche spiritual, military and civil leader. This act is believed to have been done to appease the Decapitator, mostly depicted as a spider, but also depicted as a winged creature or a sea monster.
The Moche believed in dualism and everything was connected from the sun, to the moon, to the land and to the sea. The fishermen were the most highly esteemed after the priests and the ruler. Their biggest fear was El Niño.
posted by Lou @ 11:01 PM
1 Comments:
Dear Lou,
I have very much enjoyed your travel blog and superb photos. I would like to quote the section about Mochica on one of my "Notes & Queries" in my web site,http://www.green-man-of-cercles.org
if that's all right?
Best wishes, Julianna
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