THE LORD OF SIPAN AND THE MOST FABULOUS TOMB IN AMERICA

          

Among the most incredible archaeological discoveries in the world, there are two that stand out for their splendor, quantity of precious objects and their great historical value for humanity since their mausoleums were found intact. Without a doubt, the discovery of the tomb of the SEPOR DE SIPAN was one of the great milestones in the history of world archaeology.

This spectacular discovery took place in July 1987 in the town of Sipan, 8 kilometers from the city of Chiclayo, 770 kilometers from Lima. This discovery was very significant for the history of Peru because it was the first time that a group of archaeologists found the intact tomb of an ancient Peruvian ruler. The respective studies showed that it was an ancient ruler of the mysterious Mochica culture, a man who lived in the years 250 AD, was 1.67 meters tall and died at approximately 40 years old, who ruled the northern coast of Peru and was considered a demigod by his subjects.

     This unique discovery took place inside a MOCHICAS pyramid which in turn had an ancient cemetery where this ancient civilization buried several of its rulers something like a royal mausoleum where in addition to the LORD OF SIPAN was also found the tomb of the "old lord of Sipan" who would be another ancient Mochica ruler probably an ancestor of the lord of Sipan and also found the mummy of the PRIEST a strange character who was buried next to the lord of Sipan and who carried a cup in his hands which makes archaeologists think that it was a priest or shaman who was in charge of officiating the magical religious ceremonies and who drank in this cup the blood of the people who were sacrificed since the ancient Mochicas often practiced sacred ceremonies where they offered human sacrifices to their Gods.

      

Among the objects found in her tomb it is known that there were thousands of offerings (ceramics), hundreds of gold beads, gold crowns, bracelets, her fine clothes, her 3 pairs of gold earrings of great workmanship, her 2 solid gold power scepters, her silver sandals, her banners that remind us of her power, among her fine necklaces stands out her impressive necklace that represents peanut grains is made half of gold and the other half of silver (representing duality) and many more objects of great value that denote her life of great ostentation and glamour.

    

But among so many objects of incalculable value the most surprising thing for the archaeologists was to find next to the mummy of the LORD OF SIPAN several characters who had been previously sacrificed and then buried next to their king to accompany him on his journey to eternity, among them were 3 women perhaps his wives or concubines, a lookout who guarded the tomb, a soldier with his feet cut off which could mean that he was executed and then his feet cut off so that he would never abandon his lord, a military leader who wore military insignia could be his most trusted general, an unidentified man of great size who could be his bodyguard and a child, all these characters apparently were sacrificed at the death of their king to accompany him in his afterlife also in this lavish tomb were found not far from the main tomb llamas and dogs that could have been his pets and were also sacrificed in this unique ritual that was in accordance with the complex worldview of the Mochicas.

 

Today all the objects found in this sumptuous royal tomb including the mummy of this ancient king of the MOCHICAS are in the ROYAL TOMBS OF SIPAN museum located in the district of LABAYEQUE just 10.6 kilometers from Chiclayo, an interesting building that was built in the likeness of a MOCHICA pyramid whose entrance is along a large ramp that leads us to the third floor of the museum exactly copying the pyramid where this impressive mummy was found, after visiting the third level visitors descend to the second floor where we can see the most valuable objects from this tomb, the display cases exhibit real objects the same ones that were found by archaeologists and the museum-graphic sequence naturally leads us through the thread of the history of how the excavations were carried out and finally we descend to the deepest part of the pyramid, to the first level where we will come face to face with this mysterious MOCHICA dignitary who rests in a display case at a temperature that preserves his remains in the best conditions.