Huaca dragon

Huaca El Dragón or Arco Iris in La Esperanza

It is one of the oldest pyramidal huacas of the valley, being considered the first settlement of the Wari culture in the Moche valley. It allows to admire the high degree of development that the Wari reached in engineering since the whole structure is anti-seismic.

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Huaca El Dragón or Arco Iris

Relief of the dragons under the rainbow. When entering the rainbow huaca we can appreciate a ramp that leads to a first level that presents figures carved in the walls in the form of a dragon and on these figures a rainbow is represented (hence their names). Another ramp, smaller than the first, leads to the second level. At this level there are fourteen warehouses where food and offerings are probably stored by the people of the town.

 
Architecture:

 It is a pyramid formed by a double platform protected by a high wall with a single entrance to the architectural complex. The typical ramps of the time give access to the Huaca from the top. This construction has fourteen deposits, which indicates that it was not only a shrine, but a center for gathering goods for the supply of those who lived there and their surroundings. The walls of the platforms are decorated with beautiful reliefs. A figure adopts the shape of a rainbow in a very stylized form in order to engulf a character, with each head. At the center anthropomorphic figures in the form of a dragon with open jaws share the mouthful. A two-headed figure perched on a small platform or altar shares a tumi between its jaws.

Pre-Inca period:

Although some archaeologists attribute this monument to the Chimu Culture (1100-1450 years), others affirm that this shrine was built between the years 800 and a thousand of our era by the Moche Culture.

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