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Tucume
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ABOUT TUCUME - compliments of InkaNatura:
The plains of Tucume are part of the Lambayeque Valley, the largest valley of the North Coast of Peru. The Lambayeque Valley boats scores natural and man-made waterways. lt is also a region of numerous pyramids.
Tucume lies on what was once the southern margin of the valley, but thanks to the Taymi irrigation canal (over 43 miles long), which brings water northward from the Chancay river, it is surrounded by fertile agricultural land. lt seems very likely that the construction of the Taymi canal coincided with the foundation of Tucume, an important center of the region throughout its 400-year history. Modern Tucume, which lies very close to the site and boasts its own prehispanic village pyramid, Huaca del Pueblo, is located 17 miles north of the city of Chiclayo.
Purgatorio (purgatory) is the name by which local people refer to the dozens of prehispanic pyramids, enclosures and mounds found on the plain around La Raya Mountain, south of the La Leche River. This is the site of Tucume, covering an area of over 540 acres and encompassing 26 major pyramids and platforms.
This site was a major regional center, maybe even the capital of the successive occupations of the area by the Lambayeque/Sican (1000/1100-1350 AD) CHECK CHECK, Chimú (1350-1450 AD) and Inca (1450-1532 AD). Local shaman healers (“curanderos”) invoke the power of Tucume and La Raya Mountain in their rituals, and local people fear these sites. Hardly anyone other than healers ventures out in this site at night.