Túcume Explained

Túcume
Alternate Name:Purgatorio
Map Type:Peru
Relief:yes
Coordinates:-6.5158°N -79.8442°W
Region:Mochumi, Lambayeque Province, Lambayeque Region, Peru
Type:Settlement
Area:2.185km2
Built:800
Abandoned:1532
Epochs:Middle Horizon to Late Horizon
Cultures:Sican, Chimú, Inca

Túcume is a pre-Hispanic site in Peru, south of the La Leche River on a plain around La Raya Mountain. It covers an area of over 540acres and encompassing 26 major pyramids and mounds.[1] The area is referred to as Purgatorio (purgatory) by local people.

The site was a major regional center, maybe even the capital of the successive occupations of the area by the Lambayeque/Sican (800-1350 AD), Chimú (1350–1450 AD) and Inca (1450–1532 AD). Local shaman healers (curanderos) invoke power of Tucume and La Raya Mountain in their rituals, and local people fear these sites.

The vast plains of Túcume are part of the Lambayeque region, the largest valley of the north coast of Peru. The Lambayeque Valley is the site of scores of natural and man-made waterways and is also a region containing the remains of about 250 decaying and heavily eroded mud-brick pyramids.

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Notes and References

  1. Shimada, Izumi. "The Late Prehispanic Coastal States." In The Inca World: The Development of Pre-Columbian Peru, edited by L. Laurencich Minelli, pp.49-82. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000