CUSCO, Peru -- Three new museums in Peru will enrich client
itineraries.
The Pre-Columbian Art Museum in Cusco has 11 galleries housing
450 pre-Columbian artifacts that date from 1250 B.C. to 1532.
The antiquities were chosen for display from the 45,000-piece
collection held in storage in the Larco Museum in Lima.
Located on the Plazuela de las Nazarenas, the museum occupies
Casa Cabrera, which has had many incarnations -- from the 16th
century mansion of the conqueror Alonso Dias, to a 17th century
convent.
The Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipan, in Lambayeque, features
artifacts from the gold-filled burial chamber of the Lord of Sipan,
king of the Moche, the farmers who lived in and developed the
Lambayeque Valley from 100 to 700.
Visitors get a sense of discovery as they enter at the top of
the bright-red, pyramid-shaped structure and descend into galleries
to encounter the treasures in sequence, as the archaeologists
did.
The Museum of Leymebamba, in the town of the same name, displays
219 perfectly preserved mummies found in northern Peru -- including
the mummies with painted faces that were discovered standing in
cliff-tombs above Laguna de los Condores in 1997.
Other mummies were found in nearby mountain caves.
To contact reporter Carla Hunt, send e-mail to [email protected].