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The plunder of Pachacamac: Peruvian archaeological tour

For travelers interested in a historic Peru tour, this is a destination worth their while.

A sprawling ceremonial center of 18 mud-brick pyramids with ramps and plazas, Pachacámac was one of the most important pre-Hispanic cities of the Andean coast, first occupied from approximately A.D. 300.

It was ruled by the Ychsma lords from 900 A.D. to 1470, when the Inca conquered the smaller kingdom. With it, they gained control of the venerated spiritual center of the Pacific coast — a vitally important center of strategic power from which to advance their empire.

Less than a century later, in 1533, contemplating a similar tactical takeover, Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro set his sights on the temple city. He sent his brother, Hernando, who plundered the site and desecrated the idol that served as the oracle.

Gold from the temples had already been hastily collected for transport to the northern Andean city of Cajamarca to pay the ransom for the captured Inca Atahualpa. Upon receiving the treasure, Pizarro had Atahualpa executed anyway by garroting.

Miguel de Estete, one of the Spaniards present, later described how his party of conquistadores pushed their way past the temple priests through a door “adorned with coral and turquoise, crystals and other things” to enter a small, dark room.

There, illuminated by candlelight, the Spaniards found the oracle: “A filthy wooden pole fixed in the ground with the figure of a man at its top, poorly carved and poorly shaped,” Estete wrote. “Small gold and silver offerings” were scattered around it.

“Seeing how vile and despicable the idol was, we went outside to ask why they cared about so mean and ungainly a thing,” he wrote. “But they, astounded at our daring, defended the honor of their god and said that he was Pachacámac, the Maker of the World who healed their infirmities.

“According to what we were able to learn, the devil appeared to those priests in that hovel and spoke with them,” Estete continued. “They entered there with the petitions and offerings of the people who came in pilgrimage, because they came from the entire kingdom of Atahuallpa, just as Moors and Turks go to the house in Mecca.”
The Spanish soldiers gathered together the leaders to “enlighten” them.

“In the presence of all, the hovel was opened and torn down,” Estete recounted, “and with much solemnity a tall cross was raised over the seat which for so long the devil had claimed as his own.”

Another conquistador, Francisco de Jerez, wrote that Captain Hernando Pizarro “broke the idol in the sight of everyone,” offered them instructions to follow the Catholic faith, and “gave them as armor to defend themselves against the devil the sign of the cross.”

Bibliography:
[MacCormack, S. (2006). Gods, demons, and idols in the andes. Journal of the History of Ideas, 67]
[Miguel de Estete - Relación del descubrimiento del Perú (1534)]
[Francisco de Jerez. - Verdadera relación de la Conquista del Perú(1534)]