La Libertad was the land where the ancient Mochica culture chose to build up its most important ceremonial centers: The Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna. Located only 8 km away from the city of Trujillo, these impressive monuments are more that 1,500 years old.
The archaeological complex Temple of the Sun and the Moon includes two big truncated pyramids, the Temple of the Stars, the White Hill Temple and other constructions. In a landscape dominated by the imposing Cerro Blanco (White Hill), vegetation thrives because of the river Moche and the proximity of the sea.
An esplanade separates both huacas 500 meters wide, under which lays the urban center where the Moche elite lived. Some researchers affirm that the Mochica kingdom ended because of the impact brought on by the El Niño phenomenon, which periodically causes tropical rains and floods in the northern coast of Peru. At the dusk of the Moche kingdom, the people from Lambayeque and Chimu; cultures, descendants of the Moche, successively occupied its territories. By 1470 the Chimu were defeated by the Incas, right before the Spanish disarticulated the Inca Empire. |