Cementerio de Chauchilla

Cementerio de Chauchilla Review

In the midst of the pale, scorched desert, the ancient cemetery is scattered with sun-bleached skulls and shards of pottery. Huaqueros (grave robbers) have ransacked the site over the years, and while up until a couple of years ago the mummies unearthed by their looting erupted from the earth in a jumble of bones and threadbare weavings, they are now housed neatly inside a dozen or so covered tombs. It's nevertheless an eerie sight, as the mummies still have hair attached, as well as mottled, brown-rose skin stretched around empty eye sockets and gaping mouths with missing teeth. Some are wrapped in tattered burial sacks, though the jewelry and ceramics with which they were laid to rest are long gone. Tours from town take about three hours and cost around S/40. Visits to the cemetery are also packaged with Nazca Lines flights.