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• Karla Fiorella Ildefonso Rivera

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The huaca El Dragon lies approximately 1.100 meters N NE of the northern peripheral wall of the main ruins of Chan Chan, largest prehistoric city in Peru. It's only about 100 meters west of the present Panamerican highway and c. 3 1/2 km. north of the Plaza de Armas of Trujillo. Along with a few other structures we shall mention shortly, it occupies a rather lonely position on the broad pampa which streches between Chan Chan and the outlying foothills of tthe Cordillera Negra, in this instance Cerro Cabras. The inmediate ancient structures which are in relatively close proximity to the Huaca El Dragon are: 1) the irrigation canal Vinchasao, wich passes about 80 meters north of the huaca in a northwesterly direction; 2) the huaca Tacaynamo, c. 500 meters S SW and a rifled cemetery c. 600 meters northwest. (Plan of Chan Chan in Kosok: 1965 : 85.) In adittion to these there were numerous superficial alignments of stones on the pampa, occasional traces of sporadic excavated burial and suspicious hillocks, but none of these latter proved to be consequential remains. Of the four units mentiones, only the huaca Tacaynamo appears to have been integrally related to the huaca El Dragón. It will be discussed later. The structed before or after the temple cannot be establised. The smaller buildings to the southwest superficially resemble the huaca El Dragón in construction, but no surface remains were found that indicated any particular reason other than juxtapisition for interrelating them. The role of the cemetery will be discussed later. The earliest reference to the huaca are rather imprecise, so that it is not even posible to be sure that they refer to El Dragón. In the plan of Martinez Compañon, lamina LXXXI, “Vestigios de población Chimú”, which is the first general plan of Chan Chan, he shows by his No. 12, three edifices in the approximate position of the huaca El Dragón and Tacaynamo: “tres edificios amurallados que indicant haber servido para guarder semas”. Since there are no other structures in this zone, except the two small edificies or the two larger huacas, the plan of Martinez doubtless refers to one or all of these. The reference to “amurallado” is correct for El Dragón and the two small structures, but not for Tacaynamo. In any case, the inaccuracy of the plan and brevity of the description can contribute little to our understanding of the ruin as it stands. The next reference comes from Squier, who spent some time describing what appears to hava been one of the two huacas. We quote his description: Descending the slope, we encountered, outside of the great wall, two rectangular pyramid, or huaca. The first of these inclosures is 252 feet long by 222 feet at the ends… (follows a description of the huaca Tacaynamo)

The other structure referred to corresponds very closely with this. It is 240 feet long by 210 feet wide, the outer walls 20 feet high by 8 feet thick, and the interior huaca, or mound, 172 feet long by 152 wid, and 40 feet high. No human ramins were found here, but the summit of the mound showed that it had been divided into sections, or chambers, from five to six feet square, by walls of rubble 18 inches thick. I could not resist the conviction that this structure, like the other, had been built for sepulchral purposes, but had not been used. (Squier, 1877 : 119.) The problem of interpreting Squier’s remarks rests in the discrepancy of measurements. A second problem arises in his failure to mention any vestiges of decorated walls. If we include the room dimensions given by Squier (which by the description, we are hardly entitled to) they come out about the same as those of the cells. While it is fairly certain that Squier saw and measured this huaca, we can offer no explanation for the unusually large margin of error except that he calculated the dimensions rapidly. Of the description, the most potentially useful part is that referring to the room divisions that “ the summit of the mound showed”. This may possibly mean that the upper platform, now hopelessly destroyed, contained room; or it may simply be a reference to the cells which are noted on the plan. The total height figure which would reinforce the former opinion cannot