EXCLUSIVE: Hidden Chambers of Chan Chan - South America's LARGEST Ancient City

The Chimu culture was the second largest empire to ever exist in South America. And I was given special access to see parts of it that are inaccessible to the public. Their origin story begins with Taikanamu, who arrived from the sea on reed boats and taught them agriculture, architecture, cosmology, just like many parallel myths from around the world. I'm the only one here at the archaeological site of Chan Chan, which is right near Trujillo in Peru. And this was the capital of the Chimu culture. And the Chimu were eventually overtaken by the Inca. So this is relatively modern in comparison to a lot of the sites we've been looking at previously. The Chimu culture was the second largest empire to ever exist in South America. The Chimu existed between roughly 850 CE to 1470 CE and spanned from the modern-day Lima area all the way up into southern Ecuador along the coast. The capital city of the empire was Chan Chan, and it stretched for almost 20 full kilometers. It consisted of 11 Ciudadelas, or palaces. You can see them here on the map. Currently, the only one open to the public is this one here, called Nican. And I was given special access to see parts of it that are inaccessible to the public. And I'll be showing that here shortly. But I was also granted the ability to explore this adjacent Ciudadela, which was a real treat because I was the only one there and it is also inaccessible to the public. It's all adobe brick, so it has definitely been weathered over time. Within the almost 30-foot walls of these Ciudadelas were workshops, housing for hundreds of people, plazas, temples, and even a reservoir, which tapped into the underground water table. And this was a brilliant achievement of irrigation architecture, allowing each of the Ciudadelas to sustain itself fully. And just look how neat with the plazas. It is said from the Spanish chronicles that there were 9 to 11 rulers of the Chimu culture, and it's believed that each of these Ciudadelas was attributed to each of those rulers. And as one would pass on, the subsequent ruler would build a completely new palace for themselves and their leadership. I definitely had to check out this makeshift enclosed structure towards the rear of this Ciudadela. I don't know what's going on here. And they're definitely excavating. I wonder if they found something kind of impressive here, which is why it's kind of protected. Looks like a bunch of bird poop. Maybe that's what they were protecting it from, all the birds. We are right by the coast. Referring to Google Earth, you can see the area I'm exploring where the canopy was built, and I can't help but wonder if archaeologists found or might find something comparable to what was found here at the Nican temple. Because here in this area was the elaborate tomb of one of the rulers, and given the fact that these are both situated in the back right corner of these complexes, makes me think that perhaps this was a shared similarity in the construction of these different Ciudadelas. It certainly did seem like the spaces I'm exploring here might have housed the entourage of a king and or the necessary artifacts to be adorned with in the afterlife. Definitely an entrance or some sort. They dig it out. It is certainly apparent that there is a lot more to be excavated here still. Oh wow. I'm sure they found things here. Whoa, that's deep. I wonder if these some of these were burials. Whoa, that that was scary. Did not expect that. All right, it's just about nine o'clock, so the main part should be opening up. I probably won't be in there too long just because I'm severely behind schedule for the amount of places I wanted to go to. Typical access to the Nik'an temple is to the top right of the screen. However, I was allowed to go through the site in reverse, and therefore, the very first stop in this impressive palace was the royal tomb of one of the leaders of the Chimu Empire. This area here was where the remains of the entourage of the ruler, like artisans, craftspeople, and servants were buried. Unfortunately, the majority of this location had already thoroughly been looted before archaeologists had the chance to excavate it all. Oh, this is where they found one of the tombs. And here was the primary tomb. I did a 360 around it so I could render a 3D model of it, which I'll make accessible in the next few days after releasing this video if anyone wants to check it out. Within the tomb itself, archaeologists had found the remnants of painted murals, and it has been somewhat reconstructed by placing a mannequin or something in the tomb to display what the ruler would have looked like when he was buried in it. Walking further into the complex, you can see this green lush area, and this is where the reservoir would have been for the ancient Chimu. They were masters of irrigation, and were able to tap into the water table below the surface, allowing for full sustainability of each of these Ciudadelas. Again, just doing a very quick walkthrough of the main site at Chan Chan, because terribly behind schedule and need to make it to the next location, but we'll be able to see some murals and the reliefs. You can see fish carved into the walls in the upper portion here, and along the lower portion are pelicans, both of which indicate the ancient Chimu veneration of the sea. In this area, we see several Audiencias, or spaces where the rulers and elite would congregate and hold audiences. It is said that these spaces would serve administrative purposes and sessions of tribute, because adjacent to many of these Audiencias were storage rooms. It was almost certainly a pelican, I'm not sure why I said condor. One of the most unique features in this particular area is that each section or Audiencia was adorned with a repeated symbol or pattern, but they were all different from one another. Some scholars believe that these stylistic choices were representative of the personalities or beliefs of any respective ruler at the time, and others suggest a narrative sequencing where the various reliefs when gone through in a particular order, speak to the creation myths of the Chimu culture. Specifically, an origin from the sea, a mastery of nets, and ultimately speaking to a cosmological order behind their beliefs. This Audiencia here was in a completely different section of the Ciudadela, and it is inaccessible to the public. I believe its functionality served a similar, but likely much more important purpose as it was separated from the rest of those Audiencias we saw earlier. It is famously known as one of the more playful Audiencias, as the iconography shows a squirrel with a pet gecko, so it also highlighted the liberties and creative freedoms that some of the artisans might have been able to take. Murals have been found that depict elite persons sitting in these seats, which has led archaeologists to determine its purpose, likely being the elite or ruling class holding court. According to Spanish Chronicles, the Chimu origin story begins with the arrival of an individual named Taikanamu with an entourage from the sea on reed boats. Taikanamu would eventually send out his nine sons to establish other localities up and down the coast of Peru, but would also establish Chan Chan as the capital city. It is said that he was responsible for introducing the ideas of agriculture, irrigation, cosmology, things of that nature. Similar to all the ancient myths that we hear from all over the world of a foreign individual arriving from the sea and teaching these indigenous cultures the advanced methods of architecture, government, astronomy, etc. Now given in comparison to many of the other cultures and locations that you've seen here on this channel, the Chimu were much more relatively recent, being formed around 850 CE, and therefore it's very possible that this origin story was itself passed down generationally from predecessing cultures. Although Dr. Ed Barnhart in one of his Great Courses lectures about the Chimu culture brings up an interesting observation. He noticed some similarities in the irrigation methods applied by the Chimu, being closely related to that applied by the Nazca culture further down south. And so an interesting, curious, and possible theory is that perhaps as the Nazca down south were being conquered by the Wari, that they traveled northward and perhaps they arrived from the sea, and Taikanamu was of Nazca descent. There is still so much happening at Chan Chan archaeologically, that even last year archaeologists found mass burials at one of the Ciudadelas here. A comparable discovery of mass burials was also made around 2021, and then back in 2018 a completely unknown tomb was discovered, lined with these wooden statues at the Gran Chimu complex, one of the Ciudadelas just a little further inland than the ones we saw in this video. It is clear that this site is so expansive, and from what we've seen today and my adventures there, there's clearly still a lot to be excavated. I'm just glad that I was able to have access to some of these places that the public no longer, at least currently, gets to see, and I'm glad I got to show that to all of you. I've definitely got a lot more videos in the queue that I plan to release here shortly, so hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. I've also been asked to speak at the Cosmic Summit conference coming up in June in Greensboro, North Carolina. It should be an awesome time, so if you're interested in attending I'll put a discount code for tickets down below in the description. And if you're interested in supporting the Pillars of the Past mission to capture these unknown and undocumented ancient sites, well I'm currently in the process of trying to plan a 2025 expedition back into Peru to do just that, and it could use the support it can get, so there will be links down below in order to help with that. I truly appreciate it, thank you for watching, and I'll catch you in the next video.