Huaca Mateo Salado
September 10, 2008 Archaeology, Culture & History, Lima City Guide
Part of the Lima PreColombina series
Found at at the Plaza de la Bandera where the district of Pueblo Libre meets Breña and Lima Cercado, the ruins of five pyramids that make up this Lima Culture complex called Huaca Mateo Salado tower over the surrounding modern houses.
The complex was named after a Frenchman called Matew Salé who lived here in the 1550s when the area was ancient farm land. It was once connected to and formed part of the great Maranga city that was built by the Lima culture between 200AD and the 1450s AD, a long road running between them with a wall at either side. The Mateo Salado monuments were constructed and used at the same time as the new huacas were built in Maranga, those that now stand in the Parque de las Leyendas zoo.
Little now survives of the road that connected these ruins with Maranga, nor does much survive of the great number of ancient buildings and homes that covered the area. All has been built over by modern development in the 1800s and 1900s, and to my horror people are still coming and illegally building homes on the ruins today. Refusing to move, these invaders cite their human rights and protest violently when authorities attempt to remove them from the protected areas.
Peru’s National Institute of Culture is now carrying out restoration works, as ordered by Peruvian President Alan Garcia.
“Soon, the Huaca Mateo Salado will be ready to receive hundreds of tourists interested in knowing more about the cultures that developed in Lima. We have plans to build a small on-site museum of Pre-Inca civilizations of Peru’s south coast”, Garcia stated, adding that he regretted that many archaeological sites have been devastated as the modern city grew, much of the damaged carried out by his generation.
Unfortunately, Garcia’s interest in Lima’s ancient past doesn’t go beyond how much money can be made from tourism. Nearby at the University of San Marcos, his plans for the amplification of the Avenida Venezuela mean cutting a chunk off the the most important Maranga pyramid.
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Comments (3)
La Huaca Mateo Salado esta ubicado en lo que fue una Propiedad privada Fundo Chacra Rios, que tuvo muchos peones en su chacra, desde 1912, ellos y sus descendientes son los que viven aqui, NO SON INVASORES como los quieren tratar, y hacer ver a la colectividad, en el año 1988, recien fue donado al Estado, y allì seguian viviendo estos ex peones, cuidando la huaca de los depredadores e invasores que muchas veces llamaron a la Policia para solicitar apoyo en defensa de esta zona, ellos tienen derechos ya que han sido trabajadores de la Hacienda sin haber tenido su compensaciòn por el tiempo de trabajo. Respetemos los derechos y a los peruanos, necesitamos autoridades justas.
[...] still dot the city, some restored liked the Huaca Pucllana, other’s in ruins such as the Mateo Salado or the much more ancient Huaca San Marcos. With the new-found respect that is emerging in Peru for [...]
[...] arrived, and people started building makeshift shacks on the ruins themselves, similar to those at Mateo Salado. With the collapse of Peru at the hands of an incompetent young president by the name of Alan [...]