- Cost: $35 USD per person
- Minimum: 02 passengers
- Location: Nazca, Peru
- Duration: approx. 3 hours
- Guide: English-speaking
- Transport: car or van
Ancient Egypt is not the only place where the dead were mummified in elaborate
rituals; it occurred in Perú too.
Chauchilla is a 1,500 year old cemetery located near Nazca, and it provides an
extraordinary glimpse into how a pre-incan society treated their dead. During this
tour, you will see dozens of mummies and skeletons in their original tombs, and
learn about the religious beliefs of this civilization that thrived in the middle of a
brutal desert.
Your driver and tour guide will pick you up at your hotel, or at the airport in
Nazca. En route to the cemetery, located 30 kilometers south of Nazca, you will
have a chance to appreciate the barren and remote landscapes that characterize
the area. Upon arrival, visitors will see small pieces of bone, and broken pottery
shards, lying on the ground. This is the result of the graverobbers. Local treasure hunters were able to sell artifacts for several
thousand dollars apiece; a small fortune in a poor region of Perú where the minimum wage is less than $300 USD per month.
But Peru’s rich history has lost much cultural wealth due to their behavior.
In the course of this tour, visitors can view 12 tombs containing more than twenty mummies. Many of the mummies still possess
their original hair, teeth and parts of the clothing in which they were buried. Like in ancient Egyptian, the success of the
mummification process was partly due to the arid climate, and partly due to human rituals (removing the entrails and spreading
an ointment of salt on the bodies.)
Travelers will have a professional English-speaking guide at their disposal. This local expert will provide the historical
and contextual information to enrich your experience. Are you curious about the skeleton that appears to belong to a child
next to his mother? Curious about who was worthy of being mummified and who deserved a normal burial? Your private guide
will have the information and expertise to bring this ancient place back to life (sorry for the bad pun!). Do not miss the opportunity
to visit this mesmerizing location.
It is easy to combine this tour with a PRIVATE TOUR TO CANTALLOC AQUEDUCTS, which are nearby. And of course, many
travelers choose to FLY OVER THE NAZCA LINES before taking this tour.
