Paramonga was an important city constructed at the border of the former Kingdom of Chimor in Peru during the late Intermediate Period (AD 1200 to 1400), whose capital was the metropolis of Chan Chan.
Paramonga is located on the Fortaleza River, close to the town of Pativilca to the north of Lima. It is said that it was an important religious settlement, similar to Pachacamac. It is named after the nearby modern town of Paramonga, as its original name is unknown. Paramonga is often called a fortress due to its staggered pyramid of four levels of enormous proportions constructed on a hill, which somewhat resembles a European medieval castle.[1]
History
The oldest written records of the site are from the Spanish colonial period by chroniclers, Spanish soldiers, priests, and other literate men who accompanied Hernando Pizarro on the conquest of the Tawantinsuyu. Important among them was Miguel de Estete, who was called the "chronicler soldier." Accompanying Pizarro in 1532, he traveled by the Able Ñan (dirt road) along the coast to Cajamarca to receive the gold for the rescue of the Atahualpa Inca. Estete wrote in his account,
"... and another day we went to sleep in a great town that is called Parmunga, which is next to the sea, has a Strong House, with five blind fences, painted of elaborately on the inside and outside with its walls carved, the way it is done in Spain, with two tigers (pumas?) at the main entrance ..."[citation needed]
Another chronicler, Pedro Cieza de León, passed Paramonga during his trip from the City of the Kings (Lima) to Trujillo in 1541. He described it by the following:
"There is one thing worth seeing in this valley, which is a fine well-built fortress, and it is certainly very curious to see how they raised water in channels to irrigate higher levels. The buildings were very handsome, and many wild beasts and birds were painted on the walls, which are now all in ruins and undermined in many places by those who have searched for buried gold and silver. In these days the fortress only serves as a witness to that which has been."[2]
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Illustration of the Paramonga Fortress in Charles Wiener's book of 1880 Pérou et Bolivie. Récit de voyage.
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Paramonga aerial photo looking northeast, by George R. Johnson, taken between 1928-1930.
References
- ^ Google Maps - Paramonga (with photos)
- ^ "The travels of Pedro de Cieza de Léon, A.D. 1532-50, contained in the first part of his Chronicle of Peru". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
10°39′12″S 77°50′29″W / 10.65333°S 77.84139°W
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