ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF CERRO SECHÍN

Discovered in 1937, the ruins take the form of a square building, 51 m on each side, with curved corners, surrounding an invisible pyramid of earth. The surrounding wall, made of large stones perfectly fitted and engraved, is extraordinary. It reads like a comic book featuring 300 characters. Triumphant warriors dance on the butchered, quartered and bloody bodies of the vanquished, their throats slit, mutilated, enucleated and disemboweled, their hair bristling with horror. Two lines of warriors, preceded by a standard, advance towards the entrance, trampling on the corpses. Some researchers, rather than seeing war massacres, believe that Sechin was a centre dedicated to science and surgery (doctors of 5,000 years ago had a great anatomical knowledge, performing trepanning and autopsies). The surgeons would have used the prisoners of war to carry out experiments: Sechin would be a sanctuary where warriors and doctors were honoured. Whatever the case, one cannot help but be struck by the perfection of the line, the meticulousness of the work of the engravers, whose sketches can be seen in the surrounding park, where green lizards with red necks spring up from between the stones.

The site museum, the Max Uhle Museum, brings together reproductions and polychrome bas-reliefs, footprints moulded in mud, mummies and ceramics, which allow us to appreciate the evolution of this culture.