Chauchilla Cemetery

Chauchilla is a burial ground used from around 200 to 900 AD, mostly by people of the Nazca and later cultures, and what makes it unusual is that the dead are visible. Bodies were buried seated, wrapped in cotton textiles, painted with resin and placed in mud-brick chambers, and the extreme dryness preserved skin, hair - often long, and still reddish - and cloth. It was looted comprehensively through the twentieth century, with graves opened and contents scattered across the desert, and what visitors see now is the result of a rescue: remains were gathered and reinterred in a dozen or so tombs along a marked path, roofed against the sun, in something approximating their original arrangement. That reconstruction is honest about itself in the signage, and it raises the obvious question of whether displaying human remains this way is right - a debate that has not gone away.

History

Burials here began around 200 AD and continued until the 9th century, and the forgotten cemetery was rediscovered in the 1920s. Grave robbers left bones and pottery scattered across the area, but in 1997 the site was placed under legal protection and most of the scattered remains were returned to the tombs (Wikipedia, Chauchilla Cemetery).

What you'll find

• The open tombs - about a dozen chambers along a marked desert path.
• The preservation - skin, hair and textiles intact after more than a thousand years.
• The burial posture - bodies seated and wrapped, as they were originally placed.
• The looting history - remains gathered and reinterred after decades of grave robbing.

When to go

Year-round; early morning for heat. One to two hours including the drive from Nazca on a rough track.

Things to know

These are human remains on open display, and some visitors find it distressing or ethically uncomfortable. Their present arrangement is a reconstruction after looting, not an untouched find. No shade, intense heat and dust. Touching or handling anything is prohibited.

Nearby

Nazca town is north; Cahuachi is west across the valley.

Key facts