Huaca de los Reyes — Main Pyramid of Caballo Muerto (Moche Valley, Peru)
Caballo Muerto · Huaca de los Reyes · Reyes Pyramid · Templo de los Reyes
Initial Period (1800–900 BCE), Early Horizon transition·Cupisnique-Caballo Muerto (Formative Andean)·🇵🇪 La Libertad Region, Trujillo Province, Laredo District, Peru
About
About Huaca de los Reyes — Main Pyramid of Caballo Muerto (Moche Valley, Peru)
Most elaborate Initial Period (1500–1200 BCE) platform pyramid (40x30 m base, U-shaped complex 55x35 m overall) within 2 km² Caballo Muerto field of eight mounds (Moche Valley). Huaca de los Reyes has tripartite colonnades, sunken plazas and 50+ interconnecting rooms arranged symmetrically around two courts, with massive clay heads (2 m high) of fanged deities on facade — Cupisnique–Chavín transition. Built in 4 phases over earlier court, then deliberately buried. Thomas & Sheila Pozorski defined it as model for later Andean orthogonal temple planning (Chavín direct influence).
Why it mattersPrototype orthogonal Andean temple plan ancestral to Chavín de Huántar; earliest monumental clay sculpture.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why abandoned and then buried vs sacked
Theories
- 01Ritual renewal burying old temple like Huaca de la Florida; localization of Chavín religious canon
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1500–1200 BCE (Initial Period), final phase c.1200 BCE
- Period
- Initial Period (1800–900 BCE), Early Horizon transition
- Culture
- Cupisnique-Caballo Muerto (Formative Andean)
- Builders
- Cupisnique culture (Caballo Muerto society)
- Purpose
- Early monumental courtyard pyramid for solar-feline syncretic cult and elite congregation
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.1500–1200 BCE (Initial Period), final phase c.1200 BCE
Initial construction
c. 1094 CE
Abandonment
On the ground
Structures & features
8.0725° S · 78.9042° W · 220 m · 2 mapped features
Huaca de los Reyes main platform
pyramid40x30 m terraced pyramid with summit court and clay heads
8.0725° S · 78.9042° WNorthern subsidiary pyramid (Huaca de la Virgen)
subsidiary mound15 m western arm mound flanking northern plaza, 40 m north
8.0721° S · 78.9045° W