About three hours from Huaraz, in the heart of Peru's central Andes, lies one of the country's most fascinating and least-known archaeological sites: Chavín de Huántar. Declared a Unesco World Heritage Site, the complex was the main ceremonial centre of the Chavín culture, one of the oldest and most influential Andean civilisations, which developed around three thousand years ago.
A labyrinth of underground galleries
The heart of the site is an intricate system of underground galleries, narrow and dark corridors that wind beneath the temple's stone platforms. Inside one of these galleries stands the famous Lanzón, a carved monolith almost five metres tall depicting an anthropomorphic deity with feline features, considered the spiritual centre of the entire complex.
Scholars believe that Chavín priests used sound effects and plays of light within the galleries to heighten the ritual experience for visitors of the time, who came from across the Andean region to consult the oracle.
The museum and the village of Chavín
The modern National Museum of Chavín, located a few minutes from the archaeological site, houses the celebrated Tenon Heads, carved stone heads originally set into the temple walls, and offers essential context for understanding the importance of this civilisation, considered by many archaeologists to be the cultural matrix for much of the Andean civilisations that followed, including the Inca Empire.