Laguna de las Momias
Peru · Americas
About
Laguna de las Momias (Lagoon of the Mummies), also known as Laguna de los Cóndores (Lagoon of the Condors) is an archaeological site located in Leimebamba, Chachapoyas province, in the Amazonas Region of Peru, excavated by the archaeologist Federico Kauffmann Doig. The site is called Lagoon of the Condors because the people who found the lagoon would see these birds soar near the lagoon; it also obtained the name Lagoon of the Mummies because of the mummy findings around the area. The Chachapoyas were an old civilization that was located in the northern forest in the time of 900 a.c. This culture had been unknown by archaeologists for hundreds of years until the mummies appeared. It contains many mausoleums that occupy a natural cave with difficult access, sculpted in the wall of a craggy rock emerging from a lagoon. Each funeral deposit contains a mummy in a seated position, wrapped in both flat and decorated textiles. In the Lagoon of the Mummies there were ceramics and other artifacts found tracing back to the Incas. When excavating the Lagoon of the Mummies, there were six mausoleums found, each consisting of cube-shaped enclosures next to each other in a row. The tombs were housed in caves with paintings on the walls related to the mausoleums and containing indecipherable symbols. The enclosures were built with only three walls, the fourth being the rock wall. The enclosur
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.