Lima, Peru – Heavy rains damaged several adobe walls in the ancient ruins of Chan Chan, the world’s largest mud city on Peru’s northern coast, the newspaper El Comercio reported Saturday.
An unusual downpour Friday morning saturated the top seven inches of the walls in a southern portion of the ruins and penetrated the sides, Cristobal Campana, the director of the archaeological site, told the newspaper.
With more rains expected in the usually arid coastal desert zone, workers were covering the walls with plastic tarps at the site near Trujillo, nearly 300 miles northwest of the capital, Lima.
Officials at the ruins and Peru’s National Institute of Culture could not immediately be reached for further information.
In the early 1980s, torrential rains and flooding caused severe damage to Chan Chan, a 28-square-mile city that was inhabited by the Chimu people from around 1000 to 1470.
To prevent damage, Peru’s government and UNESCO have dug trenches to divert flood waters and covered ancient murals with tarpaulins stretched over scaffolds. Last month, President Alan Garcia’s government allocated emergency funds to protect the ruins.
Before being conquered by the Inca Empire in the 15th century, the Chimu used mud to build pyramids, underground aqueducts and enormous walls decorated with intricate frieze murals – most of which have been erased by weather.
