From Wikipedia


Peru's Lost Pyramid City

The Sicán culture is characterized by the establishment of religious cities with monumental temples. The religious capital city and cultural center of the Middle Sicán is known as the “Sicán Precinct.” . This T-shaped area is defined by monumental mounds of Huaca Loro, El Moscón, Las Ventanas, La Merced, and Abejas built between around AD 900 and 1050 . The pyramidal monumental mounds were used as both burials sites for the elite and places of worship and ritual . The construction of the monumental mounds required considerable material, labor resources and time, indicating the Sicán elite’s control and monopoly over the society’s resources and manpower. They are a dramatic symbol of the power, wealth and permanence of the Middle Sicán elite and their theocratic state that dominated much of the north coast .

Two types of mounds are found in the Lambayeque Valley dating to the Sicán. The first type is the T-shaped mound, which is a relatively low mound with a short, central ramp providing direct access to the top of the mound. The second type is a relatively tall mound with steep sides and a zig-zagging ramp to provide circuitous access to the mound top. This second type also featured an enclosed structure at the top of the mound, likely for private rituals, whereas the first type of mound was likely for public rituals. The mounds also covered and protected the shafts of tombs of elites underneath.

The Sicán used a walled-chamber-and-fill technique (which first appeared on the North Coast during Moche V) for constructing the monumental mound where the walls were created by adobe bricks and mortar in conjunction with chambers of superimposed lattices filled with refuse and other readily available materials. Marks on the adobe bricks used to make the mounds are indications of the patrons donating materials and/or labor for the construction of the temples. This construction technique required “large-scale, unified construction with centrally pooled materials and labor force”. It allowed for rapid erection of monumental buildings while minimizing labor and material investment and promoted the centralization of political and religious power in order to plan and complete these monumental mounds.