Head of Ai Apaec with wrinkles, ceramic Stirrup-spout bottle, Moche culture, Larco Museum Lima

First you book your ticket, 23€ on a special ticketmaster website. Then you queue on place du Trocadero to walk into the Cité de l’Architecture, then you are sent downstairs and you queue again in a dark and narrow corridor with too many people around. Some are masked. Then you enter a smallish room where you are told to pack and you are locked in for three minutes to watch a soulless film on the jungle around Machu Picchu. Then you are allowed to enter the very crowded  exhibition. A nightmare. So when you finally walk in, you feel like you are at Disneyland with bright blue lighting and the precious precolumbian objects seem artificial. What a waste! I felt totally claustrophobic but I survived.

Frontal headdress with plumes, Gold and sodalite, ear ornaments with steps spirals and snakes, Chimu culture, Larco Museum Lima

All pieces were lent by Museo Larco which owns 46 000 pieces in Lima and since Peru has not had visitors for two years (there were 1 million 5 in 2019 on Machu Picchu), it seems legitimate that lending their treasures should make them some money. But why create such a glitzy decor for these wonderful earthy pieces? The Chimu empire which is represented here runs from 1100 to 1470 ad. The Mochica culture from 100 to 800 ad.  I loved the wooden sculpture of an ancestor from the Northern coast which is so similar to the one used by Hergé in “Tintin and the Temple of the Sun” and also the silver ceremonial knife for sacrifices.

Tumi, Ceremonial knife for sacrifice, Mochica culture, Larco Museum

Another pitcher is intriguing: it represents the mythological potato, which originated in Southern Peru among the Quechua population. It is said that Peruvians have as many types of potatoes as days in the year. I remember my first trip to Peru when I was 19 and going up to Machu Picchu from Cuzco. My wallet was immediately stolen on the train and a true miracle happened. When I arrived on top of the mount, I ran into my math teacher from high school (whom I disliked intensely)… and a friend of my sister’s who lent me money for the rest of the trip. In those days, we did not have credit cards!

Mythological potato, ceramic pitcher, Moche Culture, Larco Museum, Lima

Machu Picchu means old mountain in Quechua. It was built at 2 438 m altitude as a religious sanctuary in the XV th century by the Inca Emperor Pachacútec and is listed by Unesco. It includes 172 houses over a 530 m x 200 m site and probably had a population of less than a thousand. Its characteristics are the terraces which provided space for cultures. You can walk up from Aguas Calientes, the village below.

Machu Picchu © World Heritage Exhibitions

The site was abandoned until 1860 when August R. Berns, a German mine prospector, discovered it. Hiram Bingham, the Yale University historian and later US Senator, went in July 1911 for the first time and alerted the Peruvian authorities on the importance of the place. He brought 4 000 pieces to Yale to study them and these archeological treasures were handed back to Peru in 2011. They are now  housed in the International Center for study of Machu Picchu and Inca culture in Cuzco. It has become more difficult to visit the site nowadays since Unesco is afraid that crowds will deteriorate the ruins.

Sculpture representing an ancestor, Algarrobo wood, Chimu Culture, (1100-1470 ad) Larco Museum, Lima

So my best advice is to buy the catalog if you are interested in these objects. But if you still want to see the show, you can go until September 4. And you get to visit la Cité de l’architecture for free with its magnificent cathedrals and sculptures.

The ghastly Disney type decor