Lurihuasi archaeological site

Lurihuasi archaeological site was declared National Cultural Heritage with the National Director’s Resolution Nº 720/ INC, dated August 01, 2002.

Five cultural components are observed in Lurihuasi, out of which the urban center from the Initial Formative period stands out, since it had 36 buildings. The second component, which is smaller, located in the plains that start in the Lurihuasi mountain slopes (sectors I and Ñ), is made of a group of platforms and rooms with curved corners from the Early Formative period. In the third component burials are found scattered in the plain that access to the gully (Sector J), corresponding to the Middle Formative period.

In the fourth component, which is larger and corresponds to the Late Formative and the next period, there is a group of residential buildings and remains of adobe walls on the hillside, on the top of a rocky promontory that is part of the Miraya mountain slopes (Sector N), and an open space, to the west of the site. The fifth component is formed by two cemeteries of the Late Middle Horizon, sectors K and L, located in the central plain of the archaeological site. Nearby the cemeteries there are adobe buildings, which were probably related to them.

The urban center of the Initial Formative period was built on high ground on the Lurihuasi and Miraya mountains. Out of the 36 buildings, four are Public Pyramidal buildings (A3, D3, E2 and H), nine are Minor Public Pyramidal Buildings (F1, G3 and G5), six are Minor Public buildings of extended architecture (G1, G4, H2, H4, H7 and M), eleven are residential complexes (C1, D2, E4, E5, F2, F3, F6, G6, H5, H8 and H9) and eleven are residential units (A1, A2, B, D1, E1, E3, F4, F5, G2, H3 and H6).