My big adventure today took me no more than 12 blocks away from my apartment in downtown Miraflores, Peru. I had no idea, but reading my Lonely Planet guidebook last night I found out there is an ancient pyramid smack dab in the middle of Lima.

The Huaca Pucllana is an adobe pyramid built around 400 AD and it wasn’t until the late 1980′s that the people of Lima started to unearth the site and truly research the area. Before that, the people of Lima used to picnic on top of the mound that hid the pyramid underneath. And others would use the pyramid as a sort of makeshift motocross track.

Today, all around the pyramid are houses, buildings and streets. According to the guide that took me and four others on a tour of the site, three entire blocks of the city around the Huana Pucllana pyramid have been built on top of ruins connected to the ancient site.

The tour guide also said that inside the pyramid they are finding lots of different artifacts: pots, bowls, plates, tools, etc. But more interesting than that are the bodies that are being found. Apparently, there have been numerous human remains found on the site – many of which are believed to be human sacrifices (they can tell they’re sacrifices and not just regular burials because of the damage done to the bodies and the fact that they are buried without any kind of possessions, jewelry, etc. that are normally found with those who died naturally during the time).

Apparently, it will be another 20 years or more before the site is fully excavated. In the meantime, my tour guide informed me that the grounds of the pyramid could be rented out for parties or big events. So if you ever want to get married in the middle of Lima, Peru and you don’t mind dancing on the graves of hundreds of ancient people, you now know where to go.

The photo above shows stack after stack of adobe bricks used in the construction of the Huaca Pucllana pyramid. The adobe bricks used to build the pyramid are stacked vertically and do not contain mud in between the bricks (only on the tops and bottoms) because this was the way the people of the time built structures that were capable of withstanding earthquakes.

The image above is supposedly a representation of how the higher-class people of the time used to dress.

And finally, the man shown above was a Peruvian on the tour with me. Also in our group was a young man from Canada and two Australians. The man above talked through the entire tour, asking each of us others where we were from, what we liked about Peru, and a bunch of other ridiculous questions. The whole time the tour was taking place I kept thinking to myself, “What is this guy’s deal? What does he want? And why doesn’t our tour guide just tell him to go away?” I thought the guy was a scammer of some kind, but in the end I think he was just a lonely old guy who wanted someone to talk to. What he’s doing here with his hand… you tell me. I haven’t got a clue.