Known as the Huaca Pintada, the 30-metre-long (100ft) wall painted with fantastical images depicting mythical scenes was first found in 1916 by treasure-hunting tomb raiders in Illimo, near the city of Chiclayo.
The full splendour of the mural was captured in photographs taken at the time by Hans Heinrich Brüning, a German ethnographer whose work galvanised the study of preColumbian ruins and relics in the region.
But the grave robbers destroyed part of the wall after being forbidden from looting their find, and the site fell back into obscurity. More than a century passed until a Swiss Peruvian team led by Sâm Ghavami from the University of Fribourg decided to take on the mystery and find the lost mural, which had disappeared from view under carob trees and undergrowth.
This story is from the November 25, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the November 25, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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