A few hundred Peruvian families have occupied one of the nation’s oldest and most revered archeological sites for shelter from the storms.
“We are here because the people have basically felt invaded by this water, as much from the river as from the rain,” said Francisco Valverde, restoration project assistant at Narihuala Museum.
“Our nation has essentially suffered as a whole from the flooding. And it’s for that we have come for shelter here at this archaeological temple. We understand it’s holy. But 350 families are staying here because of an emergency,” he said.
People fleeing the relentless floodwaters have moved into Narihuala, a city 11 centuries old. Narihuala was an administrative center for the Tallan culture, in use between A.D. 900 and A.D. 1500.
Because the ruins of Narihuala are 130 feet above sea level, they offer some respite from the rivers running over the rest of the land.
The ancient city was used as shelter in 1972, during another period of flooding.
The current floods have already claimed 100 people, and scientists think the rains might last into May.
Archeologist Ruth Shady, who discovered the 5000-year-old Caral civilization, explained that the ancients were a lot wiser than the moderns in a lot of ways.
“The ancestral societies of that area knew the area they inhabited and so took all the necessary precautions,” she explained.
“They didn’t locate their settlements close to rivers, because the riverbeds change when the water levels rose as a result of phenomena like the coastal El Niño, which spills over into riverbeds that are not normally filled by the river.
“People of today don’t take into account the characteristics of an area, and have situated their homes in ancient riverbeds, and don’t imagine these can see spill-over after certain number of years,” she said.
The Ministry of Culture is taking steps to ensure that the ancient buildings will not be damaged.
