Kuntur Wasi Tour: Condor Temple Site and Museum
From €121 per person
See availability →A Kuntur Wasi tour from Cajamarca to the Temple of the Condor, a pre-Hispanic ceremonial center, with its stone sculptures and a site museum showing ancient gold work.
The Kuntur Wasi tour is a full day out to a pre-Hispanic ceremonial center. A vehicle collects you at your accommodation and drives 93 km from Cajamarca up to the "La Copa" hill, in San Pablo province: about 1 hour and 45 minutes on the road. Archaeologist Julio C. Tello chose the name in 1946, meaning House of the Condor, and condors appear in the stone sculptures you see as you walk the site, which spreads over roughly 800 by 500 metres.
The visit brings together:
- six stone sculptures of human figures with feline features, found in 1948, plus three more uncovered later by a Japanese team
- a cemetery on the hillside where high-status people were probably buried
- the Site Museum, with gold objects found here
The guide also tells of the Japanese mission led by Yoshio Onuki, at work here since 1988, which found seven burials of high-ranking individuals in 1993. The gold pieces are among the oldest known Peruvian metalwork, made by rolling and embossing thin sheets and then soldering their edges.
On the way back there is a stop in San Pablo for lunch, paid by each traveller. The whole trip takes about eight hours and is a small group outing. Hotel pick-up and drop-off, transport, a guide and admission tickets are included; meals, drinks and tips are not. It is not suitable for babies under one year, people over 95, people with mobility impairments or wheelchair users.