The shantytowns on the edges of Lima, Peru, hide ancient secrets. Beneath the shacks of these poor neighborhoods are thousand of Inca mummies, buried more than 450 years ago. At Puruchuco, on the eastern edge of Lima, archaeologists have found what seems to have been a sort of central Inca cemetery. Local people call the site Tupac Amaru, after the last Inca ruler. So far researchers have found the remains of at least 2,200 people there. Most were buried between 1480 and 1535, when Spanish conquerors founded Lima.
Most of the mummies are wrapped in cloth bundles. Some of the mummy bundles are topped with false heads and wigs and many contain more than one person. In all, there may be as many as 10,000 bundles at the site. The mummies include men, women and children from all levels of Inca society. The people died from causes that range from disease to human sacrifice.