Chauchilla cemetery: visiting Nazca's open-air mummies

Most people come to Nazca for the Lines and leave without realising the area’s other major draw sits 30 km down a desert track: Chauchilla, an ancient cemetery where mummies sit upright in open tombs, their hair and woven shrouds preserved by a thousand-plus years of bone-dry air. It is unusual, slightly unsettling, and one of the few places anywhere you can stand at the edge of an open pre-Columbian grave and look a mummy in the face. This guide covers how to visit it, what it costs, and the ethical questions worth thinking about before you go.

What Chauchilla is

The Cementerio de Chauchilla is a burial ground used mainly by the Nasca culture, roughly between 200 and 900 AD, and possibly into later periods. The dead were buried in a seated, fetal position, wrapped in layers of cotton textiles, sometimes coated with a resin that helped preservation, and placed in mud-brick tombs in the desert. The extreme aridity of the Nazca region did the rest: instead of decomposing, the bodies desiccated, leaving skin, hair (sometimes metres long), and textiles remarkably intact more than a millennium later.

What you actually walk among today is a set of about a dozen reconstructed tombs. The mummies and grave goods are authentic, but the open-pit presentation is a partial reconstruction — which connects directly to the site’s troubled history.

The looting and why it matters

For most of the 20th century Chauchilla was a free-for-all for huaqueros (grave robbers), who tore open the tombs for the textiles, pottery and gold that collectors paid for. They scattered bones across the desert, and for decades the site was a field of broken skeletons and shredded mummy cloth. You can still see fragments of bone and textile in the sand around the protected area — a blunt reminder of what happened.

In 1997 the Peruvian state finally gave Chauchilla legal protection. The current open-tomb display was created to present the remaining and recovered mummies in something like their original context, and the entry fees now fund preservation and a guardian presence that deters renewed looting. This history is the heart of the ethical debate: visiting puts money toward protecting the site, but the spectacle itself exists because the graves were violated in the first place.

Is it ethical to go?

There is no clean answer, and it is worth deciding for yourself. The case for visiting: controlled, paid tourism funds the site’s protection, gives looting an economic alternative, and treats the dead with more dignity than the huaqueros ever did. The case against: it is, undeniably, paying to view human remains in their disturbed graves.

If you do go, the decent approach is straightforward — do not touch anything, do not climb into or lean over the tombs, do not photograph in a mocking way, and listen to the guardian’s rules. Treat it as you would any cemetery, because that is what it is. Plenty of thoughtful travellers visit and come away moved rather than ghoulish; others would rather not, and that is a reasonable position too.

Getting there

Chauchilla is about 30 km south of Nazca town, around 45 minutes each way, with the final stretch on an unpaved desert road. A visit including travel runs about three hours.

Your options:

• Guided tour — the standard choice. A half-day tour from Nazca with transport and a guide costs S/30–50 (USD 8–14) per person; the guide’s context about the Nasca culture and burial practices adds a lot.
• Hired taxi — S/60–90 for the vehicle round trip with waiting time; good for groups or anyone wanting flexibility.

Site entry is paid separately at the gate, at a fee to confirm with the Ica regional culture office or your operator. Bring cash; card payment is not reliable out here.

What to expect on site

The visit is short and self-contained. A path loops past roughly a dozen roofed, open tombs, each holding one or more seated mummies surrounded by skulls, pottery fragments and bundles of textile. The desert setting is stark and quiet, and the preservation is genuinely striking up close — you can see individual strands of long hair, the weave of the burial cloths, and in some cases facial features.

There is a small interpretation area explaining the Nasca burial customs and the looting history. Allow 45 minutes to an hour on site. There is little shade and the desert sun is fierce, so bring a hat, sunscreen and water.

A second tour option covers the same site and is widely available if the first is sold out:

Combining it with the Nazca Lines

Chauchilla pairs naturally with the Nazca Lines. The classic Nazca day is the Lines flight in the morning — a 30–35 minute small-plane flight over the geoglyphs, best taken early when the air is calmest — followed by Chauchilla in the afternoon, plus perhaps the Cantalloc aqueducts or the Maria Reiche planetarium. The two sights complement each other: the Lines show how the Nasca shaped the desert surface, Chauchilla shows how they buried their dead in it.

For how Nazca fits the wider south coast route from the capital, see the Lima to Paracas and Nazca itinerary, and the Nazca destination page for where to stay and the flight logistics.

Fitting Chauchilla into a longer south coast route

Nazca rarely stands alone on a Peru itinerary — it usually anchors one stop on a longer desert-and-coast run that also takes in Paracas to the north (for the Ballestas Islands and the national reserve) and Huacachina, the oasis town famous for sandboarding and dune buggies. A common sequence runs Lima → Paracas → Huacachina/Ica → Nazca, with Chauchilla and the Lines as the Nazca leg’s twin highlights. Building in Chauchilla costs little extra time against that backdrop, since it slots into an afternoon that would otherwise be idle waiting for a bus.

Understanding what you are looking at

Chauchilla makes far more sense if you arrive with a little background on the people who built it. The Nasca are best known for the giant geoglyphs, but the cemetery shows a different side of the same culture: a society with a developed sense of the afterlife, careful textile work and a practical understanding of how the desert could keep a body intact. The burial cloths, the seated posture and the pottery left beside the dead all point to people who expected the deceased to carry on in some form. For wider context on how the Nasca fit among Peru’s ancient cultures, the Inca empire for travelers guide explains the later empire that eventually absorbed much of the coast, and the Moche and Chimú civilizations guide covers the northern coastal cultures that buried their dead very differently.

Look closely at the details rather than just the faces. The weave of the wrappings, the way the hair has been arranged, the fragments of pottery in the sand: these small things are what your guide can interpret for you, and they are the reason a guided visit tends to be more rewarding than wandering alone. If you enjoy this kind of archaeology, a similar thread runs through the northern sites, such as the Lord of Sipán guide and the Chan Chan guide, where elite burials and adobe cities tell the story of other coastal peoples.

How to pace your Nazca stop

Nazca is a small town and its sights are spread across the desert, so it pays to plan the order of the day rather than improvise. The flight over the Lines depends on clear air and is best done early; Chauchilla is a calmer, slower outing that works at either end of the day. If you are still deciding about the flight, the Nazca Lines complete guide and the is the Nazca flight worth it guide help you weigh it up, while the Nazca Lines flight safety guide answers the questions many travellers have about the small planes.

A sensible rhythm is to treat Chauchilla as the quiet counterpart to the flight. After the excitement and motion of the plane, the stillness of the cemetery is a welcome change, and the two experiences leave you with a fuller picture of the place than either would alone. If you only have one night in town, arrive with your plan already set and your cash ready, since there is little to organise once you are out in the desert.

Who will enjoy it most

Chauchilla suits curious adults and older children who are comfortable with the subject. Travellers who like history, anthropology or photography often find it one of the more memorable stops on the south coast, while those who prefer scenery or active outings may find it a short and quiet interlude. If you are travelling as a family, think about whether your children will understand that these are real human remains, and prepare them beforehand; the Cusco with kids guide is a useful reminder of how to judge which sights suit younger travellers. Solo travellers can join a small group tour to share the cost and the conversation, and the guide’s explanations make the visit feel less lonely out in the open desert.

Photography and etiquette on site

Photography is part of most visits, and it is worth thinking about how you do it. The light in the open desert is harsh, so the softer hours of the morning or late afternoon give you better pictures as well as a more comfortable walk. Keep your camera at a respectful distance, avoid posing next to the tombs, and never use a flash or a prop to make a scene. If you are unsure whether something is acceptable, ask your guide or the guardian before you raise the camera. Many visitors find that they take fewer photos than expected and spend more time simply looking, which is no bad thing at a burial ground.

It also helps to slow down. The loop is short, but the details reward patience: stand for a moment at each tomb, let your eyes adjust to the glare, and read the interpretation area before you set off. A calm, unhurried pace makes the visit feel like a proper encounter with the past rather than a box ticked on the way to the next stop. Keep your voice low, keep to the marked path, and leave the sand and fragments exactly where you find them.

Before and after Nazca

Where you come from and where you go next shapes how you experience the site. Many travellers reach Nazca by road along the coast, and the Peru bus travel guide explains how long-distance coaches work, which helps if you are linking Nazca with other stops. Others continue towards the highlands afterwards, and the Lima to Cusco flights guide and the Peru 2-week itinerary guide show how a south coast stop can fit into a longer journey. For a broader view of the whole route, the south coast 2-day guide is a good companion to this page.

Practical tips

• Go in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the worst midday heat; there is almost no shade.
• Bring water, a hat and sunscreen — it is open desert.
• Carry small soles for the entry fee and tips.
• Manage expectations on time — this is a 45-minute to one-hour site, not a half-day attraction in itself. Combine it with the Lines or aqueducts.
• Be respectful — no touching, no climbing, no disrespectful photos. The site guardians enforce this.

The honest verdict

Chauchilla is worth it if you have any interest in pre-Columbian Peru and you are comfortable with the ethics of viewing human remains. It is cheap, quick, genuinely unusual, and the funds support protecting a site that was nearly destroyed by looting. It is not a must-do on the level of the Nazca Lines, and travellers who find mummies distasteful can skip it without regret. If you do go, go thoughtfully — and remember the scattered bones in the sand are not a curiosity but the wreckage of a crime the site is still recovering from.

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