Chongqing - On June 24th, a special media event was held at the Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing, to welcome a new temporary exhibition featuring the Andean Civilization named The Loss of El Dorado. The exhibition features around 157 artifacts or sets of artifacts unearthed from 11 archeological museums in Peru. The exhibition will be open to the public from June 25th until September 15th, 2020. The Andean civilizations were complex societies made up of many cultures and peoples. Many are most familiar with the Inca empire.

Media reporters were given a chance to have an exclusive first view and guided tour of the new exhibition set to open tomorrow for the public. The artifacts from Peru are on tour across China that started last year, and the artifacts have visited Shanxi and Tianjin already, making Chongqing the third stop on their journey around China. The exhibition showcases cultural relics such as pottery, goldware, textiles, and mummies dating back around 3000 years.

One of the most attention-grabbing relics in the exhibition is the two well-preserved mummies. One of them is a male, unearthed in a cave near what is present-day Chachapoya Province in Northwest Peru. The mummy appears to have been a person of high status judging by a ring worn on the finger. What is also interesting is the pose, curled up and holding its face with both hands.

Another fascinating relic is the large Golden Mask from the Xikan Culture. Especially the eyes and the tongue are captivating as they are not fixed in place and can be manipulated to change direction.

Although South America and China are very far apart, in the exhibition, you can find some similarities between the two ancient cultures. The potatoes and peppers often eaten in China are native to South America, and both civilizations are known to use knotting notes, worshipping birds, tigers, and leopard and were both skilled in pottery.

The Chongqing China, Three Gorges Museum, is located at the People's Square in Yuzhong District, the museum is free to visit but requires an appointment made using WeChat at the front gate.

Chongqing Three Gorges Museum