Kotosh or the Temple of the Crossed Hands

This site belongs to the pre-ceramic or late archaic period (c. 2000–1800BC). The distinctive architecture of this site has come to be defined as part of the Kotosh or Mito Tradition. The complex is comprised of three temples: Nichitos, Blanco (white) and the most well known, the Temple of Crossed Hands. The last of these contains five niches, each containing a sculpture of life-sized human hands crossed over each other. The statues are among the oldest in pre-Columbian America. It’s believed the gesture is related to an idea of duality present in the cosmology of ancient Peruvians.