The Museo de los Colli – surprise in Comas district

What’s up with the culture of the Colli? Many of you will read the name for the first time. Because when you come across old cultures in Peru, these are first and foremost the Incas, and again and again the Moche, Chimú or Nazca. But the Colli?

But it is precisely the unknown that attracts people, and that is why a private collector has set about collecting their remains and presenting them in a private museum in 2003. In fact, he has collected 1115 pieces, a remarkable achievement. The archaeological remains were found in the north of Lima in the valley of the river Chillón. There lived this culture that left almost nothing.

What is certain is that she belonged to the pre-Inca cultures in the area of today’s Lima. Have you become curious about what this culture is all about? Then visit the museum of Enrique Niquin Castillo. It is open from 08:00 to 16:00 during the week, admission is 2 soles.

They come into an inconspicuous street in Lima’s Comas district in the Collique neighborhood. Comas belongs to the poorer districts of Limas, Collique is located on the eastern edge. One rather does not suspect that there is a museum there, and in fact, the Museo de los Colli is the only one in this area.

So you stop in front of an inconspicuous house in this inconspicuous street and climb up a gray stone staircase. There is a white sign on the door, barely more than a piece of paper wrapped in paper: Museo de los Colli.

The door opens, now you are in the private house of Enrique Niquin Castillo. On the walls hang drawings, which the hobby researcher has made himself, on tables are various objects: clay pots, stone tools, skull, a kind of altar. Other rooms are similarly bare, only the objects on shelves and behind glass impress.

The museum is absolutely limited to the essentials: the remains of an ancient culture, nothing more. No posters, glossy photographs, sophisticated lighting. And that is exactly what makes his charm.