The Lost City of Yungay

While on our trip to the high Andes, we visited the town of Yungay.  This city of some 20,000 people was completely wiped away by a massive ice, rock and mud slide that rushed off the mountain in the background. On Sunday, May 31, 1970, a 7.9 earthquake hit the area causing massive damage and triggering the glacial avalanche that swept off the mountain at speeds of up to 150 mph.  It hit the city only 3 minutes after the earthquake stopped. 

Before the earthquake and avalanche, Yungay was a thriving city, second in the area to only Huaraz in population.

Afterward it was all gone, other than a few palms trees on what was the city plaza. 20,000 people were buried under the giant land slide.  The former city was turned into "sacred ground", a cemetery of 20,000 unmarked graves.

In 1965, just 5 years before the earthquake and landslide, the city placed a statue of Christ on top of a hill that was the town cemetery. Some 90 people survived the catastrophe by running up the hill toward the Cristus. Only those who were close were saved. I think there is a message there for all of us. We never know when the earthquakes and mudslides of life will hit us. If we are close to the Savior, we'll be Ok. 

Just one of the original palm trees that lines the plaza is still alive. A small portion of the cathedral still marks where it stood. 

Julie standing in what was the town plaza. The size of the boulder in the middle of the plaza testifies of the intensity of the event. 

I found visiting this sacred site very humbling.  We may at times feel we are all that. But we small before the power of nature, and the power of God.