Business & Economy

Statue with huge phallus is Peruvian town’s new tourist attraction

Lima, Jan 3 (EFE).- A statue with a huge phallus more than a meter (3.3 feet) long is the new tourist attraction in a small Peruvian town, which has created this special tribute to its heritage, the pre-Hispanic Moche civilization and its erotic ceramic or terracotta pots, vessels and sculptures.

Just before the New Year, the town of Moche, located on Peru’s northern coast, inaugurated a replica three meters (10 feet) high of a pre-Inca ceramic pot depicting an indigenous man with a large erect penis.

Immediately, tourists began flocking to the area – many of them en route to the emblematic “huaca” (archaeological citadel) of the Sun and the Moon created by the Moche culture – and stopped to take photos of the statue and share them on the social networks.

“It represents abundance, … fertility … and above all because in these times we need abundance in every sense, in health, the economy, peace and love,” the town’s mayor, Arturo Fernandez Bazan, told EFE.

“This is why we’ve been inspired to have this (statue) as it is,” added Fernandez, a gynecologist by trade.

He said that the statue has already become a tourist attraction “that has exceeded our expectations” because since it was inaugurated “families are coming, they laugh, you get a smile from the family group, the individual, the girlfriend, in this crisis that has brought us so much sadness,” a reference to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fernandez emphasized that “the Moche could control the waters of the Moche River, channel everything and convert this (area) from an arid land to a fertile one.”

“So, we Mochicas have two types of representations: the portrait huaco (ceramic) and the fertility huaco, which we say is erotic,” he said.

Specifically, the museums along Peru’s northern coast house uncounted erotic pieces or huacos in which the ancient Peruvians of the Moche or Mochica culture – which thrived between the second and seventh centuries – represented the sexual act with figures in various poses and with different couples.

The statue that welcomes visitors to Moche, which is right on the Pan-American Highway, is the brainchild of the town’s mayor, who admitted being the one who thought it up to reactivate tourism and the local economy, and also in anticipation of the next election campaign in October in which he will compete in the mayoral race in Trujillo, the regional capital.

EFE mmr/amr/laa/bp

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