Naylamp

Naylamp is the founding hero of the Lambayeque, or Sican, people of Peru’s north coast, known from a Spanish chronicle written in 1586. In the tale he arrived by sea from the south on a raft with his wife and a retinue. He landed on the coast, built a temple called Chot and set up a green jade idol, Yampallec, in his own likeness.

Naylamp founded a dynasty of twelve rulers. At his death his sons said that he had sprouted wings and flown away.

The last king, Fempallec, tried to move the idol, and a thirty-day flood and then drought and famine followed. The priests blamed him and threw him into the sea. The valley broke into small lordships, and the Chimú conquered it in the late fourteenth century.