The Sarcophagi of Carajía are unique in their genre for their large size, up to 2.50 m high, for their careful making, and, for the fact that they were remained practically intact because of their location atop a ravine of difficult access.

The construction is painted white and overlaid with details of the body and adornment in yellow ochre and two red pigments, such as the feathered tunics and male genitalia visible on the Carajía purunmachus.

The Antisuyo Expedition/84 located, at Carajía, the most amazing group of sarcophagi known till then, thanks to references provided by Carlos Torres Mas and Marino Torrejón.

Thanks to the support given by members of the Club Andino Peruano, the archaeologists were able to climb 24 m of rocky vertical wall and gain access to the cave where the sarcophagi are located.

It is believed that the sarcophagi are evocations of the typical form of funeral bundle found in the coast and in the mountain range, corresponding to the period of the Tiahuanaco-Huari.

It is necessary to notice that the head of the sarcophagus has received sculptural treatment, and the face is the result of copying in clay funeral masks that were originally done in a wooden table, cut away in a half moon shape to represent the jaw.

The projecting jaw that the sarcophagi present has to be made by having reproduced in clay the flat funeral masks worked in the base of a wooden table.