Lima

Incahuasi

An Inca archaeological site, its construction is associated with the campaign fought against the Lord of the Guarcos (1450AD), in the province now known as Cañete. The site was constructed to be the General’s quarters for Túpac Yupanqu and was built of stone. You can recognize three sectors or neighborhoods: Barrio Incaico (for army officials), Barrio Religioso (possibly inhabited by troops) and the Palace of the Inca, a building that forms a trapezoidal shape at its highest point. The site is related to the archaeological sites at Cerro Azul, Huacones and Cerro del Oro (from the Guarco culture).

Pachacamac

Pachacamac is considered one of the most important pre-Hispanic ceremonial centers on the Central Coast of Peru. For at least two thousand years it was occupied by Andean cultures like the Lima, Wari, Ichma and Inca. It is comprised of monumental pyramids (The Temple of the Son, the Painted Temple and the Temple of the Mamaconas, among others) and occupies an area of approximately 492 hectares.

Puruchuco

Built in the Inca period (15th-16th century) and constructed on a rectangular, adobe base. The site is famous for the discovery of an urn in 1956 that contained 21 Inca “khipu” — a grouping of strands tied with knots to signify numbers or words. The khipu have since been studied to determine whether they were simply the Inca’s accounting system, or were an as-yet untranslated form of writing.

In more recent years, archaeologist Guillermo Cock has made several stunning discoveries near the Puruchuco site. In 1999, his team began the excavation of thousands of Inca mummy bundles discovered at Puruchuco-Huaquerones, which offered breathtaking insights into Peru’s Late Horizon period, providing the clearest and most complete view archaeologists have ever had of everyday life during the Inca’s reign from 1438 to 1532. Less than a half mile from the massive burial site, Cock later unearthed Inca casualties from the historic rebellion of 1536, discovering the first gunshot victim ever found from the Conquest era. Read more…

Paramonga

City built on the frontier of the Kingdom of Chimor, whose capital was Chan Chan. It is believed to have been an important site of worship, and takes its name from the town of Paramonga, although no original name for the site can be found in the Muchik language, which was spoken on the north coast of Peru before the Spanish conquest. Usually called the “Fort,” referring to one of its principal and best-preserved buildings at the top of the hill, a pyramid that has 4 levels, each of enormous proportions, constructed from adobe and resembling European medieval castle.

Caral

Caral represents the oldest civilization in the Americas, which developed around the same time as Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China. It’s a city that represents the pre-ceramic period. Covering an area of approximately 66 hectares (it is believed that at one time the city measured around 3,000ha), the constructions are of various sizes and serve several functions. Archaeologists have identified 6 pyramids, and a series of middle-sized and small buildings, including temples, residential areas, public plazas, amphitheatres, storehouses, a circular coliseum, tombs, altars and streets.

Huaca Huallamarca

When the Inca reached the coast in the 15th Century they found that the Lima valley was populated by various tribes, probably of Serrano origin. One of these was named the “Hualla”. The Huallas used this place to bury their dead. The evidence in the tombs of Huaca Huallamarca reveals a lapse in time that starts from the 7th Century to the advent of the Inca in the 15th Century. In the 4th Century this ceremonial center was abandoned, probably because that’s when the construction of the Huaca Pucllana started in the Lima suburb of Miraflores.

Pucllana Historic Park

Belongs to the cultural development of the Lima culture (200-700AD). Represents the power and political dominance exercised by a group of priests who at the height of their dominion controlled the Chancay, Chillón, Rimac and Lurín valleys. The archaeological center of Huaca Pucllana is associated with other sites in Lima, like Maranga (in San Miguel) Cajamarquilla (Ate-Vitarte) and Pachacámac (Lurín). Its construction is associated with access to and control over water, and the system of canals that mark the left side of the Lima valley.

Cajamarquilla

Archaeological site built in the end of the intermediate era, around 600AD, during the period when the Lima culture dominated the valley. Cajmarquilla is considered the second largest mud brick city on the central coast, after Pachacámac, as it covers 167 hectares. Its importance as a political urban center grew over the centuries. From 1100AD (the Late Intermediate period) it started to acquire the configuration that it retains to this day.

Huaca Garagay

The most important Chavin monument that’s been found in the Lima region is the Ceremonial Center of Garagay. This magnificent temple is perhaps one of the oldest examples of the Chavinoide movement in the region, dated around 1200AD, and could be contemporaneous with the old Temple of Chavin in Huantar. The combined architecture and urban planning is the work of several generations. In the building of the central pyramid it is possible to see the successive additions and replacements that are typical of the construction of such large monuments.

Pariacaca Trail (from Pachacamac)

Part of the Route of the Gods (from Pachacamac to Xauxa, at the base of the snow-capped peak Pariacaca, named after the pre-Inca god of water), it is seen not only as a road, but also as a ceremonial path that pilgrims could follow to the Altar to Pariacaca, considered by some historians to be one of the most important burial sites in Peru. Upon arrival you can observe the open-air altars and the Pariacaca ridge, part of a mountain range that’s the starting point for the Cañete and Mantaro Rivers. When the Inca conquered the coast and the Central Highlands of modern Peru, there were two important ceremonial centers dedicated to Pachacamac and Pariacaca. There, ancient peoples predating the Inca participated in a cult of the “Apus,” deity spirits that embodied the summits of mountains (an ancient religious concept that’s not unique to the Andes).

Yaros Archaeological Complex

In the jurisdiction of the old town of San Juan de Lampián, the Yaros ruins were discovered on a hill about four kilometers long. The site starts with semicircular platforms cut from polygonal stones. Groups of “chullpas” (stone burial towers) are built on distinctive rocky crests. Around them are stone structures in the shape of rings and rectangles; the most notable is the palace of the amphitheater. It’s constructed in an oval shape, with eight trapezoidal porticos, all well preserved.

Rupac-Marca Cullpi

This fort is also known as the “Machu Picchu of Lima.” The citadel consists of 51 buildings, of which 28 still have their roofs intact. Some of them measure up to 10 meters high. Together with the archaeological complexes of Chiprac, Canta Marca and Añay, Rupac-Marca Cullpi belongs to the Atahuallos culture (900AD-1460AD). The main building in this citadel is the castle of Marca Cullpi. The structures in this citadel are rectanglar with triple terraced cornices. When archaeologists discovered the “chullpas” or stone burial towers they were in good condition. As at Machu Picchu, the plaza has windows cut in trapezoidal shapes, and the tunnels and tombs are admirably preserved.

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