The site

Chan Chan was the capital of the Chimú kingdom of Chimor, raised on Peru's arid northern coast near the mouth of the Moche Valley around 850 CE. Built entirely of adobe, it grew into the largest city of the pre-Columbian Americas, its dense core packed with walled palace compounds, or ciudadelas, laced together by irrigation drawn from Andean rivers. The Chimú held it until the Inca absorbed them in 1470, leaving behind this vast earthen metropolis.

Field notes

civilizations

Chimú

types

City · Palace · Wall

built

850 CE — 1,400 CE

occupied

850 CE — 1,470 CE

country

Peru