City of Chan Chan in Peru

According to history, Chan Chan was the imperial capital of Chimor, an expansive imperial power of the Chimú culture that ruled the northern coast and central coasts of Peru beginning around 850 and ending around 1470.

The ancient city walls of Chan Chan encompass more than 20 km2 , with a 6 km2 urban nucleus of monumental architecture dominated by large, high walled enclosures built of adobe.

It was believed that the city has been constructed around 850 AD. Chan Chan is large prehistoric urban center in the Lower Moche Valley on the north coast of Peru.

The city of Chan Chan is believed to have housed between 20,000 and 40,000 people at its zenith in the Late Chimú Period between 1300 C.E. and 1470 C.E.

The early kings consistently invested labor in programs of agrarian and territorial expansion. The role of the bureaucracy was extended to encompass rural construction.

The kings maintained their position of power by centralizing that wealth within their palaces, by centralizing the bureaucracy within the palace, and by gradually uniting religious and administrative forms within the place.

From the early beginnings on the Moche Valley, the Chimu gradually extended their control over a strip of coastal desert and river valley over 1000 km in length from the Gulf of Guayaquil to the environs of present-day Lima.
City of Chan Chan in Peru

Ancient city of Machu Picchu in south-central Peru

The mysterious Inca city and ceremonial center of Machu Picchu lies high in the Peruvian Andes, fifty miles northwest of Cuzco, capital of the Inca Empire.

The name Machu Picchu means “old peak” in Quechua, the language of Inca. The dwellings at the site were probably built and occupied from the mid-1400s to the early or mid-1500s.

The city of Machu Picchu was surrounded by high mountain peaks and rushing waters. It was divided into large sectors – the urban sector and the agricultural sector.

Research suggests that Machu Picchu may have transformed over the period of its occupation from a defensive outpost near a frontier, in the early years of its founding, to serve in its heyday as the showpiece of a ruler’s royal estate.

The ruins are substantial an extensive, including houses, a temple plaza and granaries. There are 140 structures in Machu Picchu, most built of polished dry-stone walls which are more earthquake resistant.

Machu Picchu remained hidden from the Spanish when they conquered the Inca in the 1500s. The world learned of Machu Picchu when a local farmer led a US archeologist, Hiram Bingham III to the ruin in 1911.
Ancient city of Machu Picchu in south-central Peru