Chan Chan

Capital of the Chimú kingdom and the largest adobe city in the Americas, its walls decorated with fish, bird and fishnet friezes.

The Chimú capital was home to its rulers from about 900 until 1470, when the kingdom was defeated and added to the Inca Empire. The city spread over about 20 square kilometres, with a dense core of six square kilometres. UNESCO added Chan Chan to the World Heritage List on 28 November 1986.

Palaces and workshops

The heart of the city held huge walled compounds called ciudadelas. They had plazas, storerooms and burial platforms for royalty. Ordinary people lived in small, crowded rooms squeezed together, and many of these rooms were workshops for artisans who made crafts for the empire. The walls are decorated with friezes of fish, birds and fishnets. The splendour of the compounds suggests that they belonged to the royal class.

A city in a desert

Chan Chan stands where the coastal desert of northern Peru is especially dry. There is almost no rain, so the city's fresh water came from Andean rivers carrying runoff to the coast. Irrigation canals let the Chimor control land and water. Scholars still debate what the name Chan Chan means or which language it comes from. The Chimor rulers were skilled water managers.

On the globe

The model shows mud-brick compounds with walls decorated with fish, bird and fishnet friezes.