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(In Pics) Ten Great Lost Civilizations of Peru that aren’t the Inca

by Historic Mystery
by Historic Mystery
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Ask almost anyone to name a pre-Columbian civilization of South America and they will most likely say the Inca and with good reason. At their peak these master stonebuilders of the high mountains ruled an empire which stretched the length of the continent, and their ruins litter the Andes to this day.

But the Inca were famous not because they were first, or greatest, but because they were last: like the Aztecs this civilization looms large because they were the people who made contact with the first European settlers. The truth is, Peru is filled with the traces of other, older and stranger civilizations, who were either absorbed by the conquering Inca or lost to time. Here are ten of the most prominent.

1. The Chavin

The Chavin guarded a high pass across the Andes, linking the lush interior of the Amazon with the coast. Their fortress shrine at Huantar contains an actual god, the Lanzon, a tall and intimidating stone stela twice as high as a man. Visitors were only granted access to the Lanzon after a disorienting trip through a labyrinth, and the god could be approached from various different directions. The priests would them interpret the god’s wishes according to what the visitor saw in the dark tunnels of the great temple (manuel machuca saavedra / CC BY-SA 4.0)

2. The Chimu

The Chimu were a coastal people, who were ruled from the great coastal fortress of Chan Chan, much of which survives to this day near the Peruvian city of Trujillo. A stronghold of vast, decorated plazas and high mud-brick walls, rival families built huge fortified palaces within Chan Chan, and much of the interior remained hidden from the outside world. The Chimu would dominate the area for 600 years, far longer than the Inca empire, before the Inca emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui conquered them only 50 years before the arrival of the Spanish (GilCahana / Public Domain)

3. The Moche

The Chimu were not the first to occupy the fertile river valleys of coastal Peru, and the culture they supplanted was called the Moche. More a loose knit collection of tribes than a true empire, this culture was brought together and unified through their monumental architecture and their astonishing craftsmanship. Two major Moche pyramids survive, the Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna, with brightly colored interiors decorated with huge murals depicting the sacrifice of slaves (Sailko / CC BY 3.0)

4. The Sechin

The Sechin are almost forgotten, lying far from the Peruvian population centers way out in the coastal desert wastelands of Peru. These strange unknown people of the Casma river valley of central Peru’s Ancash region date back to 3,600 BC and left equally strange ruins, most notably a great temple covered in brutal depictions of the destruction of their enemies, and a magnificent solar calendar out in the desert: the 13 towers of Chankillo (Juancito28 / CC BY-SA 4.0)

5. The Chachapoyas

The high north of Peru was home to the cloud warriors, the Chachapoyas. From their huge fortress of Kuelap with its massive curtain wall these fiercely independent people ruled a large swathe of the northern Andes, watched over by their dead ancestors mounted on cliffside mummies (Martin St-Amant (S23678) / CC BY 3.0)

6. The Sican

The Valley of Tucume in northern Peru holds perhaps the most unusual man-made landscape in the world. The Sican were pyramid builders, but these pyramids were more like huge, raised platforms where the elite would live and be buried. There were large housing complexes, courtyards and storerooms atop these pyramids. Several waves of pyramid building and destruction in the valley shows the Sican struggling to appease their gods and rulers after several disastrous droughts and the last pyramids were likely built to save the Sican from their aggressive neighbors the Chimu, to no avail (PsamatheM / CC BY-SA 4.0)

7. The Huari

The Huari (or Wari) were the direct predecessors of the Inca, and the latter stole much of their technology and stone-building techniques from them. The Huari stretched the length of Peru but are perhaps best remembered in their city of Pikillaqta close to the Inca capital of Cusco. The Huari might have survived to meet the Spanish but it seems that a severe drought wiped them out around 1,000 AD (EdsonFuentesMera / CC BY-SA 4.0)

8. The Nazca

Probably the most famous civilization from Peru apart from the Inca, the Nazca lived in the dry plains of the south of the country. They are most famous today for their lines, which form strange anamorphic geoglyphs on the dusty landscape. The purpose of these lines, which can only be truly appreciated from the air, is unknown, but they may have been processional (Diego Delso / CC BY-SA 4.0)

9. The Tiwanaku

The Tiwanaku were the other great civilization apart from the Inca to survive to the Spanish conquest. Based around Lake Titicaca, the vast and high altitude lake on the Peruvian / Bolivian border, their great city is one of the largest and best-preserved ruins in South America and held as many as 20,000 people around 800 AD. The Tiwanaku were closely aligned with the Huari and were monumental earth movers, building great mounds for their monolithic temples and statues (rodoluca / CC BY-SA 3.0)

10. The Chico Norte

The Chico Norte are claimed by some to be the oldest civilization on the planet, with finds at the site dating back as far as 9,000 BC. Their city of Caral has been preserved by the arid conditions and their great pyramid temples can still be seen, but encroachments by treasure hunters and local avocado and mango farmers have put the site at considerable risk. Several key parts of Caral have been lost in the last ten years (Johnattan Rupire / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Top Image: The Tiwanaku Gate of the Sun on Lake Titicaca. Source: Dennis Jarvis / CC BY-SA 2.0.

By Joe Green

References

Kuoda, 2022. Pre-Incan Civilizations in Peru. Available at: https://www.kuodatravel.com/how-to-travel-peru/ancient-peru/pre-incan-civilizations/

Peru for Less, 2011. Pre-Incan Civilizations in Peru and the Ancient Andes. Available at: https://www.peruforless.com/blog/pre-incan-civilizations/

Britannica, 2022. Andean Civilization. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/pre-Columbian-civilizations/Andean-civilization

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