All wonders of nature and history

The archaeology of Northern Peru is at least as interesting as the archaeology in the Cusco area!
Peru is a huge country, full of ancient empires, with the rise and fall of spectacular kingdoms throughout the ages. The Incas were the last era before Columbus, so their gold and empire was recorded and made famous to Europeans. Today 99% of Peru’s tourists go ONLY to the half of Peru South of Lima. Peru’s North half is about half the size of Western Europe, yet it contains the most ruins and the highest level of Americas’ past civilizations

The tomb of the Lord of Sipan in Chiclao
At 25 km from Chiclayo and 780 km of Lima at 43 m of altitude, over 200

Hectares, In lva and his archaeological team uncovered the tomb of the Lord of Sipan, the “King Tutankhamen of the Americas”, the most spectacular tomb discovered in the western hemisphere. Four tombs have been found in Sipan’s Huaca Rajada, near the coastal city of Chiclayo. The huaca is a mausoleum built by the Moche culture that ruled the northern coast of Peru from the time of Christ to 700 AD, centuries prior to the Incas. Sipan’s treasures show us the Moche culture’s ability with several metals: gold, silver, copper and precious stones in fine quality and a mastery in metallurgy unrivaled in the Americas: masks, necklaces, earrings and other elaborate jewelry. The discovery of the Lord of Sipan, which was featured in several National Geographic articles and in other magazines, has raised high hopes and great interest world-wide in future findings. Now there is in Lambayeque, the most modern and beautiful museum of PERU, with all the discoveries and gold from the Lord Of Sipan.

North of Chiclayo are other monuments of the Moche culture: 26 colossal pyramids in the Valley of the pyramids, also excavated in recent years. The largest complex is “El Tucume”,where legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl (Captain of the Kontikl) is directing the excavation project.The Moche treasures are exhibited in the Bruning Museum in the city of Lambayeque, only a few kilometers from Chiclayo. The city also has a fascinating herb market, with all the natural remedies used by the region’s traditional healers. Sipan and Tucume both have site museums.

Getting there:

Daily are flights Lima /Chiclayo (1 hour), Trujillo / Chiclayo (15 minutes).
By bus to Chiclayo along the north Panamericana highway from Lima (780km, 14 hours), from Trujillo (210km, 4 hours) and from Piura (270km, 4 hours).
Tourist transportation for hire from Chiclayo to Sipan (25km, 30 minutes), Bruning Museum (17km, 25 minutes), and to the Valley of the PYRAMIDS (40km, 50 minutes).
Lodging: l * to 4* * * * hotels in the cities of Chiclayo and Lambayeque. No lodging at Sipan.

General

-Bank: Banco de credito at balta 630 also bank terminals
-Internet:at san jose street
-taxi’s good and cheap 2 SOL in the centre , they are all very small !

What to see and do in CHICLAYO

-the cathedral ,palacio municipal en club de la union
-the market, 1 of the best markets in Peru, mercado modelo
-the witches market, also at mercado de brujas with exotic objects and herbs

LAMBAYEQUE

– 12 km from chiclayo, with nice colonial houses, like casa iturregui aquilarte, casona cuneo,casona descalzi.
– Bruning archaeological museum open every day from 9H
– Musea de las tumbas reales de sipan ,nice and new museum, all the object of the graf tomb of lord sipan,Bruning have things of the mochica ,lambayeque, sican, chimu cultures ,also a nice collection gold open from 9 to 12 H and 16 to 19H in a pyramid with al the treasures of Moche lord of Sipan , discovered in 1987 CLOSED on MONDAYS !

FERRNAFE

– 18km from Chiclao, colonial city with the musea Nacional Sican , closed on Mondays

SIPAN

– 35 km south east of Chiclayo twin pyramided complex with the tomb of senor de sipan! , open from 9 TO 17 H, a lot of replica but impressive

PAMPAGRANDE AND CHONGOYAPE

– 25 km from Sipan, was the biggest moche complex 1400 year ago with 10.000 people ,an ceremonial centre with ritual offerings

TUCUME

– 35 km North of Chiclayo ,this ruïne is 1000 year old , cerro la raya and el purgatorio  26 pyramids, the whole complex is 200ha ,1 pyramid ,huaca larga is the largest adobe structure in the world ,700 MT long 280 Mt wide, the museum is open from 9 to 17 H

BATAN GRANDE

– 50 km from Chiclao, 50 adobe pyramids from 900 a 110 AD