Exploring Chan Chan in Peru: A Journey Into Peru’s Pre-Inca Past
If you’re a female traveler exploring Peru on a budget, whether solo or with a couple of friends, Chan Chan in Peru is a must-see that won’t break the bank. Located just outside Huanchaco, this ancient adobe city offers an unforgettable glimpse into the pre-Inca Chimú civilization.
You can wander through its sunbaked walls and intricate carvings and feel like you are stepping into a forgotten world, with fewer crowds than Peru’s more famous sites. It’s the perfect trip for travelers looking to mix culture, history, and a little off-the-beaten-path magic into their journey.
Where is Chan Chan
Chan Chan in Peru is located in northern Peru, near the city of Trujillo. It is around 10 hours by bus from Lima or 45 minutes by plane from Lima. The airport is located just a 5 minute drive from Huanchaco and around 20 minutes from the centre of Trujillo.
How to get to Chan Chan from Trujillo/Huanchaco
All the buses from Huanchaco to Trujillo, Peru, go past Chan Chan. It costs 2 soles on the bus and around 10 soles by taxi from Huanchaco or the centre of Trujillo. If you are going from Trujillo, then you will need to get the red bus with Huanchaco written on the side.
Chan Chan in Peru opening Hours
To visit the main Chan Chan archaeological zone, it will cost you 10 soles and is open from 9 am, with last admittance at 4 pm. It is open from Tuesday to Sunday. The entrance fee of 10 soles includes entrance to Chan Chan museum, which is open from 9 am to 6 pm.
What does Chan Chan mean
The meaning of Chan Chan is “Sun Sun” and was named for its sunny climate, located on the northern coast of Peru, near the city of Trujillo.
History of Chan Chan
Chan Chan is the largest city of the pre-Columbian era. It was the capital of the Chimu from 900 to 1470, when they were defeated by the Inca Empire. The Chimú culture (Kingdom of Chimor) was the largest Peruvian civilisation prior to the Incas. They were the descendants of the Moche culture, who reigned from 100 – 700 AD.
The largest surviving ruin from this time is Chan Chan, and at its peak it was the largest city in South America.
The city of Chan Chan is 20 km² and it is the largest adobe (mudbrick) site in the Americas and second in the world to Arg-e Bam in Iran. The centre of the city, which was 6km squared, housed extravagant plazas and burial platforms for the royals.
Chan Chan was built around 850 AD and housed between 40,000 to 60,000 people, with nearly 100,000 people living there at its busiest in 1200 AD. It was built entirely from adobe, mud bricks dried in the sun, and was decorated with wall carvings and sculptures throughout the city.
The centre consists of 9 citadels each surrounded by high walls and inside contained temples, storage buildings, reservoirs and funerary platforms.
While the King was alive, the citadel was used as a royal household, an audience facility, and a storage facility, and as his tomb once he died. The new King would then start work on his citadel straight away to ensure that he had a place ready for when he died.
Outside of the centre were 32 compounds and 4 production sectors with agricultural lands on the outskirts of the city.
After Chan Chan was conquered by the Inca’s it fell into decline, and the Spanish established the city of Trujillo in 1535, plundering the riches of Chan Chan. From one of the graves, they took the equivalent of $5m of gold and a doorway covered in silver which would have been worth $2m in today’s values.
In 1969, excavations were started at Chan Chan, and these continue to this day. Only a very small part of the site, one palace, is actually open to the public. Very few objects have been found at the site as the wealth of the Chimu Kings was known all through the centuries, and the citadels were pillaged for anything of value.
On 28 November 1986, UNESCO declared Chan Chan Trujillo a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is also on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
When it was first excavated, there was a vast programme to restore the palace back to its former glory, rather than preservation and restoration.
Much of the site you see now has the original decoration covered with replicas over the top to help preserve it for years to come.
The biggest danger to Chan Chan is the environment due to floods and rain. El Nino, which came every 25-30 years in Chimor time, now occurs around every 4 year,s with 2017 being a particularly bad year for Chan Chan, and a huge area was devastated and only reopened in 2021.
The archaeologists are working hard at the site to preserve it and are constructing large tents over certain parts of the site to try and protect it from the rain. The friezes in some parts are being hardened and in other parts photographed and then covered with a reconstruction so that visitors to the site can see how it once looked.
Visiting Chan Chan
On your visit to Chan Chan, you can stop at the Chan Chan Museum, which is on the roadside before you get to the turning for Chan Chan if you are coming from Trujillo or just past the entrance if coming from Huanchaco. Here you can buy your ticket and also get a guide if you want to learn about the history.
The museum houses some of the artifacts found in Chan Chan and gives a brief history of the Chimu culture.
From the original 20km squared city, only one of the palaces where one of the kings was buried is open to the public.
Once you have visited the Museum, you need to walk back along the road towards Huanchaco for 5 minutes until you see the road taking you to Chan Chan. You can cut across the area here and take a little shortcut.
It takes around 10 minutes to walk to the entrance of the palace you can visit, and if you are visiting in Summer (December to April), you should make sure you use sun screen and take a hat and plenty of water. Chan Chan has very little shade, and so on a hot summer day, you will want to cover up as much as you can. It is unbelievable how strong the sun is here in Peru, and it is normal to see very red and burnt tourists.
Once you arrive at the entrance, there are toilets and a little shop if you need water or snacks, and you will also need to either show your ticket or buy one there. You can also get a guide here to show you around and explain what you are seeing and the history. It will cost around 50 soles for an English-speaking guide or 30 soles for a Spanish guide. These prices are for the guide and not individually, so if there are a few of you, then you can split the cost.
Please note that there is no signage within Chan Chan explaining what anything is, so if you choose to go without a guide, make sure you have read up so you know exactly what you are seeing.
Firstly, you will go through the impressive walls, which nowadays are actually smaller than the original walls. They once stood at 12 metres high and 5 metres wide at the base to withstand earthquakes.
There are frequently earthquakes in the area, though generally, most you are unable to feel.
Once through the narrow entrance, you come to the main plaza.
This is where, once a year, the Chimu would come to celebrate the life of the King. He would be brought out of his grave and put on the altar opposite the entrance, and offerings would be left for the King to take back with him to the afterlife.
All of society was allowed in this area, which is why it is so big; there are smaller plazas where the people of the higher society could go to see the King and to give their offerings. The wall all the way round has been restored to how it looked originally, and this was done before it was realised that preservation of what was originally there is the best way to go, rather than reconstruction.
Once through here, you go through a corridor that is decorated with fish and other animals from the sea and coastal area. The edge of Chan Chan is very close to the sea, and the locals relied heavily on the sea as a food source.
As you walk through the complex, you will notice that the walls are decorated with fish, waves, seabirds, and sea mammals, as living next to the sea, these represent how important these animals and the sea were in their lives.
They also got their water from channels that ran through the mountains and were stored in large reservoirs throughout the city. On the outskirts of the city, there was a large farming community growing crops for the people living within the city.
In the centre of the complex are the storage rooms, where crops and food would be stored while the King was still alive. Even these rooms were highly decorated, as you can see the patterns of birds at the bottom of the structures.
The diamond-shaped holes run throughout the rooms so that air can flow through the rooms, keeping them cool. Air flow through the rooms was needed, as in summer it is very hot in this area, though there can be a nice ocean breeze. It is believed that these rooms could have had a total capacity of 20,000 square feet.
Once you are out of the storage rooms, you get to a smaller plaza, which would have been used by the elite of the society and was a place where they could worship the King and pay their respects and offerings without having to mix with the lower-class people.
Next, you come to the Gran Hachaque Ceremonial reservoir. It is a pool of freshwater that comes into the complex through 54-mile-long canals from the Moche River. As there is little rain throughout the year in this area, these reservoirs would have been very important throughout Chan Chan to ensure the population had enough water.
It is thought, though, that this reservoir would have just been used by the King in religious ceremonies for worshipping the Gods of water and fertility.
From there, you can visit the King’s burial chamber. This was his final resting place and the most important construction within the complex.
When this area was excavated, it was found to have many funerary offerings, including dozens of sacrificed young women in a pyramid to the left of his tomb.
It is also believed that all of the King’s wives would have been buried with him when he died so that they could go to the afterlife with him too. There were also many chambers found which would have been filled with jewellery, weavings, and ceramics for his use in the afterlife. Unfortunately, all that has been taken during the years.
From here, it is then back through a long corridor until you reach the one entrance/exit to Chan Chan.
FAQ’s about Chan Chan
Chan Chan started to be built around 850 AD and existed as a city until around 1470 AD when the Incas came into power and the city was abandoned.
Chan Chan was part of the Chimu culture, which was defeated by the Incas in 1470 AD. There were many battles between the Incas and the Chimu, and finally, the Incas won. After this, the city was abandoned, the Incas built most of their cities in the mountains and didn’t live by the coast. Between the time of the Incas’ victory and the Spanish arrival a lot of Chan Chan was looted and destroyed.
Chan Chan Tours
If you do want to get local transport to Chan Chan, then you can get a tour from either Huanchaco or Trujillo to see Chan Chan.
For a tour of Chan Chan, Arco Iris (Temple of the Dragon), and Huanchaco
For a full day tour to see Chan Chan & Huaca del Luna
Where to stay when visiting Chan Chan
There are 2 options when visiting Chan Chan, you can either stay in Trujillo the 3rd largest city in Peru or 20 minutes outside of Trujillo and just past Chan Chan is the surf town of Huanchaco (one of the best places in Peru), which is a popular place to chill and relax, enjoy the beach and surf and a great place to be located to explore the area around Trujillo.
*This article may contain affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on the link, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.*
Trujillo Hotels
Costa del Sol Trujillo Centre is located on the Plaza de Armas in Trujillo. It is a 5-star hotel, though at very reasonable prices. It has a swimming pool, beautiful rooms, and an onsite restaurant. Click here for more details and prices.
Huanchaco Hotels
For options of places to stay in Huanchaco, check out my guides:
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