Chan Chan Ruins in Trujillo

Chan Chan

For the sake of brevity (at which I am terrible as you might have discovered), I will try to give you the quick and skinny about Chan Chan. Ha, wish me luck.

Chan Chan, also located in the Trujillo area, is the largest Pre-Columbian city in all of the Americas, tada! Chan Chan, built around 1300 CE, was home to the Chimu people (who came after the Sican people, who proceeded the Moche), who are best remembered as an urban society. At the height of their empire (before the Incas conquered in 1471), over 60,000 Chimu people lived in the nine sections of Chan Chan. While this sprawling ancient city once housed vast treasures of gold, silver, and ceramics, today it is skeletal, with only the walls remaining to tell its story to visitors. As evidenced by the photos, these walls, which once stood over 30 feet high, are elaborately adorned with geometric designs and animal friezes. The Chimu people venerated the sea and the moon.

Random Side Note:

While wandering the vast brown stretches of Chan Chan’s Tschudi Complex, Rachel and I discovered that we share a childhood friend. This guy (whose last name is Tschudi) is the son of her dad’s best college friend and someone I went to junior and senior high together. It’s a small world after all!

The End.