Things to do

Acitivities on the northern coast concentrate on visiting the ancient ruins around Chiclayo and Trujillo. The highlight may be the Museum of the Lord of Sipan (Tumbas Reales) located on the outskirts of Chiclayo, Here you can find a collection of artefacts including gold and precious stones found during excavations in the late 1980´s in the tomb of an ancient ruler who lived in the 3rd century. The museum tells the story of the rulers life as well as the descovery of his tomb.  In Chiclayo, you can also visit the ruins of Tucume, which covers an area of over 540 acres (220 ha) and encompasses 26 major pyramids. The ancient city of Tucume including the sacred pyramids was built entirely of mud-brick by the Sican culture in the 10th century AD. You can stroll along it ancients trails and can climb at least one of the great pyramids. In its site museum, we can see artefacts found in the ruins during excavations done since the 1980's.

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In Trujillo you have yet more great ruins which predate the Inca empire found high in the Andes. A short drive outside Trujillo takes you to Chan-Chan, the largest preColumbian city of its time in South America. In its prime between 9th and 14th centuries, the city measured 20 km² and had a dense urban center which contained extravagant residences, plazas, storerooms, and burial platforms. Also, a short drive from the city takes you to the ruins of the Huacas del Sol & Luna. The Huaca del Sol (sun temple) is an adobe brick temple built by the Moche civilization the 2nd and 8th centuries. The Huaca del Sol is an enormous pyramis made up of four main levels and constructed from 130 million adobe bricks and was the largest pre-Columbian adobe structure built in the Americas. You can explore the temples on foot, seeing the best remaining examples of the murals as well as artifacts found in the small site museum.