🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Palpa Lines and Geoglyphs
Paracas (800–200 BCE) to Topará (200 BCE–200 CE) to early Nazca · Paracas and Topará–Nazca
1,000 hill-crest geoglyphs (1000 BCE–800 CE) — the Paracas predecessor to Nazca on Palpa terraces.
Search places, or jump to a section
The catalogue
78 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Paracas (800–200 BCE) to Topará (200 BCE–200 CE) to early Nazca · Paracas and Topará–Nazca
1,000 hill-crest geoglyphs (1000 BCE–800 CE) — the Paracas predecessor to Nazca on Palpa terraces.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Late Horizon, Inca (~1300–1530 CE) · Inca
Three colossal natural depressions on the Maras plateau were amplified by Incas into concentric circular andenes up to 150 m across and 30 m deep, each terrace a microclimate ring with temperature…
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Middle Horizon (c.600–800 CE) · Wari (Huari)
Viracochapampa (Quechua Wiraqucha god + pampa plain) is a vast unfinished Wari grid-city 3.5 km north of Huamachuco in the La Libertad highlands at 3,070 m.
🇵🇪 Peru · Rock art
Middle Horizon (Wari) with Early Intermediate roots · Wari / Majes rock-art style
Western periphery (620 m) of the 5 km² Toro Muerto boulder field (Dead Bull), the largest Andean petroglyph complex: ~3,000 volcanic boulders engraved (Wari 500-1000 CE, with earlier Preceramic).
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Inca Late Horizon 1460–1532 CE · Inca (Wanka mitma)
Inca storehouse city 500 qollqas on Qhapaq Ñan, 1460–1532 CE.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Early Intermediate Period, Paracas to Nazca culture · Paracas / Nazca
Over 300 geometric and figurative geoglyphs etched by removing dark desert pavement to reveal light subsoil across 450 km² of arid Pampas, including 1.8 km hummingbird, monkey, spider, and trapezoids…
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Early Horizon / Formative 1200–500 BCE (Old Temple 1200–900, New Temple 750–500 BCE) · Chavín (Early Horizon Andean formative tradition, culmination of Kotosh-Urabarriu)
Andean Formative mother temple (1200–500 BCE) at 3,180 m near Cordillera Blanca with U-shaped Old Temple (1000×100 m) and New Temple Plaza, Lanzón monolith (4.53 m granite anthropomorphic feline with…
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Nasca-Huari Transition to Middle Horizon · Huarpa–Wari (Lucanas)
Chaviña south pampa: 20 spiral/camelid figures on Lucanas ignimbrite fan at 3,280 m.
🇵🇪 Peru · Hydraulic works
Inca Empire with antecedents Wari/Tiwanaku (~1000–1532 CE; Inca 1438–1532 CE) · Inca (with pre-Inca antecedents)
The backbone of Tawantinsuyu, Qhapaq Ñan runs 6,000 km along the Andean crest from Colombia to Chile, with east–west transversal roads totalling over 23,000 km.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Late Archaic 3000–2500 BCE · Norte Chico (Caral maritime)
Coastal port six pyramids, fish-for-cotton, 3000–2500 BCE.
🇵🇪 Peru · Temple complex
Inca Late Horizon 1430–1532 CE · Inca (Tawantinsuyu)
Inca temple 92 m, 11 m wall, 152 qollqas, Wiracocha oracle.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Middle Horizon to Late Intermediate (Wari–Chuquibamba) · Siguas / Wari / Chuquibamba
22 cleared-pavement anthropomorphs and trapezoids (600–1200 CE) on Sihuas bluffs above Toro Muerto.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Archaic to Middle Horizon (Tiwanaku–Wari interaction) · Tiwanaku–Huari interface / Tacna coastal–altiplano
>500 boulders and 40+ desert lines (400–1000 CE peak) at Tacna's Caplina desert gateway.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Early Nasca to Wari · Nasca–Huarpa–Wari
Chaviña north ridge: 15 crest lines on 3,420 m hilltop with solstice-aligned avenue.
🇵🇪 Peru · Archaeological wonder
Early Intermediate Lima to Middle Horizon Wari 1–800 CE · Lima culture (later Wari influence)
167-ha tapia pyramid city, 1st–8th century CE Lima culture metropolis.
🇵🇪 Peru · Megalith
Inca Late Horizon ca.1470 CE · Inca
2.28-m granite boulder with 203 miniature carvings, ca.1470 Inca hydraulic model.
🇵🇪 Peru · Rock art
Middle Horizon to Late Intermediate ~900–1450 CE · Wari to Collagua / Inca fringe
5,000-boulder petroglyph desert - world's densest - Wari-Collagua dancers over 10 km².
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Chachapoya 800–1532 CE · Chachapoya
Chachapoya cloud-forest citadel slate-mosaic friezes, UNESCO 548.
🇵🇪 Peru · Megalith
Chimú – Late Intermediate 1200–1532 CE · Chimú → Inca
Chimú hill-fort four walls, Inca tambo after 1470.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Middle Horizon (Wari expansion) with Early Horizon pathways · Wari / Majes rock-art / Sihuas valley agro-pastoral
Large hill-figure and circle geoglyph field on the inter-valley pampa between Río Majes and Río Sihuas (1,450 m), centered near Quilcapampa Wari town (Middle Horizon). Jennings et al.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Middle Horizon to Late Intermediate Wari-Chuquibamba · Wari-influenced Chuquibamba/Majes
60+ volcanic-pavement geoglyphs (600-1200 CE) beside Toro Muerto petroglyphs, Majes Valley ritual plateau.
🇵🇪 Peru · Tomb
Late Intermediate (c.1200–1470 CE) Chancay · Chancay
Cerro Trinidad is the classic Chancay funerary ridge cemetery in the lower Chancay Valley near Chancay port, Lima.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Late Horizon (Inca Imperial) · Inca (Quechua)
High-altitude (3,400 m) radial sacred geography of the Inca capital: 41 ceque lines radiating from Coricancha/Qorikancha to huaca shrines bounding Sacsayhuamán pampa and Chinchaysuyo suyu.
🇵🇪 Peru · Geoglyph
Early Intermediate (Topará / Early Nazca) · Paracas-Topará / Early Nazca
30+ trapezoid and anthropomorph lines (200 BCE–300 CE) on inland Pisco River pampas.