Aperçu
Chan Chan occupies 20 km² in the coastal desert of La Libertad, Peru, 5 km west of Trujillo on the floodplain of the Moche River. At its height between c. 900 and 1470 CE, it was the capital of the Chimú Empire, which controlled 1,000 km of Pacific coastline and was the largest political entity in the Americas before the Inca conquest. The city's layout is unlike any other pre-Columbian urban center: nine large walled compounds (ciudadelas) — ranging from 175 × 175 m to 600 × 400 m — each served as the royal palace and burial complex of a different Chimú king. When a king died, his compound was sealed as his mausoleum and his successors built a new one. The ciudadelas contain elaborate wells, warehouses, courts, and platforms, all built in adobe mud brick and covered with intricate relief decorations of fish, birds, sea mammals, and geometric patterns — constituting one of the largest concentrations of representational art in South America. Between the ciudadelas lie irregular urban zones housing craftsmen, farmers, and merchants. The total population of Chan Chan has been estimated at 30,000–40,000.
