Chan Chan

We stayed for a week in Huanchaco, which is a former fishermen's village and nowadays town close to Trujillo on the other side of the historical town of Chan Chan which is basically separating Huanchaco from Trujillo together with the airport. Huanchaco is nice- we took our first surf classes, there´s always fresh fish until sunset and you can witness the usage of the caballitos de tortora (reet boats) that have been used since ancient times by Moche and Chimú cultures and probably don´t qualify for modern safety standards. 
 
Chimú is also the culture that lived in Chan Chan until 1500 a.D.. It developed from the Moche culture that habituated the coast and had its centre at the Río Moche a bit south of Trujillo. The temple of the Moon and parts of the excavated town can be visited and there is a museum with displays of the two cultures. The Chimú took over the Moche centre and used it for their own purposes later.

Chan Chan is a huge territory. For every leader the Chimú built a new temple in Chan Chan and the old one was abandoned as a tomb palace. There are 9 temples today and only the Nik An temple can be visited. It consists of 3 plazas. One was the public plaza inside the temple in which the normal people would come for ceremonies. The other two plazas were more private for the nobility. There are still nice carvings in the adobe of …

I visited Chan Chan on my 2020 South American trip. It is an impressive archaeological site from a great civilization. It is probably among the most important archaeological sites in South America. This is the largest adobe city in the world. With all those superlatives, you probably wonder why I only gave it a harsh two stars (the lowest rating at the time of writing this review). It is, in fact, because it is the largest adobe city in the world.

Adobe is essentially dried mud. The durability of this building material is thus rather low. Chan Chan is really vast, but everything you can see is piles of mud, everywhere around. This site is not In Danger since its inscription in 1986 for no reason. I recognize the importance and the great OUV of this site, but visiting it left me wanting more. I reached the site by city bus from Trujillo (once you've figured out which bus you need to take, it's quite easy). From the road, I've walked to the Palacio Nik-An. The path is bordered with interpretation boards. They are interesting, but again, there's not much to see.

On the other hand, the Palacio Nik-An, the only part of the site restored and accessible to visitors, has absolutely no information displayed (Strangely, this is often the case in Peru for sites where self-guided tours are allowed while sites where having a guide is mandatory frequently exhibit useless interpretation boards.). I avoided the expensive guided …

Chan Chan is super impressive on first sight. It looks great, has the feel of a great place, people highly recommend it and I really wanted to go. So why am I little disappointed? The walls. The walls are re-made. I know it seems picky but it kinda looks like the whole place has been constructed recently. The original parts are overgrown areas that aren't too interested at the moment, or maybe never. The covered section has the detailed decorations everywhere and like I said it's great to look around - just looks fake. It's a shame, I think the restoration work is overdoing it.

There was no guide offer but they sell a small brochure to explain items on the way (it's only in Spanish). I first visited the museum at the main road and then took a collectivo down the road to the archaeological site.

It was a bit surprising to find out that the main road from Trujillo Airport to the city center is cut through one of the Peruvian most interesting archaeological sites and a World Heritage Site of Chan Chan, so during my three days visit to Trujiilo, I had a chance to see the view of countless eroding mud ruins of Chan Chan at least five times. I decided to make a proper visit in the Afternoon as recommended by a hotel concierge for less tourists and better light. Before I visited Chan Chan, a taxi driver took me to see two beautiful small Chimu temples, Huaca del Dragon or Arco Iris and Huaca Esmeralda. I really impressed the figures craved on the adobe wall of Huaca del Dragon, which in my opinion more impressive than Chan Chan.

Then I proceeded to Chan Chan. The size of Chan Chan is really amazing even though the only thing I saw is the ruins of high wall which are eroding and waiting for the restoration. Only small area of this vast area has been restored and called Palacio Nik An. When I arrived the palace, I found the whole complex was under some kind of construction. The authority was building the large bamboo shelter as they predicted that from El Nino phenomenon, there will be numerous rainfalls for couple of years, so in order to protect all adobe buildings from rain erosion, the whole complex need a protective roof. The most impressive …

Chan Chan was a site we had long wanted to visit but, when it came, the “reality” didn’t, for a number of reasons, quite live up to the “vision”! One’s image of unvisited places is often built up in subliminal ways and mine I guess came largely from a 1972 book “Monuments of Civilisation – The Andes” whose photos showed a “remote” ruin devoid of modernity, stretching as far as the eye could see. The reality today is a complex of posts and protective roofs(Photo)with smooth “replastered” walls/decorations and entrance limited to just one part – the so called Tschudi Palace (or “Nik-An”) which is just 1 of 9 (or 10 - see later) such “palaces” thought to be 1 for each Chimu king (and there are vast areas beyond the main compounds of workshops, lesser housing and other monuments). The site also perhaps suffered in comparison with Huaca de la Luna which we had seen in the morning. The lively polychrome frescos there made the artwork at Chan Chan which consists of moulded and stylised creatures/shapes in grey mud look very dull! Back home, however, the site’s significance and value seems somewhat greater. Despite the downsides, it is one of the world’s great archaeological sites and a visit should be undertaken by anyone interested in archaeology.

The site suffers just about every preservation problem one could imagine – erosion by wind and rain, ground water ingress, looting, squatting, farming, road building, rubbish dumping etc. As we …

Chan Chan is a very vast site located in the Peruvian coastal desert. Its setting reminded me of Ancient Merv in Turkmenistan – a desolate location under the radiant sun, where you really don’t want to walk. The only part open to visitors is the Palacio Nik An, one of 9 similar units at the site. It does see more visitors than I had expected: 90,000 in 2009, mostly Peruvians from Lima (and 760 fellow Dutchmen). I visited on a Saturday and there were many tour groups around.

What you will see there is a lot of sand and adobe. Walking around the palace is like walking through a maze of plazas and walled compounds. Its best features are the clay friezes that adorn the walls. Most of them have marine scenes – depicting the sea, fish, pelicans, fish nets, and sea lions. The “authenticity” of this site is somewhat dubious - ICOMOS called the restoration of the palace a "highly criticized pastiche". The urban layout is original of course, but most of the friezes are replicas. They are a bit too perfect and complete to be convincing. For better and more original friezes you really have to visit the nearby Huaca de La Luna, a brilliant Moche-site that should be a WHS but isn’t even on Peru’s T-list.

I visited Chan Chan on a tour from Trujillo. However, I would recommend going there by yourself (by taxi or bus), so you will have enough time to see …

Another magnificent Peruvian WHS! And I get to review it first! Hurray!

Childish crowing on my part aside, this is another excellent place to visit. The entry fees are cheap and good value as well.

Chan Chan is an amazing place, and is absolutely enormous. I believe that at one time it was the biggest city on the planet, but that would need to be checked.

To be honest, much of the site is in complete ruins and is nothing more than large piles of mud. However, the Tschudi Palace is being constantly restored and gives a wonderful idea of how magnificent this city must have been.

I'm no expert but the restoration work seems to be going along sensitively and successfully, and this is one site where it is a case of restore it as much as possible, or lose it completely. The El Nino effect has clearly caused a massive amount of damage to the site (and it finished off Chan Chan as a living city).

I do not know why it is on the 'in danger' list but I guess it is for two reasons. One is El Nino - this is a situation that will never change. The second is probably the vast amounts of refuse that seem to be piling up around the outside of the city itself. This is something that seriously needs to be addressed.

Visitors to Chan Chan should also check out the nearby Huaco De La Sol and Huaco De La …