Chankillo Archaeoastronomical Complex

The Chankillo astroarcheological complex was a nice trip in the morning with a guide for me in order to see the sun rise between two of the thirteen towers. It's only a WHS since two years and it also feels like it's not that popular yet. Especially compared to other Peru WHS (like Machu Picchu :P). According to the guide there was actually big tourism going on until the pandemic and since then even despite the inscription tourism levels are low. We were for the sunrise for which one specific spots exists actually the only tourists in the whole site. Before we walked up to the towers and had a closer look at them even though there is nothing special to see except stone buildings. For walking up there I highly recommand hiking boots. On the way back down I saw my ankles breaking in my sneakers in front of my inner eye. The hill is a mixture of loose stones and a sand dune. In the parts with loose stones walking downhill was really tricky.  
 
We requested Aleko tours as all others in these reviews did so far, but it failed. We wrote with them and they only had time with a week anticipation. When we visited the office some old ladys said that the owner is out of office for another 2 weeks. But Aleko recommanded us Herbert with whom we did the tour. He was reliable, kind and had some local knowledge. Much more than we …

I visited Chankillo in February 2020. Although my visit was very similar to Lauren's, I believe this site deserves more than a single review. Like Lauren, I visited the site at sunrise, with the help of Aleka Tours.

Before 6am, they picked me up from my hotel in central Casma in a gleaming blue dune buggy perfect for driving through the desert of the Peruvian coast. I was guided by a Spanish-speaking archaeologist and an English-speaking guide. Although the presence of the two women made the tour more interactive and complete, my level of Spanish and the archaeologist's level of English would have allowed me to understand 95% of the tour. Please take note that the road leading to the site (AN-1306 / El Castillo on Google Maps) was closed by a chain and guarded by a man at the time of our visit (and this, despite the early hour!). My memory is hazy, but I think the guide was asked to pay a fee.

We started the tour at the ruins between the 13 towers and the concentric wall structure. A platform indicates where to stand to watch the sun rise and determine the time of year. The sky was clear during my visit and I could see the sun appearing between the towers. It is impressive to think that this site was built so long ago and that these people already had a fine mastery of astronomy. We then headed towards some stone walls, ruins of …

I made it a goal to visit all of the UNESCO sites in Peru and as many of the tentative sites as I could during a five-week trip in 2014. Of all of the sites, Chankillo was by far the most challenging to visit because of the lack of infrastructure and information online. When I saw that it's being put forward for a nomination in the near future, I figured it was time for a review. In general, the tourist infrastructure around Peru’s UNESCO sites is good compared to many places in the developing world, and so I hope the infrastructure around Chankillo has improved At the time I visited, albeit long before it was an inscribed site, there was no signage and no facilities 

Chankillo is an astronomical complex in western Peru, about half way between Trujillo and Lima. It's claimed to be the oldest astronomical site in the Western hemisphere, at over 2000 years old. There are some ruins of various buildings, but the highlight of the sight is 13 notched towers (with twelve spaces in between) that were used to measure the place where the sun rises and sets on the horizon to determine the approximate date of the year. I highly recommend going at sunset or sunrise so you can see the phenomenon yourself. (Although I went at dawn, it was a cloudy day, so I didn't actually get to experience it.)

The site was not well marked, and so I went by a …