Trujillo, Peru - Day 90

On our way from the mountains to the beach, we had an all-day bus layover in the city of Trujillo. So, we spent the day exploring the city and visiting nearby ruins. Trujillo had beautiful Colonial architecture and was warm and sunny, so it wasn't a bad place to spend the day. The neighboring ruin, called Chan Chan, covers 22 sq miles and is the largest adobe city in the world. Most of Chan Chan, which was built in 1300 AD, has been worn away by La Niña and flooding. The portion that we visited is one of the few parts that has been excavated, and was used for religious ceremonies.

Beautiful plaza in Trujillo...one of the few places that we have visited in South America that doesn't have signs or advertisements covering the buildings.

Chan Chan has a very complex network of rooms, long hallways, and huge plazas. These rooms demonstrate the erosion of the mud walls.

These structures are part of the restored areas. The people who lived here were very closely-connected to the ocean and carved many images of fish and birds into the walls. These walls all represent fishing nets.

One of the very long hallways. It most likely had much more detail and possibly a roof covering it.

Before they began to wear away, the perimeter walls were all 30 ft high.