Pachacámac is an archaeological site 40 kilometres (25 mi) southeast of Lima, Peru in the Valley of the Lurín River. The site was first settled around A.D. 200 and was named after the "Earth Maker" creator god Pacha Kamaq. The site flourished for about 1,300 years until the Spanish invaded. Pachacamac covers about 600 hectares of land.
The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche, Trujillo, Peru from about 100 to 700 AD during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of some debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state. Rather, they were likely a group of autonomous polities that shared a common culture, as seen in the rich iconography and monumental architecture that survives today.
Trujillo is a city in coastal northwestern Peru and the capital of the Department of La Libertad. It is the third most populous city and center of the third most populous metropolitan area of Peru. It is located on the banks of the Moche River, near its mouth at the Pacific Ocean, in the Moche Valley. This was a site of the great prehistoric Moche and Chimu cultures before the Inca conquest and subsequent expansion.
La Libertad is a region in northwestern Peru. Formerly it was known as the Department of La Libertad. It is bordered by the Lambayeque, Cajamarca and Amazonas regions on the north, the San Martín Region on the east, the Ancash and Huánuco regions on the south and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital is Trujillo, which is the nation's third biggest city. The region's main port is Salaverry, one of Peru's largest ports. The name of the region is Spanish for "freedom" or "liberty"; it was named in honor of the Intendencia of Trujillo's proclaiming independence from Spain in 1820 and fighting for that. It is the ninth smallest department in Peru, but it is also its second-most populous department after Piura and its second-most densely populated department after Lambayeque.
Chan Chan was the largest city of the pre-Columbian era in South America. It is now an archaeological site in La Libertad Region 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) west of Trujillo, Peru.
Huaca Rajada, also known as Sipán, is a Moche archaeological site in northern Peru in the Lambayeque Valley, that is famous for the tomb of Lord of Sipán, excavated by Walter Alva and his wife Susana Meneses beginning in 1987. The city of Sipán is dated from 50–700 AD, the same time as the Moche Period.
Pre-Columbian art refers to the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas from at least 13,000 BCE to the European conquests starting in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era continued for a time after these in many places, or had a transitional phase afterwards. Many types of perishable artifacts that were no doubt once very common, such as woven textiles, typically have not been preserved, but Precolumbian monumental sculpture, metalwork in gold, pottery, and painting on ceramics, walls, and rocks have survived more frequently.
The practice of human sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures, in particular Mesoamerican and South American cultures, is well documented both in the archaeological records and in written sources. The exact ideologies behind child sacrifice in different pre-Columbian cultures are unknown but it is often thought to have been performed to placate certain gods.
Huaca de la Luna is a large adobe brick structure built mainly by the Moche people of northern Peru. Along with the Huaca del Sol, the Huaca de la Luna is part of Huacas de Moche, which is the remains of an ancient Moche capital city called Cerro Blanco, by the volcanic peak of the same name.
The Lord of Sipán is the name given to the first of several Moche mummies found at Huaca Rajada, Sipán, Peru by archaeologist Walter Alva. The site was discovered in 1987.
Located in the Chicama Valley, the El Brujo Archaeological Complex, just north of Trujillo, La Libertad Province, Peru, is an ancient archaeological site that was occupied from preceramic times. Considering the broad cultural sequencing, the Chicama Valley can be considered as an archaeological microcosm. The research benefits from the favourable environmental and topological conditions for material conservation.
Mojeque, or Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, is a large archaeological site located in the Casma Province of Ancash Region in northern Peru. Archaeologists believe it functioned as a temple or religious structure. It contains two large mounds, many smaller mounds, and multiple human figures and heads believes to depict deities or divine rulers. Large crowds would gather at this site to observe and participate in rituals or ceremonies associated with the mounds. It is only one of the large sites of the Casma/Sechin culture in the Casma and Sechin River valleys. The others are Cerro Sechin, Sechin Alto, and Sechin Bajo. The Sechin River is a tributary of the Casma River.
Ventarrón is the site of a 4,500-year-old temple with painted murals, which was excavated in Peru in 2007 near Chiclayo, in the Lambayeque region on the northern coast. The site was inhabited by the Early Cupisnique, Cupisnique, Chavin and Moche cultures.
The Lima culture was an indigenous civilization which existed in modern-day Lima, Peru during the Early Intermediate Period, extending from roughly 100 to 650. This pre-Incan culture, which overlaps with surrounding Paracas, Moche, and Nasca civilizations, was located in the desert coastal strip of Peru in the Chillon, Rimac and Lurin River valleys. It can be difficult to differentiate the Lima culture from surrounding cultures due to both its physical proximity to other, and better documented cultures, in Coastal Peru, and because it is chronologically very close, if not over lapped, by these other cultures as well. These factors all help contribute to the obscurity of the Lima culture, of which much information is still left to be learned.
The Foundation of Trujillo is an example of Spanish colonial expansion that took place in the area known today as the Valley of Moche in northern Peru. The exact date of Trujillo's foundation is still in dispute; according to historian Napoleón Cieza Burga it is November 1534.
The Valley of Moche, or Valley of Santa Catalina, is a large area of the La Libertad Region in northern Peru surrounding the Moche River. It has been farmed since the pre-Columbian era and currently contains rural and urban settlements. Trujillo is the most important city of the valley. It is now the location of several towns and agricultural areas where products such as sugarcane and asparagus are cultivated. The irrigation of its lands is part of the Chavimochic hydraulic engineering project.
The Moche Route is a tourist destination that begins in the Peruvian city of Trujillo in what once was the seat of power of the Moche culture known as The Temples of the Sun and the Moon and then goes through a series of places that were part of the kingdoms Moche and Chimu. The route runs along the northern Peruvian mainly through the regions called La Libertad and Lambayeque. In this route, are found the major archaeological sites in this area of Peru, belonging to the Moche culture. Recently the MINCETUR has received the Ulysses Award for the promotion of this tourist route in 2011.
The Lady of Cao is a name given to a female Moche mummy discovered at the archeological site El Brujo, which is located about 45 km north of Trujillo in the La Libertad Region of Peru.
Pampa Grande is an archaeological site located in the Lambayeque Valley, in northern Peru, situated on the south shore of the Chancay River. It is located to the east of the city of Chiclayo.
The Pacatnamu site is located at the mouth of the Jequetepeque Valley on the northern coast of Peru. Rocky cliffs protect two of its sides and a manmade wall protects the third. This area of Peru does not have a tropical environment; it gets very little precipitation and has a mild climate, which sometime can become very humid.
Peru 
