Trujillo: the north also begins with history

Moche and Chimú, a few pointers

Between the two, the Lambayeque (Sicán) culture dominated the neighbouring valley: see Chiclayo and Lambayeque.

Chan Chan: giving the Chimú their place

A city of earth. Chan Chan, at the mouth of the Moche Valley, was the capital of the Chimú kingdom, from about 900 to 1470. It covered some twenty square kilometres, including a dense centre of six square kilometres occupied by about ten large enclosures known as “ciudadelas”: each brought together plazas, storehouses, reservoirs and a royal funerary platform, behind walls up to about twelve metres high, thicker at the base than at the top. Around them lived craftspeople, fishermen and servants, in quarters of small rooms. Listed by UNESCO in 1986, it has since been on the List of World Heritage in Danger: mud brick does not withstand the rains of the El Niño phenomenon.

What you visit. Only the enclosure known as the Tschudi palace is open to the public, restored and partly protected by roofs. You follow the great ceremonial courtyards, the corridors and the hall of reliefs: fish facing north and south, seabirds, waves and net patterns, in which some have seen an evocation of the two currents that wash the coast. The walls that look very sharp have often been restored; the guide distinguishes the original relief from the reconstructions.

Practical details. The site museum, at the entrance to the archaeological zone, presents Chimú history: Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 16:00; S/ 10 for an adult. Several huacas (Arco Iris, Esmeralda) can be visited on the outskirts of the city. The visit takes place in the sun, without shade: come in the morning, with a hat and water. Chan Chan is on the road to Huanchaco: the two combine well.

The Huacas del Sol y de la Luna

The Moche capital. At the foot of Cerro Blanco, south of Trujillo, the two pyramids framed a city. The Huaca del Sol was the largest adobe construction in the pre-Hispanic Americas: more than a hundred million bricks, many of which bear makers’ marks suggesting the involvement of about a hundred communities. In the 17th century, colonists diverted the river to loot it; about a third of it remains. It cannot be visited.

The Huaca de la Luna is smaller but much better preserved, because it was spared colonial looting. A religious temple, it was rebuilt on top of itself about every hundred years for six centuries: each new layer covered the previous one, which preserved the interior decoration. The visit goes down into these layers, where you see polychrome friezes of the feline-faced deity and, on the north façade, registers of warriors, prisoners and dancers. The remains of many sacrificial victims were also found there.

The Santiago Uceda Castillo museum, on the same site, presents ceramics, objects and the context of the excavations.

El Brujo and the Museo de Cao

The site. In the Chicama Valley, north of Trujillo, the El Brujo complex sums up thousands of years of occupation: the Huaca Prieta, one of the oldest mounds on the coast; the Huaca Cao Viejo, a great Moche pyramid with polychrome reliefs, with its scenes of prisoners and sacrifice; then traces of the Lambayeque and Chimú cultures, and a colonial church.

The Lady of Cao. In 2006, the team of the archaeologist Régulo Franco uncovered, in the Huaca Cao Viejo, the burial of a young woman who died around 450, at about twenty-five. Her body, covered in tattoos, was wrapped in many layers of fabric, with jewellery and ceremonial weapons. The richness of the tomb and these weapons suggest that she may have governed or held a very high religious office: it is a strong interpretation, but an interpretation. Her discovery called into question the idea of an exclusively male Moche power.

The Cao museum displays her remains in room 6, with a reconstruction of her face, and the objects from the tomb. The “classic route” offered by the site combines the colonial area, the Huaca Cao Viejo and the museum.

The colonial city

Trujillo was founded in 1534 by Diego de Almagro, who named it after Pizarro’s hometown, in Extremadura. The centre has kept its large colonial and republican mansions with colourful façades, wrought-iron grilles and wooden balconies, around a Plaza de Armas dominated by the cathedral and the Freedom Monument. It was here that independence was proclaimed on 29 December 1820, more than six months before Lima; the Casa de la Emancipación, where it was prepared, can be visited.

Trujillo also claims the marinera, a couple dance with handkerchiefs, and the breeding of Peruvian Paso horses. The national marinera contest has been organised for decades by a club from the city, Club Libertad, but it is not necessarily held in Trujillo: the 2026 edition took place in Callao, at the end of January. For a future edition, wait for the organiser’s announcement. A half-day walk around the centre, by day, is enough to get a sense of it.

Huanchaco, the city by the sea

17 km away, Huanchaco was already the port of Chan Chan. The fishermen there still use caballitos de totora, reed boats that are ridden astride to get through the waves, depicted on ceramics for three thousand years; the beach is recognised as a World Surfing Reserve. Many travellers prefer to sleep there rather than in Trujillo: quieter, by the water, with fish restaurants. See Huanchaco.

Two, three or four days

Two days. Day 1: the Huaca de la Luna and its museum in the morning, central Trujillo in the afternoon. Day 2: Chan Chan in the morning, Huanchaco in the afternoon and evening.

Three days. Add El Brujo and the Lady of Cao, half a day with the journey, with lunch in Huanchaco on the way back.

Four days. Add Puerto Malabrigo (Chicama) or Pacasmayo, for the wave or simply for the coast, on the road to Chiclayo.

Watch out for Mondays: the Huaca de la Luna and the Chan Chan museum are closed; keep that day for El Brujo, open every day, or for the road.