High Middle Ages · South America · Politics

1100

Chimu state rising at Chan Chan

1100

On the arid Peruvian north coast, the successors of the Moche began consolidating a new kingdom whose capital Chan Chan would grow into the largest adobe city in the pre-Columbian Americas, irrigated by long canals cut from highland rivers. At its height the city covered some twenty square kilometers, its labyrinthine walled compounds housing artisans who worked gold, silver, and Spondylus shell for the Chimu lords.