Chimu kingdom expands along Peru's coast

1200

From the adobe labyrinth of Chan Chan, Chimu lords pushed their irrigation canals and tribute roads north and south across the desert littoral. Their walled ciudadelas, each a dead king's tomb-palace, rose in silent succession beneath the Pacific fog. At its height the empire stretched nearly a thousand kilometers along the coast, rivaled only by the Inca who would one day conquer it.