Chan Chan expands its adobe wards

1235

The Chimu capital on Peru's north coast grew into the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas, with its ten royal ciudadelas, each built for a dead king, arranged across twenty square kilometers of adobe walls. Its artisans produced some of the finest Andean metalwork of any era. Gold and silver vessels, hammered into impossibly thin sheets and decorated with maritime motifs, filled the royal tombs.