Chan Chan, capital of Chimor

Chan Chan was the capital of the Chimú kingdom, Chimor, which controlled about 1,000 km of the north Peruvian coast until the Incas conquered it around 1470. Its adobe walls cover some 20 square kilometres and enclose about ten royal compounds with plazas, storerooms and burial platforms, decorated with friezes of fish, seabirds and waves. El Niño rains and erosion still threaten it.