Chiclayo and Surroundings

Location: Rediscover Machu Picchu > Peru & the Andes > Chiclayo and Surroundings

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chiclayo City

Chiclayo is a big city of over 700.000 in northwestern Peru. A coastal city...

It is less visited than the southern Peruvian cities, but this place is also interesting to visit... We are trying to attract attention to beautiful places in Peru that are less popular to foreign travelers, yet are very attractive.

Chiclayo is home to several museums, has beautiful old colonial era churches, palm trees and restaurants.

We are taking a look at the attractions of Chiclayo and the surroundings in this article!

The Main Square (Plaza Central)

Iconic is the main church located in this square. It is a good place to get acquainted with Chiclayo.

Villarreal Neighbourhood

This part of Chiclayo has many interesting, coloured friendly-looking typical Peruvian houses.

You might want to take a walk in this part of the city and take photographs of the streets.

The Royal Tomb of Sipan in Lambayeque

The city of Lambayeque has a population of over 35.000.

Lambayeque is home to one of the most famous Peruvian museums, the pre-Columbian and also pre-Incan culture museum called "The Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum" - in Spanish:

The Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum are located in a peculiar-looking building that resembles Egyptian architecture... Some even say that it is alien-like.

The museum is built on the tomb of an important Moche personality. The Moche people had ruled a large part of today's Peru before the Incas.

The Lord of Sipan is sometimes called "The Tutankamon of the Americas" or "The Tutankamon of the Andes" etc.

It is the tomb of a high-ranked person from the Moche people.

The tomb contains gold, silver, copper and precious stone objects.

There are in fact multiple tombs, but one is standing out.

The tombs were discovered beneath adobe pyramids. After that, the government had decided to construct a three-story museum on top of it. It cost approximately 6 million dollars.

Lambayeque: a museum from another World...

The Sican National Museum in Ferreñafe

Gold cups, golden disks, headdresses and other ornaments can be seen in this museum. It is indeed a rich collection. You might think Lima has the biggest and most important museums, because it is the capital... Partly true, some of the main Peruvian museums have been constructed in the capital, but this museum is particularily interesting for pre-Columbian art fans.

The Sican National Museum is in Ferreñafe, a smaller city of about 45.000, located at approximately 20 minutes driving distance from Chiclayo.

The Túcume Pyramids

There are 26 pyramids in the Túcume Valley.

These are highly eroded structures and resemble cliffs rather than constructions.

It is believed that the pyramids at Túcume had been built in the period of 800 and 1532 A.D.

The construction is attributed to the Lambayeque, Chimú and Inca cultures. Why so many? Because this site was successively occupied by different civilizations: Lambayeque/Sican in the 800 - 1350 A.D. period, the Chimú in the period between 1350 and 1450 and then later the Inca between 1450 and 1532.
 

Túcume and the La Raya Mountain areas were religiously important to all cultures who had lived there. In fact, Túcume is regarded as a religious center, even.

Shaman healers used to perform ....

Getting to Chiclayo

Chiclayo's airport is connected with Lima, Trujillo, Chachapoyas... and schedules might change, so some cities might show up or disappear from his list, but you can be pretty sure that flights to Lima will continue to be operated.

You can get to Chiclayo on land by bus or you can rent a vehicle.

There is no train in this area of Peru.

Getting to Chiclayo is quite easy by bus from most large cities of Peru and the nearby medium and small cities, towns. This is due to the fact that Chiclayo has an important location in this area of Peru and many roads are connecting it. Including the Pan-American Highway.

Many bus companies operate on routes linking Chiclayo with Lima, Trujillo, Piura, Cajamarca, Chachapoyas, Tumbes and other cities.