Before listing the archeological sites and pyramids you can visit in Lima, let’s start with the Larco Museum, a good prerequisite to understand peruvian history!

Founded in 1926, this national museum hosts the collection of the peruvian archeologist Rafael Larco Hoyle. You will find there 45.000 artefacts of the whole Peru culture and an amazing storage, opened to public. You will learn that the Incas are only part of the last chapter and that you are here in Peru, in one of the cradle of civilization!

Surprising things:

• Heads of animal and people (like in the underground temple of Tiahuanacu – Bolivia)
• A representation of Africans with black hands
• Guy wearing barb when people there didn’t have any
• Wheels have never been used there, but they had circular weapons
• Gold crown looking like egyptian’s (see Nefertari representations)
• Sex statues like Asian, Greeks did (and many others)

I guess there is still A LOT to learn about the human history!

How to visit the Larco Museum: Open every day from 11am to 7pm (S/35) located Simon Bolivar Avenue 1515

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Located nearby the Larco Museum and also known Huaca Mateo Salado, it’s the youngest site of the city.

• Discovery: Abandoned until 2001 when it was declared “Patrimonio cultural de la Nacion”
• Size: 16.4ha
• Datation: Xe > XIXe centuries
• Composition: 4 pyramids
• Culture: Ychsma, Inca

How to visit: Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 3pm (S/10) calle Palmeras cudra 5

Also known as Parque de las leyendas, we missed it when we were in Lima but it definitly looks great! On the same site you will find 4 huacas: Tres Palos, La Cruz, San Miguel and La Palma.

• Discovery: first mentioned in 1873
• Size: 150ha
• Datation: 200BC > 1450AC
• Composition: 53 monuments, mostly in Adobitos the tallest is 32m.
• Culture: Lima, Yshma, Inca

How to visit: Open everyday from 9am to 5pm (S/15) Avenida Parque de las leyendas 580

With a unique and very well preserved pyramid, it was a religious and administrative center, part of the Inca road Qhapaq Ñan.

• Discovery: mentioned in 1873, starting to dig in 1942
• Size: 85x67x20m
• Datation: 200BC
• Composition: pyramid with a 9m ramp
• Culture: Huallas

How to visit: Open Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday from 10am to 3pm (S/5) Avenida Nicolas de Ribera 201

Built with vertical adobe bricks, called “bookseller’s technique“.

• Discovery: Excavated only in the 80s!
• Size: 20ha (only 6 today)
• Datation: 500AC
• Composition: Adobitos
• Culture: Lima, Huari

How to visit: Open Monday, Wednesday, Friday,Saturday, Sunday from 9am to 4.15pm, you need to book online (S/15), calle General Borgono

Considered the biggest coastal historic center, there is still A LOT of work to do here… The site is huge and only few buildings have been revealed.

• Discovery: 1890s
• Size: 600ha
• Datation: IIIe > XIVe centuries
• Composition: 16 pyramids, sun temple, hold temple, painted temple, inca temple, cementary
• Culture: Lima, Wari, Yshma, Inca

How to visit: Open Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday from 9m to 4pm (S/15), located outside Lima on Antigua Panamerica Sur. Better to book online but you can still go without reservation