Before the Incas, Peru saw the birth of Caral, the Chavin, the Chimu, and dozens of other forgotten civilizations. You can trace 5,000 years of Andean history through our guide’s stories on the Salkantay.
5,000 years of Andean civilizations: from Caral to the Incas
5,000 Years of Andean Civilizations: Peru's Forgotten History Before the Incas
When people talk about pre-Columbian Peru, they talk about the Incas. Almost exclusively. Our Salkantay guide helped us understand why that's a mistake, and what you miss by overlooking the 4,000 years of civilizations that came before.
The First People in America
To understand the history of Peru, we have to go back a very long way: about 12,000 years before our era.
At that time, the planet was coming out of an almost total ice age. Sea levels were lower than today, and a land bridge existed between Siberia and Alaska, where the Bering Strait now leaves only 12 km of water between the two continents.
The first people to reach South America were Asian populations that migrated along this land bridge, then gradually made their way south down the continent.
The earliest traces of agriculture in Peru date back to around 8,000 years BCE, in the form of Andean terraces: a technical feat at a time when the West wasn't there yet.
The theory that the Americas were settled via the Bering Strait remains the most scientifically accepted, but recent discoveries in South America suggest that other migration routes may have existed, possibly even earlier ones. The official story continues to evolve.
Caral: the first great civilization of the Americas
2,600 years BCE. That's when the Caral civilization appears, considered the first organized civilization in the Americas, contemporary with ancient Egypt, Babylon, and the first great Mesopotamian cities.
Its ruins are located 80 km north of Lima and are now open to visitors. Among them is what is considered the first pyramid in the Americas: a structure used for agricultural experiments, recreating different microclimates to test crops.
What makes Caral especially important is its longevity: the civilization lasted 2,200 years, making it the longest-lasting of those that followed one another in pre-Columbian America. And it was here that several fundamental ideas took shape, which the Incas would take up millennia later, especially polytheism and the reverence of the forces of nature.
The Caral archaeological site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009. It is often left off the usual tourist routes, which makes a visit here all the more special.
Chavín, Tiwanaku, and the Great Intermediate Civilizations
Between Caral and the Incas, centuries of civilizations followed one another, each bringing major advances.
The Chavin civilization is considered one of the most important to have developed in the Andes. It lasted nearly 900 years and stands out for two major features: sophisticated underground architecture with galleries and tunnels of remarkable complexity, and an advanced hydraulic system. Its main site, Chavin de Huantar, was brought to light during excavations carried out starting in 2007.
The Tiwanaku civilization, originally from present-day Bolivia, controlled southern Peru and the Cusco region for about 600 years. It was a people from the shores of Lake Titicaca who, battle after battle, managed to establish themselves across much of the Andean territory before the Incas took over.
Other important civilizations coexisted with or preceded the Incas: the Wari, the Chimu on the north coast, the Nasca in the south, the Mochica, the Killke in the Cusco region. Some lasted 400, 500 or 700 years respectively, longer than the Inca empire itself.
The Larco Museum in Lima is the best introduction to Peru's pre-Inca civilizations. Its collection is considered one of the most important in the world on the subject.
The coastal civilizations of Peru
Along the Peruvian coast, highly advanced civilizations developed alongside the Andean cultures.
The Chimu, with their capital Chan Chan near present-day Trujillo, built the largest adobe city in pre-Columbian America. They were known as the continent's finest goldsmiths: precious-metal alloys so sophisticated that the Incas, who conquered them, later incorporated them into their own practices.
The Nasca, meanwhile, left the famous Nasca Lines in the coastal desert: enormous geoglyphs visible only from the air, whose exact purpose is still debated. Their civilization also mastered advanced water-management techniques to survive in one of the driest environments on the planet.
You can fly over the Nasca Lines from the city of Ica, about 4 hours south of Lima. Several companies offer daily sightseeing flights.
The rise of the Incas and Pachacutec
Contrary to what many people imagine, the Incas did not always dominate the Andes. For centuries, they controlled only a small territory around Cusco, regularly losing battles against much more powerful civilizations.
Everything changes with the ninth emperor, Pachacutec, who comes to power around 1432 at just 12 years old. The situation is dramatic: the civilization of the Chankas, the most feared and most numerous in the region, attacks Cusco. The former emperor steps aside. Pachacutec, whose name literally means "the one who transforms the world", takes command of the defense.
He not only drives the Chankas back, he crushes them. And from that victory comes the Inca Empire's explosive territorial expansion: in less than a century, the Incas extend their territory across the equivalent of six modern-day countries, from Colombia all the way to Chilean and Argentine Patagonia.
100 years of expansion shaped the empire the Spanish found when they arrived in 1533.
Cusco, former capital of the Inca Empire, still preserves many traces of this period. The Temple of the Sun (Qorikancha) and the ruins of Sacsayhuamán are the must-see sites. Most Inca constructions in Cusco sit on foundations from earlier civilizations, including megalithic blocks attributed to the Killke civilization.
Thirdly, and this is perhaps the most problematic point: the history of the Incas was built almost entirely on a single source. Of the 14 chronicles written during the conquest of the empire, it was the one by Garcilaso de la Vega, the first royal mestizo (grandson of the last emperor and a Spanish noblewoman), that served as the basis for official history for 400 years. It was only in the 1940s and 1950s that researchers began to seriously study the other 13, which contradict the dominant version on many points.
What archaeological discoveries from the 2000s to today are gradually revealing is that the Incas did not invent everything. They were smart conquerors and great organizers, able to absorb the knowledge of the civilizations they took over: the goldsmithing of the Chimu, the hydraulics of the Chavin, the agriculture of the coastal civilizations. But the monumental engineering that fascinates us today owes a great deal to the peoples who came before them.
Why do people talk mostly about the Incas?
The question is worth asking: why do the Incas take up so much space in Andean history, when much older civilizations lasted just as long or longer?
Three main reasons explain this imbalance.
First, when the Spaniards arrived, the Incas were the ones running the territory. So naturally, their civilization was the first to be studied and documented in depth.
Second, the conquistadors had every interest in presenting the peoples they conquered as primitive and inferior, to justify conquest and genocide before the Catholic Church and the Vatican. The chronicles of the time reflect this bias.
Third, and this is perhaps the most problematic point: the history of the Incas was built almost entirely on a single source. Of the 14 chronicles written during the conquest of the empire, it was Garcilaso de la Vega, the first royal mestizo (grandson of the last emperor and a Spanish noblewoman), whose account served as the basis for official history for 400 years. It was only in the 1940s and 1950s that researchers began to study the other 13 seriously, and they contradict the dominant version on many points.
What archaeological discoveries from the 2000s to today are gradually revealing is that the Incas didn't invent everything. They were smart conquerors and great organizers, able to bring together the knowledge of the civilizations they absorbed: the goldwork of the Chimu, the hydraulic engineering of the Chavin, the agriculture of the coastal civilizations. But the monumental engineering that fascinates us today owes a great deal to the peoples who came before them.
