etraveladmin The country is dotted all over with some of the most ancient and best places in Peru.
To be honest, I didn’t realise how diverse Peru is until I started travelling around the country.
It’s so easy to picture one place (for me, Machu Picchu) and assume that’s how the rest of the country will look. Other incredibly beautiful and best places in Peru that are a little more ‘off the grid’.
Kuélap is a Chachapoyas site.
Kuélap, a pre-Inca settlement built by the Chachapoyans, is hidden away in the beautiful cloud forests of northern Peru.
It’s easy to forget that Machu Picchu is not Peru’s oldest site, with Kuélap being nearly three times older than the country’s most famous ancient site.
If you come to Kuelap Fortress, you will have (almost) the entire complex to yourself, allowing you to freely roam around this ancient city. It is quite off the beaten path.
Examine Chavn de Huántar.
Chavn de Huántar is a high-altitude archaeological site located in the Andes near the trekking hub of Huaraz.
It is a testament to the Chavin culture’s amazing architectural and cultural feats, a pre-Inca civilisation that specialised in cultivating crops by harnessing the earth’s electromagnetic field.
This UNESCO World Heritage Site is well worth seeing, but access will be limited as some structures are being safely secured.
Explore the Sillustani Tomb.
Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable lake, is on many visitors’ itineraries when they visit Peru.
Sillustani is about 30 kilometres from Puno’s main town and is fairly easy to find if you’re in the area.
Expect to see a lot of Chullpas (Qulla-made structures) dotted around the landscape. It’s one of the best ways to learn about the long history of how they became part of the Inca civilisation.
Visit the Nazca Lines.
Okay, so technically the Nazca Lines are geoglyphs rather than ruins, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive to see.
These mysterious formations are a series of large ancient drawings in the sand of Peru’s Nazca desert.
Hundreds of vast lines and geometric shapes, including birds, fish, llamas, monkeys, and jaguars.
It’s one of the most iconic places in Peru from the air.
Visit Caral
Caral is well worth a visit if you have a few days to explore the Lima area.
Although it is not widely known, it deserves to be because it is the oldest known city in the Americas. A day trip to the ruins is possible about 200 kilometres north of Lima (though expect some pretty long days with the roads in Peru).
