Latin America

Known as Peñico, the city is now open to tourists. It was once a vibrant urban center that connected coastal, mountain and jungle communities

Asia London Palomba
July 10, 2025



An aerial view of Peñico in Peru Peru Ministry of Culture

After eight years of research, archaeologists have unveiled an ancient city in Peru that may have been a flourishing hub for trade 3,500 years ago.

Tourists can now visit the city, known as Peñico, in the country’s northern Barranca province, some 120 miles north of Lima. It was founded between 1800 and 1500 B.C.E., around the same time that early civilizations in the Middle East and Asia were developing.

The site is also located near the Sacred City of Caral-Supe, which developed 5,000 years ago in Peru’s Supe valley and is considered the oldest known civilization in the Americas. The civilization built 30 major cities and developed at the same time the ancient Egyptians were building the pyramids.

Researchers say Peñico likely emerged when the Caral began to abandon their major urban centers after nearly 1,000 years of habitation. While the true reason for their disappearance isn’t clear, researchers think factors like climate change and internal strife may have contributed to their decline.

The establishment of a city like Peñico provides fresh insight into the continuation of the Caral civilization, as the city’s inhabitants “were situated in a strategic location for trade, for exchange with societies from the coast, the highlands and the jungle,” Ruth Shady, the anthropologist and archaeologist who led the research into Peñico, tells Reuters’ Marco Aquino and Carlos Valdez. Shady also helped excavate parts of Caral in the 1990s.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unveil-a-3500-year-old-city-in-peru-that-sheds-light-on-the-caral-culture-180986944/