Puruchuco

The site of Puruchuco hit the news in 2002 when about 2000 well-preserved mummy bundles were unearthed from the enormous Inca cemetery. It’s one of the biggest finds of its kind, and the multitude of grave goods included a number of well preserved quipu (knotted ropes that the Inca used as a system of record-keeping). The site has a highly reconstructed chief’s house, with one room identified as a guinea-pig ranch. Situated amid the shantytown of Túpac Amaru, Puruchuco is 13km from Central Lima. (It is best to take a taxi.) A signpost on the highway marks the turn-off, and from here it is several hundred meters along a road to the right.