La Centinela
La Centinela is an archaeological site in Peru’s Ica Region, in the Chincha Valley about 200 km south of Lima and near the Pacific Ocean. It was an active administrative center in both pre-Inca and Inca times and served as the Inca capital of the Chincha kingdom. It’s unusual because the Incas built a major state installation inside a preexisting, functioning non-Inca city. In 1958, archaeologist Dwight T. Wallace found a network of straight roads radiating from La Centinela, showing a centralized pre-Incan administration. The site features 11 well-defined pyramids and other adobe buildings. Some adobe walls show Champlevé decoration, and the main Inca building has black-and-red geometric painting on white. The surrounding area is irrigated farmland, and people historically used plants, animals, and marine resources.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:58 (CET).