Spend a day visiting Caral, the oldest city in the Americas. This tour offers travelers a fascinating look into ancient Peruvian culture.

Caral is located near Peru’s central Pacific coast. It’s about a 4 hours drive from Lima, the guided tour there is about 1 or 1.5 hr, and time for lunch is around 1 hour, and as such this tour is offered as a full-day adventure. It begins at 7:00 AM and ends around 6:00 PM.

The city site of Caral is almost 5,000 years old, making it the oldest city in the Americas. At its peak, Caral is thought to have had about 3,000 inhabitants. It spreads over 150 acres and includes plazas, residential buildings, temples, pyramids, and an amphitheater. Caral was, it seems, a thriving metropolis. It may help archeologists answer questions concerning the origin of Andean civilizations.

The site was discovered in 1948 but excavations didn’t start until the 1990s, as Caral appeared to lack ceramics and artifacts that were found at other archeological sites in the Andes. However, a dig atop one of the oldest pyramids led to the discovery of a 10-year-old boy wrapped in a cane mat, which was carbon-dated to 2,900 B.C. This tipped archeologists off about the site’s real age.

While touring Caral, you’ll enjoy seeing the main pyramid, which is about as big as four football fields and rises to a height of 60 feet (18 m). You’ll also see the courtyards and amphitheater. The views of the surrounding valley are impressive.

This tour also includes a traditional lunch in the city of Huacho.