Where to Stay in Chiclayo, Departamento de Lambayeque

What is Chiclayo known for?

On the dry plain between the Andes and the Pacific in northern Peru, it stands near the ruined pyramids and royal tombs of the old Moche and Sicán, and it keeps the golden burial of the Lord of Sipán in a museum nearby, the adobe pyramids of Túcume on the desert, a famous herb-and-charm market at its heart, and the sugar and rice fields of the valley around. The dry plain runs to the sea. The bare desert lies beyond.

What are the main landmarks in Chiclayo?

The tomb of the Lord of Sipán is the treasure of the Chiclayo coast. The gold, silver, and turquoise buried with the Moche lord, dug from a pyramid at Sipán and shown in a great museum at Lambayeque, are the emblem of the region, north of the city. Pyramids stand on the desert.

The mud-brick pyramids of Túcume rise in a valley nearby, while the herb market, the old sugar estates, and the coast at Pimentel mark the country around Chiclayo.

What is the history of Chiclayo?

The coast of Lambayeque was old when Chiclayo rose. Long before the town, the Moche and then the Sicán raised great pyramids of mud brick on the plain and buried their lords in gold. The desert kept the tombs.

Under the sand at Sipán lay the grave of a Moche warrior-priest, his gold and turquoise hidden for centuries until diggers found him. Chiclayo itself grew late, as a market. Where the roads of the valley crossed, a town of traders and muleteers grew up between the old towns of Lambayeque and Ferreñafe, and it swelled on the sugar of the great estates around.

The tombs came to light in time. When the Lord of Sipán was unearthed, the gold of the Moche drew the world to the coast, and Chiclayo drew travellers to the pyramids, keeping its markets, its sugar, and its ancient dead. The gold now fills a museum.

Chiclayo keeps its market and its royal tombs on the Lambayeque plain.

Where is Chiclayo?

Chiclayo lies in the northwest of Peru, on a wide desert plain a little back from the Pacific. The city sits in the green valleys of Lambayeque, where rivers off the Andes water the sugar and rice, ringed by dry sand and scrub with the ocean to the west. Irrigated fields spread green around.

The desert runs bare beyond.

What is the climate of Chiclayo?

Chiclayo has a warm, dry desert climate. Mild dry weather holds along the coast all year, with soft grey skies in winter and warm sun in summer, and rain that almost never falls. The desert sun stays gentle.

Clouds hang low in winter.

How do you get to Chiclayo?

Chiclayo sits on the desert coast of northern Peru. Roads and flights reach it down the Pan-American highway from Trujillo and up from Lima, and lanes run out to the pyramids and the sea. Buses cross the plain.

Trujillo lies south down the coast.