Chimú “Sacred Road” Geoglyph and Temple Complex Found in Peru

Aerial view of stone platform and rectangular plaza documented at Chicama.

February

/ 2026

Getting your audio player ready...

A newly documented Chicama geoglyph in northern Peru is drawing attention not only for its scale, but for what it seems to connect. Peru’s state news agency Agencia Andina describes a straight, stone-built line at least two kilometers long, interpreted as a ritual route linking a fortified settlement to massive cultivation zones and a ceremonial complex. Together with a temple platform, a large plaza, and more than 100 hectares of fields, the find suggests that the Chimú engineered landscapes where belief and production worked hand-in-hand.

International coverage has echoed the same core elements, noting that drone mapping helped record a sector known to researchers in past decades but never documented at this resolution. The work is being framed as urgent, because modern land use and infrastructure are already cutting into the ancient fields and the geoglyph itself reports Heritage Daily.

Chimú “Ritual Road” Runs for Kilometers

According to archaeologist Henry Tantaleán (co-director of the Chicama Archaeological Program), the main discovery is a geoglyph that functioned as a camino ritual - a ceremonial path - running in a constant alignment across old ravines. The route is said to connect Cerro Lescano with cultivation areas and extend toward Cerro Tres Cruces, forming a straight line that invites comparisons with Peru’s broader geoglyph traditions.

Tantaleán adds that this is the clearest example they know in which a Chimú settlement is physically linked to other parts of the landscape through a ritualized corridor. That framing will resonate with readers who have followed debates about whether geoglyphs mark routes, gatherings, or sacred movement—questions that also surround the famous Nazca corpus (see Ancient Origins’ coverage of Peruvian geoglyph research here and here).

Part of the straight geoglyph discovered in Chicama.

Part of the straight-line geoglyph discovered in Chicama. (Chicama Archaeological Program)

A 100-hectare Farming Machine Behind the Chicama Geoglyph

The same investigation argues this was not an isolated monument, but a single integrated complex spanning more than 100 hectares. In the Pampas de Lescano sector alone, Andina reports at least 100 hectares of agricultural furrows, including serpentine patterns and “comb-like” layouts, fed by secondary canals derived from the Gran Canal de la Cumbre.

To pin down what was grown, the team has taken soil samples for phytolith and pollen analysis, while noting earlier work in the wider area suggests crops such as maize, squash and beans. Stone agricultural tools, including hoes, were also reported from the fields, reinforcing the picture of intensive cultivation managed at scale.

Aerial view of some of the extensive agricultural and ritual complexes at Chicama. (Chicama Archaeological Program)

Temple Platform, Plaza, and the Politics of Farming

Alongside the Chicama geoglyph and fields, researchers documented a quadrangular stone platform of roughly 40 by 50 meters and around two to three meters high (see first image) oriented north - an orientation described as typical of Chimú architecture. In front lies a rectangular plaza of about 100 by 80 meters, which Tantaleán says could have hosted large gatherings tied to agricultural cycles and elite oversight of production.

Importantly, Tantaleán argues the discovery shows how “religion, economy, production and politics” can be read together in the landscape, with ritual helping mobilize labor, not just coercion. That is also why the team is racing to record the site, warning that high-tension towers, service roads, and private activity are steadily degrading the ancient remains.

Top image: Aerial view of stone platform and rectangular plaza documented at Chicama. Source: Chicama Archaeological Program

By Gary Manners