Huaca Mateo Salado

Five flat-topped pyramids of rammed earth spread over 16 hectares where Cercado de Lima meets Breña and Pueblo Libre, a couple of hundred metres from the Plaza de la Bandera. The Ychsma started building around 1100. The Inca later remodelled the complex and ran the walled coastal road of the Qhapaq Ñan past it. The odd name belongs to Matheus Salade, a French hermit who lived among the mounds in the 1560s and in 1573 became the first person burned by the Inquisition in Lima.

Three pyramids have been excavated and restored for visits. Pyramid A, the Templo Mayor, is 18 metres high and 164 metres long, with patios on top reached by a great ramp. Pyramid B is named for the birds found in its reliefs, paintings and graffiti. Little Pyramid E was reused as an Ychsma and Inca cemetery, and among its 53 burials lay a Chinese farm labourer from the late 1800s, buried with coins of his day. Visits are guided and run on set days, so check before you go.