Pachacamac

For more than a thousand years this was the great oracle of the Peruvian coast. Pilgrims came from all over the Andes to put their questions to Pachacamac, the god who animated the world: one turn of his head was thought to set off an earthquake, no one could look him in the eye, and his priests entered his shrine walking backwards. The sanctuary spreads over some 600 hectares of adobe on the desert edge of the Lurín valley, close to the sea and 40 kilometres south-east of central Lima.

The big buildings are in the sacred sector. The Old Temple sits on a rocky outcrop, the Painted Temple is where the wooden idol was found, and the Temple of the Sun, a terraced trapezoid, was put on the highest ground by the Inca after they took the oracle over around 1470. The Inca added the Acllawasi, the house of the chosen women, too. Many of the other mounds are pyramids with ramps, once read as lodges for pilgrims and now thought to be palaces of the Ychsma lords. Looting and El Niño rains have worn much of the site down, so expect great earthen shapes more than fine detail.

Start at the museum by the gate, which holds the idol itself, a 2.34-metre carved post from Wari times. Official guides wait by the ticket office and are hired directly (there are none on the first Sunday of the month). The car park takes 40 cars and fills on busy days, so arrive early, and day tours run out from Miraflores. Closed Mondays.