Puruchuco

On the Carretera Central in Ate stands the restored house of a local lord, the curaca of Lati, who governed this stretch of the Rímac valley in Ychsma and then Inca times, between the 12th and 16th centuries. The palace of adobe and tapia, with its rooms, courtyards and ramps, is the one structure here you can walk through. Arturo Jiménez Borja rebuilt it in the 1950s and opened a site museum next to it in 1960, among the first in Latin America. The Huaquerones sector around it holds one of the largest Inca cemeteries on the central coast.

The museum's best pieces are khipus, the Inca knotted-cord records, and a feathered headdress; puruchuco is read as Quechua for feather hat. Guided visits are offered in Spanish and English. Open Tuesday to Sunday.