13 101 x The capital of the Moche state until around AD 600. The city was dominated by two great pyramids. Little of the vast urban centre has been excavated but it seems to have included the houses of kings, nobles and commoners, elite burial platforms and workshops manufacturing a range of goods, including fine pottery.
# Moche (Cerro Blanco), Pyramid of the Moon
43 101 x Traditionally Moche huacas (pyramids) were constructed of adobe (sun-dried mud) bricks. The enormous Huaca Fortaleza at Pampa Grande was constructed more simply, of a framework of walled cells filled with earth. It was built in four tiers. Access to the first terrace was given by a huge perpendicular ramp, a feature that became a standard element of northern architecture.
# Huaca Forteleza
17 101 x This large complex of pyramids, palaces and majestic courtyards is unusual in being located near the coast. A large town surrounded this royal complex: it included many more lavish buildings and compounds, with other lesser dwellings spreading out towards the periphery. Late Moche ceramics and textiles have been found within the ruins.
# Pacatnamu
10 101 x Moche expansion brought regions as far south as Huarmey under their control by around AD 500, but when the Moche experienced a decline around AD 600, probably due to natural disasters, control of this southern region was lost.
# Huarmey
3 101 x The Moche were great seafarers, and evidence of their influence is known on many off-shore islands, from those in the north as far south as the Chincha islands.
# Chincha Islands
11 101 x As the Moche state expanded, it gained control over the Vicus area, probably to facilitate trade in the ritually important Ecuadorian Spondylus seashells. Around AD 600, there was a marked northwards shift of Moche political power, from the Moche to the Lambayeque valley and Vicus remained firmly under Moche domination until the state's collapse around AD 700.
# Vicus, Fox-shaped pot from Vicus
20 101 x Huacas (pyramids - literally, 'sacred objects') were rectangular stepped platforms made of adobe (sun-dried mud) brick. They were built by teams of local people as part of their corvÈe (labour tax) work. Each had a small temple at its summit where captured prisoners were sacrificed. Deceased rulers were buried in tombs in the huacas, like those at Sipan.
# Huacas
16 101 x Situated in the Nepena Valley, this was an important Moche administrative centre, smaller than but similar to the capital at Cerro Blanco (Moche). A large huaca (pyramid) here, topped by a temple, has survived remarkably well. Around it lay plazas and buildings decorated with colourful murals.
# Panamarca, adobe pyramid at Panamarca
8 101 x One of the great masterpieces of prehistoric engineering and construction, this mud-built irrigation channel snaked along the side of the valley for over 65 miles (100 km). It is estimated that its Moche builders would have had to shift a million cubic metres of earth to construct it.
# La Grande
9 101 x Located in the Casma Valley, this is one of the most spectacular forts of the troubled period preceding the emergence of the Moche state. Dating from around 200 BC, it has three concentric stone walls surrounding two towers and a complex of rooms and courtyards.
