Chan Chan · The Great City the Rain Destroyed

Chan Chan was the capital of the Chimú kingdom, built of adobe, its walls enclosing nine palace compounds, with reliefs of fish and fishing nets still on them. It was once one of the largest cities in South America.

It almost never rains here, which is why an earthen city could stand for six hundred years; but when unusual rain comes, the walls dissolve. Heavy rainfall in recent years has brought down whole sections.

Shelters and drainage ditches have been added to the site. The caretakers say what these walls fear is not the years, but that one rain.

Natural Mysteries / Trujillo · Peru / 1300