Because in that town the sun's rays burned vath fury, its inhabitants called it "jang-jang" which means sun-sun in the Chimu tongue. Later, the Spanish conquistadors rechristened it as Chan Chan, a name still borne today by the biggest mud citadel in PreColumbian America and second in importance in the world.

Chan Chan, located a mere 2 - miles from the town of Trujillo, capital of the Department of La Libertad, is a majestic citadel of mud brick built hundreds of years ago by the skilled, deft hands of hundreds of men. The ancient capital of the kingdom of Chimu, an important pre-Inca culture established in the Moche valley between the 12th and 15th centuries, sheitered up to 60 thousand inhabitants and stretched over an area of 12 square miles, from the environs of the port of Huanchaco to Cerro Campana.

Today the ruins of the citadel that include squares, dwellings, stores, workshops, labyrinths, walls, roads and pyramidal temples, take up an area of four square miles in the valley of Moche and Santa Catalina, formerly known as Chimor or Chimu.

The mystique of the Chimus can be sensed with every step taken in Chan Chan, a people dedicated to gold work, agriculture, textiles and architecture.

	Impressive City