Caral

Caral, formally the Sacred City of Caral-Supe, is the principal urban center of the Caral civilization, in Peru's Supe Valley about 182 kilometers north of Lima and 23 kilometers inland from the Pacific coast. Occupied between roughly 2600 and 2000 BC, within a broader Norte Chico cultural period spanning about 3000 to 1800 BC, Caral is considered the oldest city in the Americas and one of the oldest anywhere in the world, its monumental pyramids and varied ceremonial architecture predating comparable Mesoamerican developments, such as the Olmec, by around 1,500 years. UNESCO inscribed the site as a World Heritage Site in 2009.