Complejo Arqueológico Wari

Location:
Ayacucho, Peru

Ruin

By Lorraine Caputo

Complejo Arqueológico Wari sprawls along the highway from Ayacucho to Quinua. Five signed entrances lead to the ruins of this once-great Wari capital. You can yet see the thick walls towering 12 meters (39 feet), tunnels, underground burial chambers, ceremonial plazas and homes of its estimated 50,000 residents.

Built around 600 A.D., archaeologists believe this was the first walled urban center in the Andes. The Wari (Huari) were one of the most important pre-Incan societies in Peru, with an empire stretching from Cajamarca to Cusco. Their urban, military and administrative organizations probably influenced the Inca.

The Complejo Arqueológico Wari is part of a 300-hectare site that also includes the fields of the Battle of Ayacucho, marked by an imposing 40-foot white obelisk, and the village of Quinua, renowned for craftworks, and where there is a museum of the Battle (3 soles / $1; open 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.).

Getting There
Guided tour from Ayacucho costs 25-60 soles ($8-20). Or you can go on your own: Catch a Quinua-bound bus from Ayacucho’s Barrio Magdalena and alight at the ruins.

Price Description: 3 soles ($1)

Relative price: Budget

Open Hours from:Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.

Open Hours to:Tuesday-Sunday, 5 p.m.

Days Closed:Monday

Travel Skills: beginner/easy.

In or near Ayacucho, you can visit Barrio Santa Ana, Museo Arqueológico Hipólito Unanue, Museo de Arte Popular, Ruinas Vilcashuamán and Baños Intihuatana.