Chimú

South American civilization that flourished on the coast of Peru from about 1250 to about 1470, when it was conquered by the Incas. The Chimú people produced fine work in gold, realistic portrait pottery, savage fanged feline images in clay, and possibly a system of writing or recording by painting patterns on beans. They built aqueducts carrying water many miles, and the huge, mazelike city of Chan Chan, 36 sq km/14 sq mi, on the coast near Trujillo.

The Chimú people built enormous adobe brick mounds or huacas as the base of temples and palaces. Chan Chan consists of nine complexes, probably built by successive kings to form their eventual tombs. Their agricultural system depended on extensive irrigation; the invading Incas ensured victory by cutting the Chimú aqueducts.