Peruvian City Oldest in Western Hemisphere

“After the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands a chosen land of the Lord” (Ether 13:2). This land, Lehi was promised, would be kept hidden from other nations as long as his descendants served the Lord and remained righteous. Thus, the Nephites, and the Jaredites before them, were the first to occupy this land after the Flood and up to the Conquest by the Spaniards.

In this land, the recent discovery of a city called Caral is a site that may be the oldest city in the Western Hemisphere. Constructed long before the Christian Era, in what is now the Norte Chico region of Peru, just north of Lima in the Supe Valley, Caral ranks on the short list of regions, along with Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, as the first to develop what most people would call civilization.

According to the July/August 2005 issue of Archaeology magazine, this site, covering 165 acres, is one of the largest in Peru, a country with the most archaeological sites in South America. The site contains six pyramids, some originally as high as 70 feet, circular plazas and massive monumental architecture—-a style that seems to be the blueprint for subsequent Andean civilizations for many centuries.
Numerous artifacts have been found at the site, including flutes made from pelican and condor bones and cornets fashioned from llama and deer bones, suggesting the site may have heard its share of music.

Experts think Caral's population could have reached 3,000. The site was occupied for perhaps a millennium and then abandoned for some reason. Another city nearby, Aspero, may even be older—-in fact, could be the world’s oldest city.