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The Northern Desert remains one of the least visited areas of Peru, due as much to its distance from Lima and Cusco as its lack of obvious attractions. Despite the fact that it offers a considerable amount in terms of landscape, wildlife and history, with a complex cultural identity that's quite distinct and strongly individualistic, its popular image is of a desolate zone of scattered rural communities - a myth that belies both its past and its present. Today, its main cities of Chiclayo and Piura are both important and lively commercial centres, serving not only the desert coast but large areas of the Andes as well. Before Pizarro arrived in this region during the sixteenth century to begin the Conquest, the Northern Desert had formed part of both the Inca and Chimu empires and hosted a number of local pre-Columbian cultures, and in recent years the Lambayeque Valley , near Chiclayo, has become a focus of interest for archeologists. Various tombs and temples, full of gold, silver and precious stones such as emeralds, have been discovered, providing substantial information about life around here some thousand years ago. The coastal resorts, such as La Pimentel , are among the best reasons for stopping: though small, they usually have at least basic facilities for travellers, and, most importantly, the ocean is warmer here than anywhere else in the country. This region has much historic interest, too, in Tucume and Batan Grande , two immense pre-Inca ceremonial centres within easy reach of Chiclayo . With the Andes rising over 6000m to the east, this northern coastal strip of Peru has always been slightly isolated and access even today is restricted to just a few roads, including the main north-south Panamerican Highway, a new cross-desert road linking Chiclayo and Piura, and two minor routes straggling over the Andes. If, like a lot of travellers, you decide to bus straight through from Trujillo to the Ecuadorean border town beyond Tumbes (or vice versa) in a single journey, you'll be missing out on all of this - and also the region's strong sense of history . It was at Tumbes that Pizarro's Andalucian sea pilot, Bartholomew Ruiz, discovered the first evidence of civilization south of the equator - a large balsa sail raft - in 1527. And, five years on, it was off this northern coast that Pizarro and the conquistadores first dropped anchor, before coming ashore to change the course of Peru's history.
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