Paredones

Paredones sits on a low rise at the edge of Nazca where the road from the highlands comes down into the valley, and it was the Inca administrative post for this section of the coast - a tambo and governing centre on the Qhapaq Ñan, built after the Inca absorbed the region in the fifteenth century. What stands is adobe walling on stone footings, with terraces, storerooms, a series of rooms around courtyards and enough plan surviving to read the layout. Some construction reuses earlier local techniques, which is characteristic of Inca provincial building. It is small compared with the Nazca sites people come for, and it is usually visited on the same ticket as the Cantalloc aqueducts a short distance away, taking half an hour. The position gives a view over the valley, the town and the fields the puquios still water.

What you actually see

• The adobe walls - Inca provincial construction on stone footings.
• The plan - rooms, courtyards, storerooms and terraces still legible.
• The road position - the point where the highland route reaches the coastal valley.
• The view - over Nazca town and the irrigated valley floor.

When to go

Year-round; early or late for heat. Thirty to sixty minutes, normally combined with the Cantalloc aqueducts.

Honest expectations

Modest ruins that take half an hour, and visitors expecting something on the scale of the Nazca lines are underwhelmed. No shade and severe midday heat. Adobe is eroding and parts are fenced. Little interpretation on site.

Nearby

The Cantalloc aqueducts are close; Nazca town is immediately west.