Chancay

Chancay is a small city in Huaral Province in the Lima Region, 78 kilometres north of Lima, with a population given in the article as 63,378. The town and its valley gave their name to the pre-Columbian Chancay culture, which covered an area centred on the Chancay and Chillón valleys and later became part of the Inca Empire. The modern settlement was founded in 1562 as the Villa de Arnedo. Its main attraction is El Castillo, a faux castle built in the nineteenth century and recently repaired, which holds a small museum of Chancay pottery and mummies, and the city is a tourist resort for nearby Lima. It is the site of the Chancay Mega-port, a deep-water port built by China as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, which began operating in November 2024 with COSCO Shipping as its exclusive operator and a channel dredged to 17 metres. Until the harbour was built the main economy was fishing, and local fishermen now complain of smaller catches.