Chan Chan Archaeological Park: looming threats and suggested remedies

Chan Chan, the largest city built in adobe on the American continent, was the capital of the Chimor Empire, developed on the north coast of Peru between the third and fifteenth centuries of our era. Included in the UNESCO WHL in 1986, was then the subject of an extensive management plan approved by the Peruvian Government in the year 2000 and known as Plan Maestro. The MIPE (Italian Mission in Peru) of the ISPC (Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale), from the year 2002 has been working for the realization of the Plan Maestro in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. This is carried out through the documentation of architectural structures and urban settlement, the regularization of the boundaries of the core and the buffer zone and the enhancement of the archaeological complex through modern visualization technologies. The natural threats recorded in recent years (floods due to phenomenon of Niño, wind erosion, groundwater level and rising humidity) often also caused by an incorrect human behavior, have even more harmful effects on a material such as that of raw earth. The poor management of the core zone, crossed by a driveway, and the lack of legislative regularization of buffer zones cause increased air pollution and devastation of the historical landscape. The MIPE has therefore activated a project for the evaluation of threats and the verification of vulnerabilities of the site even with support of traditional and ancient practices.