Wari Empire

The Wari (Huari) Empire rose around 600 CE in the Ayacucho Basin of the Peruvian highlands and ruled much of coastal and highland Peru for five centuries, until about 1100. Contemporary with Tiwanaku to the south, with which it is often compared, Wari built the first expansive Andean empire: a capital of stone-walled compounds at Huari housing tens of thousands, provincial administrative centres strung along highland roads, and far-flung colonies such as Cerro Patapo near Chiclayo in the far north, found only in 2008. Terraced fields, raised-bed agriculture and state storehouses fed armies and artisans; Wari tapestry tunics, face-neck jars and tight urban planning set the template the Inca would later inherit. The 2023 discovery of a 1,200-year-old ritual complex at Arequipa shows the empire's reach is still being mapped. Around 1100 the administrative system unravelled into regional kingdoms, leaving the highland-coast corridors its roads had joined. Tapestry tunics and face-neck jars from Huari workshops still define the Wari style in museums.