13.7053°S, 75.8292°W.
Tambo Colorado is one of the best-preserved Inca administrative centers on the Peruvian coast, located in the Pisco Valley 45 kilometres inland from the Pacific. The site was built in the late 15th century during the reign of Topa Inca following the conquest of the Chincha and surrounding south-coast polities. Construction is entirely in adobe and tapia, with walls still bearing traces of original red, white, and yellow polychrome plaster — the source of the modern name. The complex is laid out around a large trapezoidal plaza with the residential compound for the Inca and his retinue on the north side, garrison quarters along the south, and a ceremonial Ushnu platform centered on the plaza axis. Max Uhle visited and described the site in 1900 as part of his foundational Andean survey. The trapezoidal niches and doorways characteristic of imperial Inca architecture are repeated across every wall.
Original red plaster still adheres to the protected interior corners of the principal compound.