13.0606°S, 74.1989°W.
Wari, also spelled Huari, is the capital city of the Wari empire, located in the Ayacucho region of central Peru at 2,800 metres elevation. The city flourished from approximately 500 to 1000 CE and at its peak covered some 15 to 25 square kilometres, making it among the largest pre-Hispanic urban centers in South America. The architecture is dominated by orthogonal walled compounds built of fieldstone and mudbrick, with multistory rectangular structures, semi-subterranean temples in D-shape, and dense residential blocks. Excavations by Luis Lumbreras, William Isbell, and Anita Cook over the past five decades have documented elite residences in the Vegachayoq Moqo and Monjachayoq sectors, the latter containing a stone-cut chamber tomb. The Wari developed terrace agriculture, road infrastructure, and provincial administrative centers later inherited by the Inca. The capital was abandoned around 1000 CE for reasons still debated.
The high compound walls of Cheqo Wasi still stand among the agave and prickly pear of the modern landscape.