The research found flood sediments only on the eastern side of a desert wall built almost 1,000 years ago.
An ancient desert wall in northern Peru was built to protect precious farmlands and canals from the ravages of El Niño floods, according to new research.
Although El Niño brings drought to some other parts of the world, it brings heavy rains to Ecuador and northern Peru. El Niño floods are thought to have occurred there for thousands of years, and they would have been a serious danger to the Chimú, Gabriel Prieto, an archaeologist at the University of Florida, told Live Science.
Today, the Chimú are known mainly for their distinctive pottery and metalwork, as well as for the ruins of their capital, Chan Chan, which are listed by the United Nations as a World Heritage site. "I'd guess, to some degree, that the wall worked like a kind of a dam," Prieto said. The research has not yet been published as a peer-reviewed study.
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