Peru 's earliest inhabitants can be traced back to migrants reaching the North American continent from Asia . After crossing the Behring Strait and slowly pushing southward, some groups eventually settled along the coast and in the highlands and tropical forest regions of present-day Peru . Each of these areas witnessed the development of a variety of cultures over thousands of years.

Highly developed communities flourished long before the rise of the Inca empire and left tangible signs of their presence. Their chronology extends from the year 8000 B.C. to 1532 A.D., when Peru was conquered by Francisco Pizarro .

Remnants of Peru's early civilisations include the ruins of Chan Chan (from Mochica Jang-Jang = sun-sun), capital of the ancient Chimu kingdom; the pottery and textiles of the Nazca culture, in whose territory lie the mysterious Nazca lines, which some believe may have served to direct incoming spacecraft, and which will perhaps one day be deciphered; the Paracas culture, whose textiles have retained their splendour intact after thousands of years; the Tiahuanaco culture, which flourished around Lake Titicaca over an area covering parts of modem Peru and Bolivia; the highland Chavin and Wan cultures, and the Chancay, Chimu, Mochica, Lambayeque and Moche cultures along Peru's northern coast, where the recent discovery of the "Lord of Sipan" funeral site has been described as the single most momentous archaeological find since Tutankhamun.