A journey back through the most ancient history of Peru. Four thousand years before the Incas and the arrival of the Conquistadors, the Andes and the northern coast were the cradle of Peru’s earliest civilizations. This is known as the Formative Period, when the religious class began to build sanctuaries that became centers of learning that people traveled long distances to visit in search of knowledge of the best seasons to plant their crops or of the arrival the El Niño weather phenomenon. The Chavín, Caral, Ventarrón, Sechin and Cupisnique cultures reached surprising levels of technological development, with works like the Cumbemayo canals, of the Cajamarca culture, the largest work of hydrological engineering carried out in the ancient Americas.