It is located in the Supe valley of Peru, near the current town of Caral, 182 kilometers north of Lima, 23 km from the coast and 350 metres above sea level.

No other site has been found with such a diversity of monumental buildings or different ceremonial and administrative functions in the Americas as early as Caral.

Ruth Shady further explored this 4,000- to 4,600-year-old city in the Peruvian desert, with its elaborate complex of temples, an amphitheater, and ordinary houses.

Caral was a thriving metropolis at roughly the same time as the great pyramids were being built in Egypt, which is considered one of the earliest civilizations in the world.

It appears to be the model for the urban design adopted by Andean civilizations that rose and fell over the span of four millennia.

Scholars believe that research conducted in Caral may answer questions about the origins of the Andean civilizations and the development of its first cities.

They write that the artifact is evidence that the quipu record keeping system, a method involving knots tied in textiles that was brought to its highest development by the Inca Empire, was older than any archaeologist previously had determined.

[11] Caral was flanked by 19 other temple complexes scattered across the 90 square kilometres (35 sq mi) area of the Supe Valley.

However, 19 other sites in the area (posted at Caral), allow for a possible total population of 20,000 people sharing the same culture in the Supe Valley.

[11] In 2000, Marco Machacuay (the chief of excavations at the time) and his colleague, Rocío Aramburú, discovered a large shape etched on the ground among circular stone lines near Caral.

[13] Another significant find at the site was a collection of musical instruments, including 37 cornetts made of deer and llama bones and 33 flutes of unusual construction.

[15] In the Upper Half of Caral, many of the residents were wealthy elites, whose lives likely were associated with religious and social activities that would have taken place in the temples.

Instead of the large structures, exclusively elite residential complexes of the Upper Half, these residences are smaller and single rooms are used for more than one purpose.

This sort of intentional city planning is evidence of structuralized inequality at Caral, which perpetuated existing social stratification.