Since pre-Incan times they were of interest for their extensive guano deposits, but the supplies were mostly exhausted by 1874.

The largest of the islands, Isla Chincha Norte (English:North Chincha Island), is 1.3 kilometres (0.8 mi) long and up to 1.0 kilometre (0.6 mi) wide, and rises to a height of 34 metres (112 ft).

The islands are mostly granite, and bordered with cliffs on all sides, upon which great numbers of seabirds nest.

The Chincha Islands were featured in an 1854 book by the American author George Washington Peck titled Melbourne, and the Chincha Islands: With Sketches of Lima, and a Voyage Round the World.

The book chronicled Peck's time spent in Melbourne, Australia, as well as the Chincha Islands.