Explore Peru’s colourful culture and learn how people have flourished for millennia in one of the world’s most complicated and demanding environments.

This exhibition commemorates Peru’s bicentennial year of independence by highlighting the history, beliefs, and cultural achievements of the various peoples that lived here from roughly 2500 BC until the entrance of Europeans in the 1500s, as well as their legacy in subsequent centuries.

Discover how the various environments of the central Andes affected ancient cultures, flourishing at some of the highest altitudes and in some of the driest deserts on the planet, from Peru’s early indigenous peoples to the ill-fated Inca. Discover how they pioneered novel approaches to time, agriculture, economics, and power, some of which are still in use today.

Ceramics, precious metals, textiles, and ceremonial accoutrements from the British Museum’s collection, as well as exceptional works loaned from Peru, are shown in the exhibition. Visitors will be able to get a sense of place and appreciate the aesthetic and architectural capabilities of ancient Andean societies through striking, large-scale imagery and movies of prominent monuments like the Nasca geoglyphs and Machu Picchu.