City of Kings
Walk the streets where South American colonial history began — from the spot Pizarro founded Lima in 1535 to catacombs holding 70,000 bones, a cathedral hiding a fake mummy scandal, and the oldest university in the Americas.
Start
Plaza San Martin
End
Santo Domingo
Tour Stops (8)
Plaza San Martin
Lima's grandest civic square, inaugurated for the centennial of Peruvian independence in 1921, crowned by a monument to the liberator with an accidental llama.
Iglesia de la Merced
The site of the first Latin Mass celebrated in Lima, with a granite Churrigueresque facade that is one of the finest examples of ultra-Baroque in the Americas.
Plaza Mayor
The exact spot where Pizarro laid out Lima in 1535 — the political and ceremonial heart of the city for nearly five centuries, with a bronze fountain from 1651.
Lima Cathedral & Pizarro's Tomb
Lima's grand cathedral, where Pizarro laid the first stone in 1535 — home to one of the great mummy scandals in Latin American history.
Archbishop's Palace
A 1924 Neo-Colonial masterpiece with enormous carved cedar balconies — the finest surviving examples of Lima's once-famous balcones de cajon.
Government Palace
Built on the exact site of Pizarro's original residence, where he was assassinated in 1541 — today the seat of Peru's president with a daily changing of the guard.
San Francisco & the Catacombs
Lima's largest colonial religious complex with a UNESCO-listed church above and a labyrinth of catacombs below, holding the bones of up to 70,000 people arranged in geometric patterns.
Santo Domingo
The oldest religious foundation in Lima, where the oldest university in the Americas held its first classes and two of the continent's most beloved saints are buried.