Back in 2011, I contributed to Louis Greenberg’s anthology, Home Away: 24 hours, 24 cities, now an out-of-print gem of South African writing. My hour was melancholy 5pm, of course; and my city was the ancient ruined Peruvian city of Chan Chan. You can read my short meditation on the city here: Chan-Chan-at-close-of-day-2. (I’m also particularly fond of this little piece because it includes a little pen illustration by my mother.)

I was reminded of it recently by Paul M.Cooper’s excellent “ruin of the day” series on Twitter:

#RuinoftheDay: Chan Chan, Peru.

The seat of the ancient Chimú civilization on Peru’s arid coast, this vast adobe complex contains plazas, houses, temples & storerooms. Its name means “sun sun”.

Chan Chan fell into decline around 1470 CE, after the Inca conquered the Chimú. pic.twitter.com/Q2j9SpOjRp

— Paul 🌹📚 Cooper (@PaulMMCooper) December 20, 2017