---
node: sa_late_pre_inca
type: period
slug: late_pre_inca_kingdoms
title: "Late pre-Inca kingdoms"
lead: "The late pre-Inca kingdoms (c. 1000–1438) were the regional states that filled the Andes between the fall of Wari and the rise of the Inca. The greatest was the Chimú empire on the north coast of Peru."
published: 2026-07-13
updated: 2026-07-13
---

## Overview

After Tiwanaku and Wari collapsed, the Andes fragmented into many competing polities. The Chimú built Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the Americas, while other kingdoms and confederations ruled stretches of the coast and highlands.

## Key developments

The Chimú (Chimor) controlled a long stretch of the Peruvian coast through irrigation, roads, and mass production of fine metalwork and pottery. In the highlands the Aymara kingdoms and others held the Titicaca basin and mountain valleys.

## End and transition

In the 15th century the expanding Inca conquered the Chimú and the other kingdoms one by one. Their peoples and skills were absorbed into the new Inca empire.