2 Best Sights in Lima, Peru

From 1980 to 2000, two terrorist groups waged a fierce war against the Peruvian state: Sendero Luminoso and the Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru. Their assaults and the brutal reaction of the Peruvian military left some 70,000 citizens dead—mostly poor campesinos (country folk) from the sierra. This somber museum commemorates that dark period, with historical exhibits and video testimony from many of the victims. The displays are all in Spanish, but even if you don't know the language, this place makes an impression.

You can view an even more powerful exhibit on Sendero Luminoso on the sixth floor of the Ministerio de la Cultura, in the San Borja district.

Housed in an 18th-century quinta that has been occupied by both José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, this fascinating if somewhat discombobulated museum is like Peru's national attic. The left wing is dedicated to pre-Columbian civilizations, with special emphasis on the cultures of Paracas, Chavín, and Nazca; in it, the crowning treasure is the Stella Raimondi, a 2,000-year-old slab inscribed with images of the so-called Staff God, a deity born in Chavín de Huántar that presided over Andean religion for more than a millennium. On the museum's right side, a rambling mansion harbors a collection of independence-era artifacts, including Bolívar's own saber, a pair of viceregal carriages, and reconstructions of a typical 18th-century Lima interior. It's a bit of a hodgepodge, but the peek it affords into Peru's 5,000-year evolution is tantalizing.

Part of the museum's pre-Hispanic wing was closed for remodeling as of this writing, but the exhibits featuring the Stella Raimondi and the Tello Obelisk remain open, as are the museum's beautifully refurbished republican-era halls.