Sechura Desert

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The Sechura desert is a desert or savanna ecoregion of coastal Peru. The name sechura derives from a culture that developed called the SEC, around the year 400 B.C. In 1728 the old Sechura town was destroyed by a tsunami and moved to its current location. During El Niño years, flooding is not uncommon; in 1998 the runoff from the floods poured into the coastal Sechura Desert. Where there had been nothing but arid hardscrabble waste for 15 years, suddenly, amazingly, there lay the second largest lake in Peru: 90 miles [145 kilometers] long, 20 miles [30 kilometers] wide, and ten feet [three meters] deep, with occasional parched domes of sand and clay poking up eerily from the surface.

The desert occupies a strip along the northern Pacific coast of Peru south of the Piura Province, extending from the coast 20-100 km inland to the secondary ridges of the Andes Mountains. At its northern end near te city of Piura, the Sechura desert transitions to the Tumbes-Piura tropical-dry forests egoregion (an area that also covers eastern Lambayeque) composed of equatorial dry forests. The total area of the Sechura desert is 188,735 km².

Summer (December through March) is warm and sunny with temperatures that average over 24 °C. In summer it ranges from 25º to 38º. The Winter (June through September) is cool and cloudy with temperatures that vary from 16º C during the night and 24º C during the day.

The numerous short rivers that cross the Sechura have supported human settlements for millennia. A number of urban cultures have flourished here, including the Moche, the Moche thrived on fish, guinea pigs, squash and peanuts. The Sican Culture (c.800-1300) succeeded the Moche, and are known for their lost wax goldsmithing. The rivers still support intensive irrigated agriculture on their fertile bottomlands. Two of Peru's five largest cities, including Piura,and Chiclayo, lie within the region.