BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- German and Peruvian archaeologists said they have discovered a 5,500-year-old ceremonial plaza near Peru's north-central coast, the oldest known urban settlement in the Americas, according to local media reports Thursday.

    The 14-meter-diameter plaza was discovered beneath Sechin Bajo, an archaeological site about 370 km north of the capital city of Lima.　

    Cesar Perez, an official with Peru's National Institute of Culture, said, "This find is extremely important...German and Peruvian archaeologists have definitively established that the structure is 5,500 years old. Thus we have one of the oldest structures in Peru and perhaps the Americas."

    The circular plaza is dating to about 3500 BC, said Cesar, who supervised the dig, which would make it older than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

    "We've found other pieces of architecture underneath the plaza that could be even older," said German Yenque, an archaeologist at the dig site.

    "There are four or five plazas deeper down, which means the structure was rebuilt several times, perhaps every 100 to 300 years."

    In addition to the sunken plaza, the archaeologists uncovered a 2-meter-tall adobe frieze containing the image of a man. Researchers said the frieze is 3,600 years old.

    Peru is perhaps best known as the cradle of the Inca Empire, which stretched from modern-day Chile to Ecuador. But the Incas were relative latecomers in Peru's long history of human settlement, rising to prominence in the 15th century before being conquered by the Spanish in the early 16th century.

    Before the Inca, Peru was home to various civilizations that left a rich legacy of ruins, pottery, tombs and artifacts.

    (Agencies)