Supe

Supe is a toponym used in central coastal Peru. The district of Supe is located in Barranca Province, Lima Region, and serves as the administrative center of Supe District. The name is closely linked to the Supe River and the Supe Valley, a broad coastal valley through which the river flows toward the Pacific.

The Valle de Supe, or Supe Valley, is notable for its archaeology. The valley hosts the Caral archaeological complex, often described as part of the Caral-Supe or Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest known complex societies in the Americas, dating to around 3000 BCE. The region contains several large ceremonial centers and residential settlements. In 2009, the Caral-Supe Archaeological Zone was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

In Spanish, supe is the first-person singular preterite form of saber, meaning “I knew” or “I found out.” As a word, it appears primarily in this grammatical context and is not related to the geographic uses of the name Supe.

Beyond its Peru-related uses, the term Supe is primarily encountered as a proper noun in the context of the district and valley. Other uses are limited and typically arise from the same phonetic form as the Spanish verb rather than as distinct entities.