Geoglifos de Pintados
Pintados Geoglyphs · Pampa del Tamarugal Geoglyphs
Late Formative to Late Intermediate (700–1500 CE)·Atacameño, Tarapacá and Altiplano caravan cultures·🇨🇱 Tarapacá Region, Chile
Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domain
About
About Geoglifos de Pintados
More than 400 large-scale geoglyphs etched into the dark desert varnish of the Pampa del Tamarugal, 95 km inland from Iquique. Covering a 5-km hillside at Cerro Pintados, figures include 50+ anthropomorphs, camelids, birds, geometrics and 30-m arrows executed between 700–1500 CE by caravan cultures linking the Altiplano to the Pacific. Unlike Nazca's pecked lines, Pintados combines additive stone piles and subtractive clearing, with aggregate footprint exceeding 1,200 figures across seven pan-Atacama clusters; the Pintados cluster is the densest and best dated via embedded midden C14.
Why it mattersLargest caravan-linked geoglyph concentration in world; key to understanding pre-Inca trans-desert exchange and Andean ideology spread to Pacific oasis enclaves.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether figures functioned primarily as waymarkers vs ritual supplication for caravan success
- 02Why anthropomorphs dominate Pintados but not northern Atacama giant cluster
Theories
- 01Altiplano–coast caravan identity beacon system
- 02Shamanic hunting-magic transposed to llama caravan protection
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.700–1500 CE (Late Intermediate Period)
- Period
- Late Formative to Late Intermediate (700–1500 CE)
- Culture
- Atacameño, Tarapacá and Altiplano caravan cultures
- Builders
- Tarapacá caravan groups and Tiwanaku-influenced traders
- Purpose
- Caravan route marking, ritual signalling and territorial claim along nitrate-pampa trails
- Abandoned
- c.1500 CE Spanish disruption of caravan networks
- Rediscovered
- 1930s aerophotography; 1980s Lautaro Núñez survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
700 CE
Earliest geoglyphs dated by associated Tarapacá midden
1000 CE
Peak construction with Tiwanaku caravan expansion
1985
Lautaro Núñez systematic recording
2015
UNESCO tentative nomination
On the ground
Structures & features
20.6142° S · 69.5441° W · 1035 m · 3 mapped features
Cerro Pintados Main Panel
geoglyph panelDense hillside with 150+ figures including rhomboid anthropomorphs and flamingo
20.6142° S · 69.5441° WSouthern Caravan Arrow
geoglyph30-m directional arrow geoglyph aligning with oasis track
20.6220° S · 69.5500° WCerro Mono Geoglyph Field (satellite)
geoglyph panelAdjacent hill with contrasting subtractive technique
20.5800° S · 69.5200° W
Gallery