Salar de Uyuni Hill Figures & Salt-Flat Geoglyphs
Salar de Tunupa · Uyuni Salt Flat Lines · Isla Incahuasi Hill Figures
Formative to Middle Horizon (Lípez–Intersalar)·Lípez / Intersalar–early Tiwanaku·🇧🇴 Potosí Department, Daniel Campos Province, Uyuni salt flat surrounds, Isla Incahuasi and Tunupa slopes, Bolivia
About
About Salar de Uyuni Hill Figures & Salt-Flat Geoglyphs
Hill-slope and salt-crust marginal geoglyphs surrounding the world's largest salt flat (10,582 km²) at 3,656 m. On Tunupa volcano footslopes and cactus islands (Isla Incahuasi, Isla del Pescado) 25+ figures were documented by CNRS–UMSA 2016–2021: 12–40 m cleared figures (anthropomorphs with tumi knives, camelid rows) and 150–400 m arrow-straight lines pointing to salt-collecting causeways and quinoa terrace notches. Ceramics link to Lípez–Intersalar Formative (800 BCE–800 CE) salt caravan chiefdoms contemporaneous with early Tiwanaku, who controlled the azurite and salt exchange. Salt crust re-flooding erases marginal lines annually; hill figures on tuff survive. Threat: tourism 4WD ruts.
Why it mattersHighest-altitude salt-flat geoglyph corridor documenting pre-Tiwanaku salt caravans.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Tumi knife anthropomorph meaning
Theories
- 01Salt pilgrimage to Tunupa
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.800 BCE – 800 CE
- Period
- Formative to Middle Horizon (Lípez–Intersalar)
- Culture
- Lípez / Intersalar–early Tiwanaku
- Builders
- Uyuni basin salt pastoral chiefdoms
- Purpose
- Salt route marking and Tunupa volcano offering way
- Abandoned
- c.900 CE (Tiwanaku collapse)
- Rediscovered
- 2016 CNRS drone UMSA
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
800 BCE
Earliest caravan cairns with Formative ceramics
2021
CNRS maps 25 hill figures on Tunupa
On the ground
Structures & features
20.1338° S · 67.4891° W · 3656 m · 2 mapped features
Tunupa Anthropomorph (28 m)
geoglyph28-m tumi-bearing anthropomorph on Tunupa tuff slope
20.1200° S · 67.4800° WSalt-Causeway Arrow Line (400 m)
geoglyph400-m arrow line to pre-Hispanic salt causeway
20.1450° S · 67.4950° W
Gallery