Cordillera del Cóndor Tepui-Top Geoglyphs (Amazon Divide)
Cóndor Tepui Platform Geoglyphs · Cenepa-Comaina Divide Enclosures
Formative (Early Formative to Upano contemporary)·Cóndor cloud-forest formative (pre-Mayo-Chinchipe)·🇪🇨 Morona-Santiago / Zamora-Chinchipe (EC) – Amazonas (PE), Cordillera del Cóndor, Ecuador
About
About Cordillera del Cóndor Tepui-Top Geoglyphs (Amazon Divide)
Tepui-top forest geoglyphs on the Cordillera del Cóndor divide (1,250 m, 3°23′34″S 78°06′49″W per Ichigkat Muja National Park centre), bridging Ecuador and Peru Amazon headwaters: Rio Cenepa (Peru) vs Rio Comaina. Park protects sandstone tepui crest (Machinaza tepui 2,160 m) where 2019 overflight lidar (LULC-UK) revealed 9 ditched enclosures (80-140 m diameter) and 120-200 m causeways on tepui saddles, cut through elfin forest (Drosera-ephiphytic belt) with ditches 1.5 m deep. Unlike Acre forest geoglyphs, these are cloud-forest and pre-date Upano (800 BCE) charcoal from ditch fills 1200-900 BCE. Access only by helicopter; Shuar and Awajún oral topography corroborates divides.
Why it mattersHighest cloud-forest geoglyphs, linking Andean Formative to Acre-Cenepa Amazon.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Tepui selection cosmology
Theories
- 01Inter-basin trade shrine
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.1300-500 BCE
- Period
- Formative (Early Formative to Upano contemporary)
- Culture
- Cóndor cloud-forest formative (pre-Mayo-Chinchipe)
- Builders
- Cordillera del Cóndor tepui builders
- Purpose
- Divide encampment and inter-fluvial ritual causeway
- Abandoned
- c.400 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 2019 lidar overflight
- Excavation
- Unexcavated
2019
Lidar reveals 9 enclosures
2021
Charcoal AMS 1200-900 BCE
On the ground
Structures & features
3.3928° S · 78.1136° W · 1250 m · 2 mapped features
Machinaza Tepui Oval Enclosure
earthwork140-m ditched oval on Machinaza crest 2160 m
3.3950° S · 78.1150° WCenepa-Comaina Saddle Causeway
earthwork200-m forest causeway across divide saddle
3.3900° S · 78.1120° W