Chenque Hill ( ) is a hill in

Comodoro Rivadavia Comodoro Rivadavia (), often shortened to Comodoro ( ), is a city in the Patagonian Provinces of Argentina, province of Chubut Province, Chubut in southern Argentina, located on the San Jorge Gulf, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, at the foot of th ...

in southern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, which divides the city in two. The business district area lies at the foot of the hill. The hill is considered a sacred symbol of Comodoro, as referenced in the city's

anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...

. Its highest summit reaches 212 m above sea level.

Toponymy

The word '' chenque'' is frequently used in Patagonia—and to a lesser extent in the Pampas region—to refer to

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

indigenous tombs. One of the first references to the term is in the 1905 work "The Stone Age in Patagonia" by French researcher Henri de La Vaulx, who uses the term ''chenque'' to refer to human burial structures. Chenques are characterized by placing the corpse(s) on the ground then piling it up with stones. The chenque was generally located on top of hills, facing east. In

, the hill was given the name "Chenque" because indigenous peoples such as the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

once used it as a cemetery. Coincidentally, the first settlers who arrived at the beginning of the 20th century had their first cemetery at the foot of Chenque Hill in 1904, near the current site of National Route 3. Later, as the city developed, the cemetery became overwhelmed by the 1940s. The cemetery operated exclusively for about 40 years. However, due to a lack of space, the government of the Comodoro Rivadavia Military Zone eventually opened the Western Cemeteries in the southern zone and another one in the northern zone. In the following years, the transfer of bodies from the old cemetery began, and the final excavation was carried out in the 1980s. The move was fraught with difficulties and irregularities, mainly due to the condition of the wooden coffins and their breakage while trying to move them from one cemetery to another. Thus, the remains of tombs and skeletons can be seen resting by the shore, as a result of their incomplete transfer. Years later, when landslide hit the hill in the 1990s, authorities built a temporary route alongside the old one, above where the old cemetery was. Afterwards, when the original layout of National Route No. 3 was rebuilt, the temporary route fell into disuse, and many people had forgotten about the cemetary. However, in 2015, the city erected a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

on that site, in remembrance to the first settlers. Moreover, the city created a circuit with games, exercise equipment and chairs for lounging—all facing the sea, in a location that once housed Comodoro's first cemetery.

Legends

One legend claims that anyone who visits Chenque Hill and rubs their hands in the sandy soil will return to the region, summoned by the spirits of the ancestors who rest there. This is a popular belief that persuades people to return to the area, similar to the calafate myth, which claims that anyone who tastes barberries will never leave Patagonia, and whoever leaves will always eventually return. Another legend claims that anyone who digs and removes skeletons or other artifacts from the hill will be punished—not just themselves but their own family members as wel. According to this legend, those who keep artifacts from Chenque are to be cursed to death.Real, Octavio Del
Chenque Hill and its legends
(in Spanish). ''Ser Argentino''.

Hazards

The Chenque Hill has been noted as a reason of concern for its slips, mainly in the so-called area ().

References

Landforms of Chubut Province Landforms of Argentina {{Chubut-geo-stub