The geoglyphs of Chug-Chug are a series of ancient

geoglyph A geoglyph is a large design or motif – generally longer than – produced on the ground by durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. A positive geoglyph is formed by the arrangement and alignment ...

s located in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

in northern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, northeast of María Elena. The area includes 23

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

s, preserving nearly 500

s distributed along old caravan routes between the oasis of Calama and

Quillagua Quillagua is an oasis at about altitude in the Tocopilla Province, in the Antofagasta Region of northern Chile. It is a part of the commune of María Elena. The Loa River is crossed by the Pan-American Highway in this area. According to the ''Di ...

, the base of an extinct pre-Hispanic town. Geoglyphs Chug-Chug

The oldest of the geoglyphs date back to 1000 BC, while most originated between 900 and 1550 AD, supposedly by the

Atacama The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barren lower slopes ...

and Tarapacá tribes that inhabited the surrounding areas. Similar to the Nazca Lines, the geoglyphs of Chug-Chug include human figures,

zoomorphic The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from and . In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It can also be defined as art that portrays one species of animal like another species of animal or art ...

designs of animals such as birds and llamas and geometric figures like circles and

rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (: rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhom ...

es. The latter were probably used as signs for llama herders and traders to guide the caravans across the several trails. The site and its geoglyphs prove the existence of communication between the lagoon areas and the Pacific Coast, showcasing a variety of representation of men on rafts and harpooning fishes.

References

{{reflist Geoglyphs