Archaeological sights in South America
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Museo Paleontológico
About 1km northeast of town, Museo Paleontológico has a collection of locally found fossils dating from the period when the area was a sea bed (100 to 150 million years ago).
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Aldea de Tulor
Circular adobe structures huddle together like muddy bubble-wrap in the ruins of Tulor, the oldest excavated village in the region. It's just a short drive west of San Pedro, or jump on your bike and get peddling!
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Royal Tomb
Below the Temple of the Sun, this almost hidden, natural rock cave was carefully carved by Inca stonemasons. Its use is highly debated; though known as the Royal Tomb, no mummies were actually ever found here.
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Huaca Huallamarca
Nestled among condominium towers and sprawling high-end homes, the simple Huaca Huallamarca is a highly restored adobe pyramid, produced by the Lima culture, that dates to AD 200 to 500. A small on-site museum, complete with mummy, details its excavation.
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Sechín
Sechín, 5km southeast of Casma, is one of Peru’s granddaddy archaeological sites, dating from about 1600 BC. It is among the more important and well-preserved ruins along this coast, though it has suffered some damage from grave robbers and natural disasters.
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Acorema Interpretation Center
The dusty Acorema Interpretation Center , housed in a curious old Swiss-style building, has tame exhibits on biodiversity and conservation in Paracas plus a large whale skeleton tucked away to one side. It's in a dangerous part of town near the beach, so take a mototaxi.
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Incan Citadel
This hilltop Incan citadel lies high above the village of Pisac on a triangular plateau with a plunging gorge on either side. It's a truly awesome site, but you'll see surprisingly few tourists here, except mid-morning on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, when it becomes flooded with tour groups.
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de Sitio Manuel Chávez Ballón
Don't miss the new Museo de Sitio Manuel Chávez Ballón by Puente Ruinas at the base of the footpath to Machu Picchu. Buses headed back from the ruins to Aguas Calientes will stop upon request at the bridge, from where you can head back to town later, usually less than a half hour's walk.
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El Fósil
This impressive 120-million-year-old baby kronosaurus fossil is the world’s most complete specimen of this prehistoric marine reptile. The fossil is 7m long; the creature was about 12m in size but the tail did not survive. The fossil remains in place exactly where it was found in 1977.
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San Agustín
One of South America's most important archaeological sites, San Agustín is made up of more than 500 statues and stone tombs from a civilization that existed long before the Europeans arrived. Although scattered over a wide area around the upper Río Magdalena gorge, most of the statues are in two main sites - Parque Arqueológico and Alto de los Ídolos.
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Museo JC Tello
Inside the Reserva Nacional de Paracas, next door to the park visitor centre, is the Museo JC Tello. Unfortunately, the museum's best pieces were stolen a few years ago, but an interesting collection of weavings, trophy heads and trepanned skulls (showing an ancient medical technique wherein a slice of the skull is removed, relieving pressure on the brain resulting from injuries) remains.
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Sacristy
Behind and connected to the Principal Temple lies this famous small building. It has many well-carved niches, perhaps used for the storage of ceremonial objects, as well as a carved stone bench. The Sacristy is especially known for the two rocks flanking its entrance; each is said to contain 32 angles, but it’s easy to come up with a different number whenever you count them.
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Cahuachi
A dirt road travels 25km west from Nazca to Cahuachi , the most important known Nazca center, which is still undergoing excavation. It consists of several pyramids, a graveyard and an enigmatic site called Estaquería, which may have been used as a place of mummification. Tours from Nazca take three hours and may include a side trip to Pueblo Viejo, a nearby pre-Nazca residential settlement.
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Principal Temple
The ‘temple’ derives its name from the massive solidity and perfection of its construction. The damage to the rear right corner is the result of the ground settling below this corner rather than any inherent weakness in the masonry itself.
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San José de Lules
Until 1767, San José de Lules was a Jesuit reducción (Indian settlement created by Spanish missionaries) among the region's Lule Indians. After the Jesuits' expulsion, the Dominicans assumed control of the complex - their ruins, which date from the 1880s, once served as a school. The small museum has replicas of colonial documents and a plethora of busts of various Argentine independence heroes.
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Phuyupatamarka
Towards the end of the Inca Trail, you'll reach the beautiful, well-restored ruin of Phuyupatamarka (Town Above the Clouds), about 3600m (11,811ft) above sea level, which contains a stunning series of ceremonial baths with water running through them. A ridge here also offers camping - while it's a fabulous spot to watch the sun set, it's also the place where keen trekkers leave at 03:00 in a race to reach the Sun Gate in time for sunrise.
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Moai
There's probably one main reason for coming to Easter Island: the maoi, those imposing, mysterious statues carved from compressed volcanic ash. They are scattered throughout the island, and the great mystery lies in how they were moved around after they were carved (around AD 1000). We're not sure how high up they are on your list of 'things you have to see before you die', but we highly recommend getting out there and checking them out.
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Temple of the Moon
To get to the small Temple of the Moon, you take a plunging path down past Wayna Picchu. The trail is easy to follow, but involves steep sections, a ladder and an overhanging cave, where you have to bend over to get by. The spectacular trail drops and climbs steeply before plunging into the cloud forest. Suddenly, you reach a cleared area where the small, very well-made ruins are found. It's just a shame they're marred by graffiti.
The descent takes about an hour, and the ascent back to the main Wayna Picchu trail longer.
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Temple of the Sun
Just above and to the left of the baths is Machu Picchu’s only round building, a curved and tapering tower of exceptional stonework.
The Temple of the Sun is cordoned off to visitors, but you can see into it from above, which is how you'll be approaching it if you take the stairs leading down and to the left from the caretaker's hut.
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Paracas Necropolis
Inside the Reserva Nacional de Paracas, a few hundred meters behind the park visitors complex is the 5000-year-old remains of the Paracas Necropolis, a late site of the Paracas culture, which predated the Incas by more than a thousand years. A stash of over 400 funerary bundles was found here, each wrapped in many layers of colorful, woven shrouds for which the Paracas culture is famous. There's little to see now though.
Lima's Museo de la Nación and Ica's Museo Regional de Ica exhibit some exquisite textiles and other finds from the site.
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Pachacamac
Situated about 31km southeast of the city center, the archaeological complex of Pachacamac is a pre-Columbian citadel made up of adobe and stone palaces and temple pyramids. If you’ve been to Machu Picchu, it may not look like much, but this was an important Inca site and a major city when the Spanish arrived. It began as a ceremonial center for the Lima culture beginning at about AD 100, and was later expanded by the Waris before being taken over by the Ichsma. The Incas added numerous other structures upon their arrival to the area in 1450. The name Pachacamac, which can be variously translated as ‘He who Animated the World’ or ‘He who Created Land and Time, ’ comes…
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Nazca Lines
Spread across an incredible 500 sq km (193 sq mi) of arid, rock-strewn land, the Nazca Lines remain one of the world's great archaeological mysteries. Eight hundred straight lines, geometric figures and some spectacular animal and plant drawings, the lines are almost imperceptible at ground level; only viewed from above do they form their striking vision.
So, who made the lines and why? Theories abound regarding their purpose, from a giant astronomical calendar to an extraterrestrial landing site. A more recent (and down-to-earth) hypothesis posits that the lines were part of a water fertility cult that once ruled Peru's southern desert. Entry on foot is prohibited to…
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Intihuatana
This Quechua word loosely translates as the ‘Hitching Post of the Sun’ and refers to the carved rock pillar, often mistakenly called a sundial, which stands at the top of the Intihuatana hill. The Inca astronomers were able to predict the solstices using the angles of this pillar. Thus, they were able to claim control over the return of the lengthening summer days. Exactly how the pillar was used for these astronomical purposes remains unclear, but its elegant simplicity and high craftwork make it a highlight of the complex.
Exactly how the pillar was used for these astronomical purposes remains unclear, but its elegant simplicity and high craftwork make it a…
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Tambo Colorado
Tambo Colorado, an early Inca lowland outpost about 45km northeast of Pisco, was named for the red paint that once completely covered its adobe walls. It's one of the best-preserved sites on the south coast and is thought to have served as an administrative base and control point for passing traffic, mostly conquered peoples. An on-site caretaker will collect the fee and can answer questions in Spanish.
From Pisco, it takes about an hour to get there by car. Hire a taxi for half a day or take a tour from Pisco (two-person minimum). A combi through the village of Humay passes Tambo Colorado 20 minutes beyond the village; it leaves from the Pisco market early in the morning…
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Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku)
Although no one is certain whether it was the capital of a nation, Tiahuanaco undoubtedly served as a great ceremonial center. At its peak, the city had a population of 20,000 inhabitants. While only a small percentage of the original site has been excavated, Tiahuanaco represents the greatest megalithic architectural achievement of pre-Inca South America.
Tiahuanaco's most outstanding structure is the Akapana pyramid, which was built on an existing geological formation. At its base, this roughly square hill covers a surface area of about 200 sq m (2152 sq ft). In the center of the flat summit is an oval-shaped sunken area, which some sources attribute to early,…
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