ARQUEOLOGICAL CIRCUIT, AZAPA VALLEY & MUSEUM

Geoglyphs (indigenous designs on slopes of hills 1100-1400 d.c.), Cerro Sombrero (prehispanic settlements), Sacred Hill, Pukara San Lorenzo (pre-Inca fortress), San Miguel de Azapa Arqueological Museum (chinchorro mummies 6.000 B.C.), Azapa valley with its olive groves and agricultural diversity surrounded by sand dunes.

Includes: cocktail & entrance to Museum.

CHINCHORRO CULTURE:
An unique treasure of the great Atacama Desert are the ancient Chinchorro mummies of the indigenous people, which are the oldest preserved mummies in the world, some dated 6,000 B.C., thus predating the acclaimed Egyptian embalming 3,000 years ago. The mummification process was very elaborated. There were two techniques: One consisted in extracting all the organs from the abdominal and thoracic cavities and replaced them with vegetable fiber and camelid skins and the other one consisted of removing all the soft tissue and leaving a clean skeleton; then the bone structure was reinforced with sticks tying then with chords made of twisted reed fibers. Then they put layers of clay and matting to rebuild the body. Manganese or red oxide was put on top to give it a shine. Instead of leaving an ugly skull they would make a nice mask and put back the original hair. What most impresses the archaeologists and anthropologists is how much these primitive people cared for their dead and the respect they had for human beings regardless of their age, sex or rank.