23rd November 2015. Atacama Desert, Northern Chile.

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In the first morning of my visit to the Atacama Desert, I joined a local archæological tour.

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First we visited the ancient village of Tulor.  As the sign says, the village dates from 800BC to 500AD.

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The area is a desert environment today but would not have been as dry when people lived here.

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We are walking towards a couple of recreated houses.

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Inside, we can see something of the way they were built.

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This woman may have been sitting at the empty fireplace for a very long time.

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View through the door (as the guide was trying to hurry me on).

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Remains of the actual dwellings.  The village was at an oasis and was abandoned when the oasis dried up.  It is not well protected and is slowly eroding away.

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I think this is a llama (rather than an alpaca).  In the oasis near our next destination.

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And that is Pukará de Quitor, which the Spanish conquistadors besieged and took in 1540.

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The fortress was built around 1200 by the Atacameño people, who occupied the land from around 8,000BC.

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The Tiwanaka people were overlords from 400 to 1000AD and the Incas shortly before the Spanish Conquest.

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As you can see, it it a large fortification, protected by a gorge on the other side.  The Spanish took it with the aid of Yanacona Indians.  They then executed 300 of the local defenders and displayed the heads on poles.  At that time, it became known as “the City of the Heads”.

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The oasis it was built beside is still there.

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