An elevated walkway allows for nondestructive viewing of the carved red sandstone rock that is the ceremonial center of Samaipata Fort (elev. 1,900m/6,234ft). Weather erosion cannot be stopped, however.

In the background is the fort’s ceremonial center which is carved into a red sandstone rock. The carvings include representations of animals, geometric shapes, niches, canals, and ritual spaces. The large niches along the base were part of temples and sanctuaries.

The Chané of the Mojocoyas culture arrived here as early as 300 CE and began shaping the rock. The Incas made the site a provincial capital on the eastern frontier of their empire in the 14th century. It was a key defense against the warlike Chiriguanos of the Chaco region in the 1520s. (Samaipata means ‘resting place in the heights’ in Quechua, the language of the Incas.) The strategic location was also recognized by the Spaniards as they began to mine silver at Potosí to the southwest in 1545. (Erich von Däniken’s speculation in the 1960s that the rock was designed as a landing site for UFOs has been largely rejected.)

Fuerte de Samaipata was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

On Google Earth: