Fuerte de Samaipata
Coordinates: 18 ° 11 ′ S , 63 ° 49 ′ W
El Fuerte de Samaipata (Spanish: Fortress of Samaipata ) is a ruin site of the Inca culture in Bolivia . It has been protected as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1998 . El Fuerte de Samaipata is located on a mountain peak 1,950 meters above sea level in the foothills of the Cordillera Oriental (eastern Andes ). The plant is located near the small town of Samaipata , around 120 kilometers southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra .
The complex of el Fuerte de Samaipata covers about 40 hectares and consists of a sandstone rock about 200 meters long and 40 meters wide and a plateau south of the rock. Countless lines, canals, steps, figures and depictions of animals are carved into the sandstone cliffs, including two long, parallel canals that run precisely in an east-west direction. On the plateau south of the rock, archaeologists found numerous remains of settlements from the time up to 1,500 BC. At the southern edge of the complex there is a deep, shaft-like hole ( El Hueco ), the origin and meaning of which is unclear.
The purpose of the facility was unknown for a long time. The first Spanish explorers suspected a fortress because of the camouflaged location on a summit, which is where the current name el Fuerte comes from. It was later assumed, among other things, that the canals were used to wash gold.
Even if the meaning of the representations is still not fully clarified, there is now consensus that it is a ceremonial site of the Inca.
El Fuerte de Samaipata, with its hewn rock, is a unique testimony to the traditions and cults in the period before the Spanish conquest of South America.
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Cultural heritage: Potosí , city and silver mines (1987, R ) | Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos (1990) | Old town of Sucre (1991) | Pre-Columbian fortress Samaipata (1998) | Pre-Columbian ruins of Tiahuanaco (2000) | Qhapaq Ñan - Andean Road System (2014)
Natural heritage: National Park Noel Kempff Mercado (2000)