Current Watch Site

Though relatively little is known about the people who once lived in the fortified temple of Chankillo, recent archaeological discoveries provide a glimpse of how they may have used the site over 2,300 years ago. A mysterious feature once thought to be a defensive wall now appears to be the earliest known astronomical observatory in the Americas. Protruding like the teeth of a blunt saw, 13 squat stone towers line the crest of a ridge situated in the middle of the site. When viewed from one of two observation platforms positioned on either side of the ridge, the towers and the notches between them span the entire annual rising and setting arcs of the sun, which shift north and south along the horizon gradually over the course of a year. Researchers estimate that by watching the sunrise or sunset from the correct observation platform, the inhabitants of Chankillo would have been able to determine the date with an accuracy of 2 to 3 days, and likely used the site to regulate the occurrence of seasonal events such as planting and harvest times and religious festivals. In this way, the Chankillo observatory provides evidence that sun cults existed in the Andes some two millennia before the well-known Sun cult of the Inca Empire.

Since the site was identified as an observatory in 2007, there has been increasing, unsupervised visitation by tourists. Given its exceptional potential and the recent launch of the UNESCO Astronomy and World Heritage initiative, the nominators hope to draw the governmental and private support necessary to undertake a proactive planning process for sustainable tourism and conservation management at the site.