Chanquillo, the temple of 13 towers

A ceremonial centre now considered as the most ancient solar observatory in America.

It's located in the Casma desert in the Áncash region (Peru), 226.8 miles North from Lima and 3.72 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Between the temple and the ocean, there are the Mongón Hills functioning as a natural barrier for mist, which partially explains the extraordinary visibility from the observatory.

The place is a fortress with three concentric walls, from where it is possible to appreciate iguana-shaped turrets on the horizon. Each tower has embedded staircases taking to the cusps and, if observed from below, they form a kind of artificial "dentated" horizon. The towers are between 79" and 236", of a cubic form, aligned from North to South, and are considered as horizon markers.

As it happens with other architectonic patterns based on astronomic alignments, the landscape has been used to measure time, which is known as "landscape clockmarking". But Chanquillo stands out among other buildings in the world because it reveals several points of alignments: equinoxes, solstices and other specific dates! On December 21^st in the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun rises from the last tower on the right extreme, whereas in the following solstice on December it raises again to the left side of the last tower on the left extreme. During the six intermediate months, the Sun seems to move from one extreme towards the other one, and each time it shows up in the empty spaces between the towers, it indicates other calendar's dates, with an accuracy of two or three days!

The place was populated by an unknown culture between 500 and 200 B.C., more than 2200 years ago, before Inca and Moche's cultures were present in those locations. Although it's not known who they were, investigations indicate that the place was attacked by rival cults and survived until the year 200 A.C. Peruvian archaeologist Ivan Ghezzi and British archeoastronomist Clive Ruggles had studied in detail the fortress-temple and are still investigating the characteristics and circumstances in which this pioneering culture develop the observatory.

In 2021, the place was included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO. The following video is a virtual tour across the whole architectonic complex from two artificial points of observation, including simulations of sunrises and sunsets all over the year!