09 – Tracks across the Atacama

In the northern-most area of Chile, stretching six hundred miles down the coast of South America and expanding into Bolivia, Peru and Argentina, lies the Atacama Desert. This barren landscape consists of coastal sand and stone, and low hills rising inland to expansive salt flats, out of whichtowering volcanoes reach 5000 metres into the sky. The Atacama is said to be the driest desert in the world. Despite this extreme environment, there is evidence of people travelling through as early as 10,000 years ago.
Sometime around 1000 AD, possibly earlier, people began marking the hillsides over and past which they travelled, moving surface stones to reveal the lighter shades beneath. These markers remain today. The meaning or purpose of the largely abstract designs are unknown, though the paths on which the people walked are
still clear to see.

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