Desert Racers Demolish Art Carved by Ancient People in Chile
Preservationists say governments at all levels have failed to prevent authorized and illegal off-road racers from driving through giant figures of animals, humans and objects.
Preservationists say governments at all levels have failed to prevent authorized and illegal off-road racers from driving through giant figures of animals, humans and objects.
Tracks from both authorized and illegal off-road racing have marred 3,000-year-old figures of animals, humans and objects on the desert slopes of Alto Barranco in the Tarapacá region of Chile. Credit...
Every year, hundreds of racers from around the world gather in northern Chile with their all-terrain motorcycles, jeeps, quads and buggies. They race in circuits for hundreds of miles around the Atacama Desert, carving tire tracks into one of the driest places on Earth.
What many of those racers potentially ignore is that the Atacama was once a canvas for ancient Indigenous peoples of South America. Starting 3,000 years ago, those Indigenous people carved vast figures of animals, humans and objects on the desert’s slopes. Known as geoglyphs, the specimens at Alto Barranco in the Tarapacá region stand out for their remarkable preservation.
