The Chinchorro Sites of Arica and Parinacota

This is the property almost nobody travels to Chile for, and it is the one that should change how you think about the country. UNESCO inscribed the Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region in 2021, under cultural criteria three and five. It is a serial property, meaning several separate sites protected together, and it is Chile's most recent inscription.

Who the Chinchorro were

UNESCO's description is precise. The northern coast of the Atacama Desert, which it calls an arid and hostile habitat in northernmost Chile, was home to the Chinchorro, a society of marine hunter-gatherers who lived there from approximately 7400 BP to 2840 BP, that is from about 5450 BCE to 890 BCE. They adapted to the extreme conditions of a hyper-arid coastal desert in the rugged Coastal Cordillera by living off the rich marine resources alongside them.

Read that date range again. These people occupied one stretch of coast for roughly four and a half thousand years.

Why it is inscribed

Because of what they did with their dead. The property holds the oldest known archaeological evidence of the artificial mummification of bodies, in cemeteries that contain both deliberately mummified bodies and others preserved simply by the desert conditions. Over time, UNESCO records, the Chinchorro perfected complex mortuary practices: they systematically dismembered and reassembled the body.

The significance is not the age alone. It is that this was done by a hunter-gatherer society with no agriculture, no cities and no state, thousands of years before the Egyptian practice that the word mummy usually calls to mind. Complex ritual treatment of the dead is normally explained as a product of settled, hierarchical societies. The Chinchorro are the counter-example.

And the desert is part of the reason it survived to be inscribed at all. The same hyper-aridity that made this a hostile place to live is what preserved organic material for seven thousand years.

Visiting

The base is Arica, Chile's northernmost city, reached by air from Santiago or by road along the coast. The region is Arica and Parinacota, which is also the gateway to the altiplano.

• The museum at San Miguel de Azapa, in the valley inland from Arica, is where most visitors actually see Chinchorro material, and it is the right first stop.
• Several of the component sites are archaeological areas rather than visitor attractions. Treat them as the burial grounds they are: stay on paths, take nothing, photograph respectfully, and follow local guidance about what may be approached.
• A local guide is worth arranging. The interpretation is the whole experience here, because without it a component site is a stretch of dry ground.

Practical points for the far north

Arica itself is at sea level and straightforward. The moment an itinerary climbs from the coast toward Putre, Lauca or the altiplano lakes, altitude becomes the planning constraint. Altitude sickness is a risk in parts of Chile and this is one of them: acclimatize before you go higher rather than during, rest on arrival, drink far more water than feels necessary, and go easy on alcohol. This page publishes no medication and no dose; that is a conversation for your own clinician before you book.

The desert conditions that preserved the Chinchorro will also dehydrate and burn you in an afternoon. The packing list covers what the north needs, and the weather guide explains the daily temperature swing.

Chile's other two inscribed properties in this cluster are Rapa Nui National Park and the historic quarter of Valparaiso.

Sources

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region, inscribed 2021 under criteria (iii) and (v), recording a society of marine hunter-gatherers on the northern coast of the Atacama Desert from approximately 7400 BP to 2840 BP. Accessed 16 September 2026.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Chile States Parties record: seven inscribed properties, all of them cultural, and a Tentative List of nineteen sites which includes Torres del Paine and Bernardo O'Higgins National Parks, Region of Magallanes, submitted in 1994. Accessed 16 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Chile health: the emergency ambulance number 131, the eight week lead time for vaccine advice, altitude sickness as a risk in parts of Chile, confirmed cases of dengue fever on Rapa Nui, and hantavirus as present in Chile. Accessed 16 September 2026.