In the Atacama Desert, racing cars and motorcycles destroyed 1000-year-old geoglyphs. Photos from a bird's eye view

Every year, hundreds of riders from around the world gather in northern Chile with their all-terrain motorcycles, jeeps, ATVs, and buggies to burn through the Atacama Desert. They often ignore the prohibition to avoid the 1,000-year-old geoglyphs carved into these sandy expanses.

Images taken recently by drones have shown that a valuable collection of giant works of art carved in the Atacama Desert centuries ago have been barbarically destroyed. Vehicles, including mining trucks, have roughly driven over the geoglyphs in Alto Barranco and other areas of the desert, leaving hundreds of marks, The New York Times reports.

The geoglyphs, which are geometric or figurative ground patterns over 4 meters long, are located in the Tarapaca region of northern modern Chile. These Alto Barranco images were made by indigenous South Americans along the migration route between the Pica Oasis and the Pacific coast.

According to experts, the engravings were created between 900 and 1450 AD by removing the darker surface of the stones and pebbles from the ground, revealing the lighter sand layer underneath. Thanks to the incredibly arid conditions of the Atacama Desert, the archaeological remains have been well preserved for centuries – until now.

The Atacama Desert Foundation reported that over the past few years, many of the Alto Barranco geoglyphs have been seriously scarred by car tracks. After all, barbaric races are not uncommon here.

However, the organizers of one of the major desert races, the Atacama Rally, deny any responsibility for the damage. They claim that their participants followed the route approved by the regional authorities, and their GPS systems alerted them if anyone went off the track.

Therefore, the blame is placed on off-road vehicles that participate in unofficial races or excursions in the desert, often without license plates to avoid being tracked. Additionally, many miners operate in the region using trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles.

Despite the fact that signs have been placed around the geoglyphs in Alto Barranco, archaeologists say the authorities are not doing enough to protect these valuable symbols of ancient culture. Several cases of damage have been reported over the past few years, but no one has been held accountable for this barbarism.

"Since 2021, this has been formally reported to the prosecutor's office as part of the work we are doing at the regional museum. We must understand that damage to national monuments is not a misdemeanor, it is a crime. In this case, it is very serious, because it is irreversible damage... it cannot be restored," said Luis Perez, an archaeologist and director of the Iquique Regional Museum.

Despite its fame, even the Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert, considered the most famous geoglyphs in the world, have been damaged. Back in 2018, a truck driver tried to "evade paying the duty" and left significant damage to the art monument.

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