El Fuerte de Samaipata
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- The name Samaipata is usually translated from Quechua as "the heights of rest".
- A 17th-century Spanish chronicler wrote that an Inca relative of Tupac Yupanqui named Guacane won the local lord Grigota and his people over with lavish gifts rather than war.
- The same chronicle says Guacane and Grigota were later killed by Chiriguano raiders from the lowlands, and a burnt Inca building at the site seems to support it.
- The Inca kallanka here is the second largest known in Bolivia, yet its drainage channel and thatched roof appear never to have been finished.
- Samaipata is one of the few sites where Chané, Inca and Spanish building survive side by side, including a Spanish house with Andalusian-style features.
- The residential sector included an acllahuasi, a compound for the chosen women who wove fine textiles and took part in Inca ceremonies.
- Samaipata lay on one of the most isolated eastern edges of the Inca Empire and was guarded by outlying forts, one of them about 50 km to the east.
- Spanish settlers and their Inca allies may have used the hilltop as a fortified base as early as the 1570s, decades before formal settlement.
Why it is worth it
El Fuerte de Samaipata is not a fortress at all but a single enormous sandstone ridge, about 220 metres long and 60 metres wide, whose back has been carved almost entirely into geometric and animal figures, niches and long canal-like grooves, one of which is known as the "spine of the serpent". It sits on a hilltop at about 1,900 metres in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes, where the mountains give way to the lowlands.
The carving began long before the Incas. The Chané, an Arawak-speaking people, occupied the site from around 300 AD and started shaping the rock into a ceremonial centre. In the late 15th century, probably towards the end of the reign of Tupac Yupanqui, the Inca empire absorbed the area and Samaipata may have served as a provincial capital, with all the buildings that status required. The Incas laid out a trapezoidal plaza about 100 metres on each side and built a kallanka, a great hall some 70 metres long and 16 metres wide. On the rock itself, a row of 18 niches known as the "priests' choir" and a band of 21 rectangular niches at its base are among the best-preserved features. Despite the name, the place was never primarily a fortress.
The Spanish settled here from 1615, with a formal foundation in 1618, before moving to a valley nearby. The whole complex covers about 20 hectares, combining the ceremonial rock with the residential and administrative quarter that occupies its southern part, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998. The small town of Samaipata, with colonial buildings and cobbled streets at around 1,650 metres, grew up nearby and is valued for its mild highland climate compared with the heat of Santa Cruz.
Getting there
The site lies a short distance from the town of Samaipata, which is about 120 km south-west of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. In a straight line the nearest airport is El Trompillo Airport (SRZ) in Santa Cruz, about 80 km away; Santa Cruz is also served by Viru Viru International Airport (VVI).
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
El Fuerte de Samaipata or Fort Samaipata, also known simply as "El Fuerte", is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Florida Province, Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia. It is situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes and is a popular tourist destination for Bolivians and foreigners alike. It is served by the nearby town of Samaipata. The archaeological site at El Fuerte is unique as it encompasses buildings of three different cultures: Chanè, Inca, and Spanish.
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