The Atacama Giant is a colossal, 119-meter geoglyph carved into the sands of Chile’s Atacama Desert. As one of the largest ancient figures in the world, created by indigenous people sometime between 1000 and 1400 AD, the Giant might have been an early celestial calendar, helping locals track seasons and star movements in one of the driest places on earth. Others think it could be some type of offering to deities or spirits to bring rain in such a dry place.
“In A Human Environment, published in 2020, Karsen Lambers of Leiden University’s faculty of archaeology states that the geoglyph ‘is the biggest human figure known to have been produced in prehistory.’ It stretches for 119 meters (390) feet across the hillside, according to Chile’s Ministry of National Assets, which declared it a Protected National Asset in 2020. The Atacama Giant is just one of over 5,000 in the region that range between 1,200 to 500 years old, and countless more across the world.”
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