A settlement preserved by sand
The Tulor Village is one of the oldest excavated settlements in northern Chile, with occupation dating from approximately 800 BCE to 500 CE. Located about 10 kilometers southwest of San Pedro de Atacama, the village was first formally excavated in 1956 by Jesuit priest Gustavo Le Paige. He uncovered a series of remarkable circular buildings made of adobe—a mixture of mud and straw. These structures are connected to one another through a series of passages and courtyards, forming a dense complex.
The village owes its exceptional preservation to the very forces that caused its abandonment: the advancing sand dunes of the Atacama Desert. Over centuries, sand completely buried the settlement, protecting the mud walls from erosion. This natural burial process left many walls standing at their original height, with some reaching up to two meters. The entire complex covers an area of about 5,200 square meters, though only a fraction of the site has been uncovered. The inhabitants eventually left as the climate became drier and the nearby San Pedro River shifted its course, making agriculture unsustainable.