Symbolic landforms created by ancient earthworks near Lake Titicaca

Abstract

Interesting landforms created by an ancient network of earthworks are shown, using Google satellite imagery enhanced by an image processing. This network covers a large part of the land near the Titicaca Lake. Satellite images clearly display the slopes of hills criss-crossed with terrace walls and the surfaces of the plains covered with raised fields, indicating that this was once a highly productive agricultural place for the south central Andes. Some of the landforms are rather remarkable, having a clear symbolic function. Among them, there are structures which seem to represent birds, where ponds are their eyes.