Sacred Landscape of the Incas in Central Chile: Radial Ceque System Encoded in the Archeological Site Ruinas de Chada

Abstract

Mounts and hills played a predominant role in all pre-Hispanic Andean cultures, especially for the Inca culture. Through the use of georeferenced orthophotography, we found that the Inca site, Ruinas de Chada, represents the origin of a radial ceque system with alignments connecting, at one end high peaks of mounts at the Andes, and on the other end the summit of small hills in which important shrines were built. These alignments extend over two hundred kilometers, thus we propose that the information codified on this shrine was based on an ancient geodetic science. A sacred geometric relationship is encrypted in the pattern formed by the position of all shrines with high accuracy, in which the Andean Chakana symbol is represented. These findings suggest that the valley of Chada could have been the sacred center of Collasuyu.