Petroglyphs – La Silla Observatory

Much closer than Cerro Vizcachas, in fact just below the road where it passes below the 3.6m telescope, are the rock engravings, or petroglyphs, of La Silla.   I visited these a couple of times when I first arrived at La Silla about 15 years ago, but haven’t been back since.   

Given I was wandering around the mountain anyway, I decided to pay them another visit, and was very happy to find out that there is actually a bit of a map to help find them these days.

La Silla Petroglyphs Map
Map courtesy of Stefano Berta

Previously I was only aware of, and had therefore only visited, those marked ‘A’ in the map so was keen to see if I could find some of the others.  

According to researchers, there are 2 main types of petroglyph at La Silla – abstract designs (mostly repeated geometrical designs) and figurative drawings depicting human outlines and animals in stick-figure format.   Those at site ‘A’ tend to be mostly abstract designs and there are lots and lots of them clustered together in this site.

Site 'A' petroglyphs - La Silla Observatory - Chile

These are located directly below the 3.6m telescope and only about 100m from the road to Vizcachas.  Be careful – it’s very steep and rocky!

Group A petroglyphs with 3.6m telescope in the background - La Silla Observatory - Chile

From there, I found a couple of petroglyphs only at site ‘B’ and so headed over to site ‘C’ to discover drawings that started to look a little more figurative.

Site 'C' petroglyphs - La Silla Observatory - Chile

Including this amazing example – one of my favourites. 

Site 'C' petroglyphs - La Silla Observatory - Chile

According to the ESO website linked above: “The delicate central spiral symbolizes a serpent while the rest of the space is taken up by strange little figures, together with some simple geometric motifs and quadrupeds“.

View from Site 'C' petroglyphs - La Silla Observatory - Chile

Site ‘D’ was actually my favourite and had many more figurative drawings than what I’d seen elsewhere – particularly of quadrupeds!  The image at bottom-right has the most animals of any stone on the entire site.

Site 'D' petroglyphs - La Silla Observatory - Chile

From there I wandered over to Site ‘E’ … I think!  Not entirely clear that I’d arrived at the right place, but again, more cool petroglyphs along the way.   Basically you just look for decent-sized rocks and go check it out.

Site 'E' (I think) petroglyphs looking back towards the 3.6m telescope - La Silla Observatory - Chile

Had a great time scrambling over the mountainside searching for the petroglyphs and am thankful for the map as it did help guide me.  Of course, the site has had a complete photographic and topographic survey (in spanish) of the engravings done on it (back in 1990), but it is still fun as you stumble across each one for yourself.

BTW – unfortunately there is now a 3rd type of “modern” petroglyph as well 🙁  Disappointing to see.

"modern" petroglyphs - La Silla Observatory - Chile

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