Chavín de Huántar, Peru

CyArk’s involvement with Chavín de Huántar began in 2005 when a research group from University of California, Berkeley traveled to Chavín to document the archaeological site with LiDAR. This expedition was meant to supplement research conducted under John Rick at Stanford University. The data produced in this expedition, currently hosted by CyArk, became a foundation for executing a conservation plan for the site. The venture was funded jointly by Stanford University and the Kacyra Family Foundation. With changing and more intensive El Niño weather patterns, Chavín has been under risk of flood erosion.  In 2017 CyArk returned to Chavín to document the site’s canals and the adjoining river bed to assist ongoing conservation efforts. LIDAR and photogrammetic documentation was completed over the principal structures.

Chavín de Huántar is a major pre-Inca ceremonial site in the Peruvian Andes. Its strategic position between the eastern and western Andean highlands on an access route to the amazonian jungle allowed the site to amass influence and it is believed to be the center of what archaeologists call the Chavin civilization. The site was first inhabited around 1500 BCE. It has massive temple structures with significant subterranean cave-like galleries, pyramidal platforms, courts, and sunken plazas. Recent research has shown that the subterranean galleries may have been used to project large sounds, like those that could be obtained from the numerous elaborately carved conch shells found onsite. The effect undoubtedly would have created a mystical experience for the pilgrims and travelers visiting the site.