Chile is famous for its romantic and inspiring landscapes, which show a discrepancy from the Atacama Desert to Patagonia. The stunning wilderness of volcanoes, lakes, deserts and forests lures most of the people to spend their leisure vacations in Chile. People can go to the beaches on the lengthy Pacific coast-line of Chile and enjoy some exciting water sports.

For the lovers of the nature, there are endless exploring terrains, including the Andes Mountains and the slat lakes in the Atacama Desert. In the National park of Torres del Paine situated in the southern Chile, you will see a variety of waterfalls, mountain peaks, glaciers, and perhaps some Andean condors. At Tierra del Fuego, you will be able to see elephant seals and penguins up close.

Apart from the well-travelled tourist routes of San Pedo de Atacama and Torres del Paine, Chile also have a number of scarcely visited places of natural wonders and some fascinating sites of archaeology. One good example of such off-beat places is the Chinchorro mummies in the Atacama, which are the oldest mummies in the world, even pre-dating the Egyptian mummies by about 2000 years.

The Chinchorro were the coastal dwelling people of southern Peru and northern Chile. They started mummifying the dead people at least seven thousand years ago. The oldest mummy found in the place dates back from 5000 to 3000 BC and it was mummified by using the black method, but with time, the methods changed becoming less complex.

The black method of mummifying involved dismemberment of the deceased person, which means that the arms, the head and the legs were separated from the torso, and then the skin of the body, was removed. After that, the body was dried; the tissue and flesh were stripped off from the bones, including removing the brain. Then they re-assembled the body, strengthened the bones with splints, stuffed materials like feathers and clay into the body and re-attached the head and the limbs to the torso. Then they covered the entire body in a paste of ash, also used for patching up damaged skin areas.

In the final stage of this complicated procedure, finally, they painted a layer of manganese over the paste of ash, giving the mummy a black colour, which is characteristic of the black method of mummifying. The leading Chinchorro mummies authority, Bernardo Arriaza, has reported that about 282 mummies of Chinchorro have been discovered till date. An interesting thing about these mummies is that these are not the mummies of kings and leaders like the Egyptian ones, but seem to be of common people.

After knowing such fascinating things about the Chinchorro, you can see that the Archaeology Museum of San Miguel de Azapa situated at the Tarapaca University in Chile is one of the best places to see and learn some exciting things about the Chinchorro.