- Address: Padre Le Paige 380, San Pedro de Atacama, Región de Antofagasta, Chile;
- Phone: +56 55 85 1002;
San Pedro de Atacama is an oasis in the Atacama Desert. Tourists coming here, consider this small town as a starting point for their further travels. The city is named after St. Peter, and has its own attractions. Here is the world famous archaeological museum of Gustav le Page. It is for him that many tourists linger here for one, or even more days. In the museum, it is not uncommon to find supporters of alternative history who actively enter into discussions with other visitors.
Description of the museum
Gustav le Page was a missionary, from 1955 to 1980 he served as a pastor. Le Page was highly respected in Chile and appreciated his works. He was awarded many titles, among them the Honorary Doctor of Catholic University and the Honorary Citizen of Chile. Most of his life he devoted to collecting and studying the archaeological finds of the Atacama Desert . Thanks to him and the Northern Catholic University, an archaeological museum was created. The museum has 4000 skulls, more than 400 mummies, jewelry, ceramics, more than 380,000 objects, thanks to which eleven centuries of history can be traced. The most interesting is the mummy "Miss Chile". It differs from other mummies with its beauty. Artefacts were found in the area of the city of Arica , their age is 7810 years.
A huge collection of skulls is striking. The fact is that the skulls are deformed. Such anatomical parts can be found in other museums, but not in such quantity. Usually it's about 5-10 copies, not thousands. Lovers of alternative history suggest that people deliberately deformed their skulls to resemble representatives of another civilization, which they considered the Gods. There are lovers of history, what to see and what to think about.
Shamanic devices for cooking, smoking and ingesting hallucinogenic plants are also interesting.
Unfortunately, at the moment the museum is closed for repairs, and all its exhibits are deposited, and the site does not work. It closed in the autumn of 2015 for about 2 years. Should open soon.
How to get there?
In San Pedro de Atacama, you can reach the intercity bus from Santiago, the capital of Chile . This trip will take 20 hours. The second option is to fly by plane from Santiago to the city of Calama in 2 hours, and from Calama on the highway number 23 by car.