In Peru's Pisco Valley, there are thousands of oddly arranged shallow pits. These pits are evenly arranged in a narrow strip of about 14 to 20 meters wide, and these small pits cover hills up to about 1500 meters, so it is also called cave belt. What exactly are these pits for? This feature is known locally as Monte Sierpe (Snake Mountain) or Cerro Viruela (Tianhua Mountain). Even among archaeologists who have worked in Peru for decades, Cerro Viruela is a relatively unknown site. So, is it the work of extraterrestrial creatures or natural formation?
The site first garnered media attention in the 1930s after pilot Robert Ship posted an aerial photograph on National Geographic. Since then, few archaeologists have entered the site. It wasn't until 1953 that American explorer Victor Wolfgang von Hagen surveyed the area and described the pit as a "dented" no-man's land, and he estimated there were about 5,000 such graves in the area.
Archaeologist John Hyslop, in his 1984 book The Inca Road System, speculated that these circular structures might have been used for storage, similar to those found at the Quebrada de la Vaca site on Peru's south coast and Tambo, Colorado.
The holes are about three feet wide and 20 to 40 inches deep. They are made in a variety of ways, some excavated in man-made mounds, others made up of small rock structures on the surface. The bands are divided into several unique groups, which they call blocks, each with a different style of holes.
Cave with satellite view
In 2015, a team of archaeologists at the University of California conducted a detailed study of the site, which they mapped the cave belt using drones, from which it was seen that the site consisted of 5,000 to 6,000 depressions, possibly a series of storage chambers from the Inca period, but archaeologists found no direct evidence, except that there is an Inca road nearby, and inca-period pottery found nearby, which seems to indicate that the cave belt dates back to some time after the Conquest of the Chincha by the Inca Empire around the 15th century. They also think the holes were once used to store things, but it's unclear exactly.
Charles Stanish, an Expert in Andean Culture at the Head of the University of California's research team, believes the holes were made by farmers to measure the amount of agricultural products that paid tribute to the Inca kings.
The Cave Belt is only about 6.4 kilometers from Tambo, Colorado, a 15th-century incornical administrative center whose agricultural production was mainly above the Pisco Valley, while the Cave Belt was built along a road from the bottom of the valley to Tambo, Colorado. Stanish said: "It's a great place to stop, measure your produce, and make sure you have the right amount of tribute. "He believes that each block may belong to a different family and is a unique tax group." You might have each social group fill their area with pumpkins, corn, or any other produce in front of the state's accountants, and they count the way they do. The produce would then be taken to Tambo, Colorado, or elsewhere the rulers wanted to take them. ”
If the Cave Belt was a measure of a family's tribute to the Inca Empire, then why are there no similarities elsewhere in that Empire? Stanish explained that Indo-California was a distant empire whose independent territories retained some autonomy. The cave belt may have been a solution designed by the pisco valley administrators for local surveying tributes. Stanish said: "The farther you are from the large Inca center and Machu Picchu, the more pronounced the local influence will be. "Sierpe Mountain may have met local needs."
Jean-Pierre Protzen, an Inca architecture expert at the University of California, disagrees. Protzen, who worked for years in Tambo, Colorado, believes the cave belt is not similar to the sprawling Inca center. Protzen said: "There are other early major sites near Monte Sierpe that may be related to it. He thinks the holes could be used to store bird droppings, which is an important fertilizer.
The truth is, we still don't know who made these holes, everything is just conjecture.