Sajama Lines: A Ritual Road Network Drawn Across the Bolivian Plateau

Thousands of pale lines cross the Altiplano around Nevado Sajama in western Bolivia. Many run for dozens of kilometres and hold a straight course over open ground, low hills, and rough slopes. The Tierra Sajama project estimated that the network covers about 22,000 km², with a combined length of about 16,000 km. Those figures describe mapped traces. They are not a date or a measurement for every line.

Sajama Lines are not one drawing. People cleared plants and dark surface stones, exposing lighter soil in long strips. From the ground, the strips can be hard to notice. From a hillside or a satellite, they look like routes drawn across the plateau. A ritual reading says the routes connect mountains, tombs, water, and shrines in a system that organised pilgrimage, memory, and movement. An ancient-airport reading sees runways. The evidence fits paths on the ground better, but it does not show that every line had the same purpose or age.