The Tin Tin Straight Line

It looks out of this world, as if taken from a science fiction story. The desert of cacti takes hold of the scene where these hundred-year-old lookouts that multiply into dozens of thousands have seen everything. The whole view is covered by them and they spread even beyond the horizon.

Standing still with their strange and unparalleled arms in the air, they are looking at a perfect line that -according to anthropological and historiographical studies- was built by hand by the first nations dwelling in the area.

This line has come to be known as the Tin Tin Straight line and it consists in a path that crosses Los Cardones National Park, a desert teeming with cacti and cardons that was declared protected area in order to preserve these species through time.

Featuring fearsome thorns, insignificant spines and all kinds of green hues, the cacti or cardons are not all the same. There are many different families. As visitors come close to them, they can easily notice the variations in shapes, sizes, number of arms and shades. Every specimen is unequaled.

For years, cacti have been used as food and water source both by animals and by the human beings that have inhabited this region since time immemorial. That may be the reason why they are worshipped and respected as sacred symbols.

Laid at three thousand meters above mean sea level, the straight line spans approximately twenty kilometers and its design was started in the middle of the Inca period, when it became part of one of the paths taken by the Incas to conquer other territories.

All this happened between 1480 and 1535. Later on, its development was interrupted by the coming of the European conquerors. Such is the perfection with which the old layout was carried out that it continues to puzzle specialists today.

The outline of the Tin Tin Straight Line was perfect, even when the natives lacked technologically accurate elements. And it continues to be as perfect today.