Monuments and landmarks across South America
At 2,430 m in Peru’s Andes, Machu Picchu integrates terraces, temples, and waterworks into a mountain saddle above the Urubamba. Likely an estate of Pachacuti, it survived conquest through isolation. UNESCO listing, strict ticketing, and conservation of trails, terraces, and lichen‑laden stone aim to protect a site of remarkable engineering and landscape design.
Crowning Rio’s Corcovado at 700 m, the 30 m Christ the Redeemer statue (38 m with pedestal) unites reinforced concrete with soapstone tesserae. Conceived after World War I and completed in 1931, it became a symbol of Brazilian faith and identity. Modern conservation replaces tiles, treats concrete, and updates lightning protection and access systems.
The Rapa Nui carved hundreds of moai between the 13th–16th centuries, moving many from the Rano Raraku quarry to ahu platforms ringed by the Pacific. Embodying deified ancestors, the statues once bore coral eyes and some topped with red pukao. Today, erosion control, path design, and community stewardship balance heritage with a fragile island ecology.
Raised in 1936 for Buenos Aires’ quadricentennial, the 67.5‑meter Obelisk by Alberto Prebisch anchors the crossing of Avenida 9 de Julio and Corrientes. A stark concrete‑clad needle in the Modernist idiom, it became a rallying point for celebrations and protest, an urban wayfinder, and a canvas for lighting campaigns—maintained through periodic concrete repair and waterproofing in a heavy‑traffic plaza.
On Peru’s north coast, Chan Chan was the Chimú Empire’s vast adobe capital, its walled ciudadelas decorated with wave and animal friezes. Irrigation, craft specialization, and coastal trade sustained tens of thousands before Inca conquest. Today, shelters, drainage, and earthen‑architecture conservation stabilize fragile walls against El Niño rains and wind‑blown erosion.
