Real Alto
Appearance
🏺 Real Alto
Real Alto is an archaeological site in Chanduy parish, Santa Elena canton.
Real Alto is an archaeological site in Chanduy parish, Santa Elena canton. It is internationally known as one of the first farming and pottery villages in the Americas with a ceremonial centre, built by people of the Valdivia culture.
The complex
The site is run by the comuna's elected council (cabildo). It includes:
- a site museum, El Mogote;
- an ethnographic house showing traditional building;
- an experimental garden;
- laboratories and lodging for visiting students and researchers.
Entry is free; the complex depends on visitors' donations, and the cabildo provides guides and maintenance.
See also
Source: PDOT cantón Santa Elena 2023–2027 (pp. 186–191, 221).
Did you know…?
🌊 …a colony of sea lions lives all year at La Lobería in Salinas?
Keep exploring
You might also like
🌅
A traditional fishing and salt-working community on the southern coast of the peninsula — with flamingo-visited…
🌅
One of the oldest known settled cultures in the Americas — 8,000 years of continuous human occupation on the…
🏺
Valdivia is a fishing comuna on the Ruta del Spondylus in Manglaralto parish, Santa Elena canton.
🏺
San Biritute is a pre-Columbian stone monolith in the comuna of Sacachún, Simón Bolívar (Julio Moreno) parish,…
🌅
The provincial capital of Santa Elena Province — home to 8,000-year-old human remains, Ecuador's oldest…
🏺
Up next
A 9,000-year-old embrace. The oldest documented cemetery in the Americas — and the most human story on the…
🏗️ Know something we've missed?
Add it — it takes five minutes, and the next reader will thank you.