The Mummies of Tunupa: The Hidden Burial Cave Above the Salar de Uyuni

Egypt isn't the only place with mummies. In Bolivia, high on the legendary Tunupa volcano above the northern shore of the Salar de Uyuni, a small metal door opens into a burial cave holding centuries-old mummies. Who they were, and how they came to rest here, remains a mystery to this day.

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The Cave

According to Aymara legend, Tunupa was once a woman abandoned by her husband. She wept as she nursed her child, and her tears and milk spilled across the plain to form the salt flat below. Tucked into the volcano's lower slopes, above the village of Coquesa, is the cave locals call the Cementerio de Chullpas.

The entrance is little more than a low metal door set into the rock, but it opens into a chamber kept in darkness. Inside sit seven mummies, adults and children together, their bodies drawn up in curled, seated positions. Hair, scraps of woven cloth and even fingernails have survived, and pottery rests beside them where it was left centuries ago.

Who Are the Chullpa Mummies?

Nobody knows exactly. The mummies have never been scientifically dated, and the figures you will find online, from 500 to several thousand years, are only estimates. Experts' best guess places them around 800 years ago, when Aymara-speaking chiefdoms ruled the altiplano and buried their dead in caves and stone towers across the region.

Locals call them chullpa. In stories told around the Salar, the chullpa were an ancient people who lived in a dim world before the sun existed. When the first sun rose, it burned them, and their remains are said to lie in the caves and towers they left behind. In Coquesa the mummies are still treated as ancestors, and offerings of coca leaves and alcohol are made to them today.

Visiting the Mummies

The cave is looked after by the Coquesa community. Pay the 30 boliviano entry fee in the village, where you collect the key or meet the caretaker who opens the cave. The fee goes to the community, and hiring a local guide is a good way to put a little more money in the village.

Keep your visit short and respectful: no flash, no touching and no selfies with the remains. Light and handling are the biggest threats to the mummies now, and to the people of Coquesa these are ancestors, not exhibits.

From the cave, the trail climbs on to a viewpoint at around 4,300 meters with sweeping views over the Salar. It is steep and the altitude is serious, so it is best tackled after a few days of acclimatization. Afterward, spend the night in one of the salt hotels in nearby Tahua and watch the sun set over the flats.

Coquesa is reached by 4x4 from Uyuni, straight across the Salar in the dry season from May to October, or around its edge when the flats are flooded.

Coquesa and its chullpa mummies are one of the stops on our Uyuni Ancient Salt Route expedition, which crosses the Salar by bicycle and finishes on Tunupa's northern shore.