The Pukará de Quitor, Fort of Quitor, is located 3 km north-east of San Pedro. Strategically built by the Atacameño people on the hillsides of Quitor, on the fringes of the Cordillera de la Sal. Located overlooking and protected by a bend in the valley of the Rio San Pedro.

The fortress not only had strategic and defensive purposes: surface archaeological constructions reveal it was also inhabited for long periods of time, presumably under siege conditions. Built with large and small stones, kept together with mud used as mortar, over rocks that form the surface of a steep hill, techniques used include terraces and restraints. There are approximately 200 independent architectural enclosures connected by access-ways and open spaces, and the remains of a circular structure believed to be a tower at its highest point.

It is believed the sites pre-Inca construction dates from the 7th century, after the links between San Pedro and the Tiwanaku Empire had dissolved, in response to expansion threat from Aymara neighbours. The present structures where re-fortified by the Inca in the 12th century and the fortress city with perimeter defensive wall helped control this significant ancestral trafficking route across the Andes, until being finally over-taken by the Spanish in 1540.

Declared a National Monument in 1982, the site is administered by the local Atacameño community of Quitor, in association with CONAF.

Catarpe Ruins

Located a short distance upstream, within the fertile vegas of the Rio San Pedro, before it twists and turns its way into San Pedro past the Pukará are the ruins of the Inca administrative centre, Incaico de Catarpe, on the top of a steep hill which requires a good climb up a strong slope to reach the summit. With 200 stone structures united with mud, it was an impressive regional centre of the Inca Empire during its time.