Sights

Chirije (chee-ree-hey) is the newest and most attractive ecological and archaeological park along the Ecuadorian coast. Completed in 1996, Chirije is surrounded by 238 hectares of Dry Tropical Forest and miles of unspoiled beaches. This valley was the home of many consecutive pre-Columbian settlements.

Also there is accomodation on site for more please view www.chirije.com

Chirije is one of the many interesting archaeological sites of coastal Ecuador. The archaeologist Emilio Estrada discovered the site in the 1950s, and named a new culture called the Chirije Culture here. (Found in Arqueologia de Manabi Central, 1962). Chirije, an ancient seaport, was the site of the great settlement of the Bahia culture (500 B.C.- 500 A.D.). These seafaring merchants traded skillfully crafted ornaments or whole shells as far north as Mexico and as far south as Chile, for gold, copper and other precious items.

The following scientists have investigated on this site:

Archaeologist -Dr. Jean Francois Bouchard from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France, also pre-Columbian art professor of the Musee de Louvre of Paris. 2003

Another famous scientist has been the Physical Anthropologist- Dr. Douglas Ubelaker, who is one of the foremost experts in the world on skeletal remains, Douglas Ubelaker, curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and former president of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. He has also is one of the prime consultants of the FBI.


Archaeologists, MSc. Cesar Veintimilla, Lic. Fernando Mejia, Lic. Angelo Constantine and Javier Veliz A. as Ecuadorian Team in 1995.


Thanks to many other experts like Julio Viteri Gamboa, Jose Chancay, Felipe Cruz,  in a list of many, who contributed to the investigations here in Chirije and that helped locate the missing pieces of the puzzle of the ancient past of the coast of Ecuador. On this site you can find many archaeological ceramic, stone, shell, and bone remnants of the Bahia, Jama Coaque, Chirije and Manteño cultures (500 B.C. to 1534 A.D.).