The ancient "extinct" volcano of Ilalo, 2,520 meters in height, which lies 25 km east of Quito, is one of the oldest archeological sites in Ecuador. Evidence of Paleolithic cultures on the eastern side of this mountain have been documented by anthropologists Robert Bell in 1962 at the site known as El Inga and also by William Mayer-Oakes, who excavated this same site and researched it over a period of 20 years. Together they were said to have catalogued over 80,000 artifacts found lying on the surface, the majority of these being obsidian arrowheads and various stone tools created by a Paleolithic hunter-gatherer group.

Radiocarbon dates between 4,000 and 9,000 B.C. were obtained from these artifacts and experts believe the site was located on an ancient trade route from a nearby obsidian source. Nearby in a ravine, a mastodon skeleton was also found together with more obsidian arrowheads. To date, there has not been any further explorations conducted on Ilalo by foreign or local archeologists.

The site of Quito and especially the area around the volcano Ilalo was inhabited by various tribes for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Incas. Ilalo was considered to be the center of the world by the Incas and therefore a sacred place. The Incas were said to have worshiped their gods regularly though sacrifice there.

Ancient road near the archeological site on Ilalo

Recently this year Stan and I made several expeditions to Ilalo and in doing so discovered another archeological site also on the eastern side and approximately (5-km) away from the El Inga site. The area is covered by large, ancient lava flows. Erosion of the softer material in some places gives it an appearance similar to the hoodoos found in Alberta, Canada and other areas of western North America. 

Ilalo's hoodoo-like terrain

The area possesses a very strange and surreal beauty, which drew us irresistibly to it like a magnet. We were certainly not disappointed by following our instincts and found several very interesting and a few somewhat mysterious things as a result…

After less than an hour of hiking into this area, we were excited to find an abundance of obsidian arrowheads lying on the surface, eroding out of the soil and scattered over a wide area, possibly from a similar Paleolithic culture  found at El Inga.

Pot shards from a much later culture eroding out of the soil in numerous locations were also found throughout the same extensive area. These pieces indicated that the original vessels were often quite large. All of pieces that we found were without any decorative patterns or glazes. 

Nearby, walls of an ancient building structure were also detected. They appeared to be carved from the softer volcanic material and were almost completely obscured by trees and bushes. It was therefore difficult to photograph clearly, the red arrows in the photo indicate the remaining wall structure's length and depth.

However, there was an even more interesting and mysterious discovery: at the top of one of the many ridges of Ilalo, a large and strange bird or plane-like petroglyph carved into the rock. Chalk was used to help highlight it for the photograph.

Several feet from this, an ancient man-made rectangular excavation cut down into the lava rock was found, it measured approximately 1 meter by 1 meter. We explored it to find a small collapsed tunnel entrance located at the back, however, we did not have sufficient tools or time to try to excavate the tunnel entrance. 

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing how old this tunnel entrance, or the petroglyph might be, or if they are in any way related to the Incas, or what their significance is or might have been. This will likely remain a mystery…