Upano Valley, Ecuador: Ancient Amazon Cities and How to Visit

The Upano Valley in Ecuador is where archaeologists found one of the oldest and best-documented urban landscapes in the Amazon basin. A laser survey of a river valley at the foot of the Andes showed thousands of earthen platforms, plazas and straight roads under the forest, built by people who lived there from roughly 500 BCE until about 300 to 600 CE.

Here is the honest version for travelers: there is no Machu Picchu-style ruin park waiting in the Upano Valley. Almost all of the settlements lie under pasture, farms and secondary forest, and the key digs are research projects. What you can do is base yourself in Macas, see the landscape that hid these cities, visit local cultural centers and add the volcano country of Sangay National Park. This guide explains what was found, who built it and how to plan a realistic visit.

What LiDAR Found in the Upano Valley

Archaeologists had known about mounds in the valley since the 1970s, and excavations began in the 1990s. The picture changed after a LiDAR survey in 2015. LiDAR fires laser pulses from an aircraft, and software strips away the vegetation to reveal the ground surface. In the Upano Valley it exposed regular, man-made shapes across about 300 square kilometers.

The results appeared in the journal Science in January 2024, in a paper titled Two thousand years of garden urbanism in the Upper Amazon, led by French archaeologist Stéphen Rostain with colleagues from several institutions. The team reported:

• More than 6,000 rectangular earthen platforms, usually built by leveling hilltops and mostly interpreted as house bases, often in groups
• About 15 settlements, of which five are large, linked by a network of straight roads, some many kilometers long
• Plazas and ceremonial-style platform complexes, plus drainage channels and traces of farmland between the clusters
• Occupation that began around 500 BCE and ended between roughly 300 and 600 CE

The authors call the pattern garden urbanism: dense, connected settlements mixed with farmland, rather than a single walled city. That fits what has been found elsewhere in the basin, and it is why the discovery sits beside the other sites in our guide to ancient lost cities in the Amazon rainforest.

Why the Upano Valley Matters

Two things stand out. The first is age. Other well-known Amazonian earthwork societies, such as those in Bolivia and Brazil, flourished later. The Upano settlements are described by the research team as among the earliest known urban-scale settlements in the region, with a main period of use that reaches back more than 2,000 years.

The second is the shift in how the Amazon is understood. For decades the textbook version described rainforest soils as too poor to support large, settled populations. The Upano landscape suggests otherwise: planned roads, standardized platforms and agricultural land managed over centuries. It does not mean the whole basin was one continuous city, and researchers are careful about population estimates, which are still debated. It does mean that the forest you see today grew over a heavily modified landscape.

Who Were the Upano People?

Nobody knows what they called themselves. The name is a label of convenience taken from the river and the valley, and archaeologists also use names such as Kilamope for one of the settlement cultures, after a site north of Macas. There are no written records, so everything comes from excavated pottery, soil, plant remains and the shapes of the buildings.

What the evidence does suggest is a society able to organize labor on a large scale. Moving earth to build platforms and roads takes coordination, and the plazas imply shared public space. Whether the later Indigenous peoples of the area, such as the Shuar, are direct descendants is not established, so treat any simple answer with caution.

Why the settlements ended is also open. Archaeologists point to the nearby Sangay volcano as a possible factor, since ash can both enrich soils and, in heavy eruptions, devastate farming. That remains a hypothesis rather than a proven cause.

Key Facts at a Glance

Can You Visit the Upano Valley Sites?

Short answer: not in the way the headlines suggest. The platforms are low earthen mounds, now covered by grass, crops and trees, and without a guide who knows the research you could stand on one and not notice. Excavations at the main settlements, including Kilamope, which lies roughly nine kilometers north of Macas, are scientific projects, and access depends on landowners and the researchers.

We could not find an official Ecuadorian heritage or national park page that lists a ticketed Upano Valley archaeological site with opening hours. Before you plan around any specific mound, ask the tourist information office in Macas or the provincial tourism office what is open. Treat any operator that sells the lost cities as a standard day trip with some skepticism, and ask exactly where you will be taken and with whose permission.

What you can realistically do

• Use Macas as a base, walk to the viewpoints over the Upano River and ask locally about museums and cultural centers
• Look for cultural initiatives run by Indigenous communities in the province, which are generally open by arrangement
• Take a guided half-day in the valley with a local guide to understand how the terrain and farming relate to the research
• Combine the trip with the Sangay National Park area, where the scenery is the main draw

Getting to Macas from Quito

Macas is not close to Quito by Amazon standards. The usual route is by road, a long day through the Andes and down the eastern slope. Many buses and drivers go via Ambato, Baños and Puyo, then south along the foothills to Macas. Another way is to travel south to Cuenca and cross to the east, which makes sense if you are touring the highlands first.

Plan a full day of travel and leave early, because mountain roads can be slowed or closed by landslides and heavy rain. Intercity buses serve Macas from the main terminals, and private drivers are available. Scheduled flights to Macas have operated at times but have changed over the years, so check with the airlines before relying on them. For times and fares, use the bus companies directly.

Sangay National Park and the Surrounding Landscape

The most dependable reason to come is the setting. Sangay National Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983 for a range that runs from high páramo and glacial peaks down to tropical forest on the eastern slope. It includes the active Sangay volcano and the Altar and Tungurahua volcanoes.

Reaching the park's interior usually means trekking with licensed guides and several days of effort, and the volcano itself is remote and unpredictable. Do not approach it without current information from the park authority and local guides. From Macas, the view of the cone on a clear morning is the easy and safe way to appreciate it.

If you like landscape-driven archaeology, compare it with Machu Picchu, which is organized, ticketed and very busy. The Upano Valley is the opposite experience: quiet, informal and partly invisible. More options in the region are collected on our Amazon travel page.

Best Time to Visit Macas and the Upano Valley

The eastern Andean foothills are wet for much of the year, and there is no truly dry season. Rain can fall in any month, and that affects roads, river levels and trekking. Local sources point to the drier stretch toward the end of the year as the easier time for outdoor plans, but conditions vary from week to week, so keep your schedule flexible.

Practical Tips and Cautions

• Respect private land. Never walk onto farms or into excavations without permission, and never collect pottery or dig.
• Hire local guides. They know landowners, trails and current conditions, and it keeps money in the community.
• Rely on official bulletins for volcano information, since ash fall and activity can change quickly.
• Prepare for the climate: insect repellent, quick-dry clothing and waterproof bags for electronics.
• Carry some cash for small towns, as card payment is not universal outside Macas.
• Check health advice for the Amazon region, including vaccinations, with a travel clinic before you go.

Plan at least two nights in Macas so that you have time to talk with locals about the sites and adjust to the weather. Nearby Sucúa, a center of Shuar culture, makes a worthwhile stop if you want to learn about living Indigenous traditions as well as the archaeology. For wider planning, our South America travel guides are a good next step.

Upano Valley FAQ