A small but worthwhile regional museum covering the long human story of the Tarapacá coast, from the pre-Columbian Chinchorro mummies — among the oldest deliberately preserved bodies in the world — through the Inca presence, Spanish colonisation, and the nitrate boom. The displays are mostly in Spanish but the objects speak for themselves.
The Chinchorro section is the highlight: black and red mummies dating back more than 7,000 years, predating the Egyptian mummies by several millennia. The museum is housed in a former courthouse on Baquedano and makes an easy stop on a walk through the historic centre.