CHACHAPOYAS AND KUELAP - CITIES IN THE CLOUD FOREST

Home of the Sachapuyas

On the far side of the Andes, on the slopes overlooking the Amazon basin, a pre-Inca culture known as the Chachapoyas or Sachapuyas built cities, roads, temples and fortresses high up in the cloud forest. Although they were eventually conquered by the Incas, they left behind one of the richest archaeological legacies of any Peruvian people, and if the altitude doesn't, then the scenery will take your breath away...

The Sachapuyas culture dominated this area for four and a half centuries, from 1000AD until their conquest by the Inca Yupanqui in 1452. It took the Incas several attempts and a number of years to finally overcome them, due in no small part to their skill in building near-impenetrable fortresses at altitudes even the Incas thought twice about! It's generally acknowledged that if they were more accessible then many of these lost citadels would be as well-known as Machu Picchu.

Look at a holiday visiting Kuelap

Kuelap - The Cloud-Forest Fortress

Chief among these was Kuelap, the scene for the final battle between the Sachapuyas and the Incas. Kuelap is a huge, stone-built fortress, large enough to house thousands of warriors, and located at over 3,000m above sea level, high in the cloud-forest. It took the Incas several attempts and thousands of lives to finally conquer the citadel. When you get there it's hard not to feel overwhelmed by the place as so much of it is still in perfect condition. You can still see the 5 baileys or levels formed with walls that are in places 20m high and 500m long. The only concession to time is that many of the walls are now covered in what must be millions of orchids and bromeliads, bringing a peaceful air to a warlike place.

The obvious comparison is with Machu Picchu, that other famous lost city, and the comparison is fair. It seems obvious that if Kuelap was half as well known, and if Chachapoyas was half as easy to get to as Cusco, then Kuelap would also be on the cover of magazines and be on everybody's must-see list. This, of course, is a double-edged sword. The downside is the lack of tourist infrastructure and the fact that it takes time out of your holiday just to get there, but the advantage is that you really can have the place almost to yourself - something that is almost impossible to achieve at Machu Picchu.

Karajia and Laguna de los Condores

Nothing remains of the Sachapuyas language although placename analysis suggests it had Carribean roots rather than being related to Quechua or Aymara - the languages of the southern Andes. Even the name itself comes from two Quechua words, Sacha meaning 'mountain', and puya, meaning 'mist'. The name describes this area perfectly - the steep but intensely-forested slopes are hung with wispy low-lying cloud that lends the most mundane tree a mysterious, almost mythical quality.

Another advantage of the cloud forest is that it has probably helped to conceal some of the archeological treasures of the area and its true significance may only just be coming to light. A recent discovery was of a huge collection of pre-Inca mummies (over 280!) found at the beautiful Lake of the Condors (laguna de los condores in Spanish). This was to add to the amazing sarcophagi of Karajia, which sit right at the top of a ridge high up in the Juscubamba gorge north-east of Chachapoyas, and which bear an uncanny resemblance to the statues of Easter Island. The main draw for the area, however, and the reason people are beginning to hear the name, is something on a much grander scale indeed...

Chachapoyas: "The Faithful City"

An unlikely kind of nickname to British ears but that is indeed how Chachapoyas styles itself. Founded as San Juan de la Frontera de los Chachapoyas as early as 1538, the city has really grown very little since the sixteenth century. Today just 25,000 descendants of the Sachapuyas live here, in an area that is regarded as remote even by the rest of Peru. Understandably in a town of this size, there isn't a whole lot to see here beyond the pleasant central plaza and a couple of interesting churches, but the recent opening of the university has given the town a more youthful feel, and it's a pleasant base for exploring the lost world of the Sachapuyas.

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