Tingo, Peru 🇵🇪

Kuélap is another place that has been on my list from the start.  I find it fascinating that the Chachapoyans or cloud people chose ontop of a limestone mountain nearly 3000masl to settle.  Today as of 2 months ago I can get a Teleférico ride to within a kilometre of it, but the original settlers would have had a arduous hike to leave their city. 

Kuélap was established in 400AD and took 8 centuries to complete.  At its biggest it had around 3000 people living within the walls with 6-10 per house. They were conquered by the Inca and the history of the Chachapoyans has been lost, with the exception of any Inca writings.  It was abandoned in 1570 with the Spanish conquest and was accidentally rediscovered in 1843, when a visiting judge leant on foliage and felt the structure.  

The Kuélap settlement is 584m long and 110m in its widest part.  It has over 500 circular structures and a couple of rectangular ones the the Incas built.  It is amazing to see this place with the huge limestone walls and imagine the effort to build it.  We walk through the narrow doorways (3 entrances to the city), and round the upper and lower parts learning a little of what archaeologists are only even now piecing together.

There is evidence of trading with other cultures, Moche included.  They have also discovered burial tombs of the more reviered priests in a round urn shaped temple.  The longer mountain also has a mausoleum within it, although who knows how they put bodies in there.  It is a really interesting place, and I am thrilled to have seen it whilst it is still relatively low key on the tourist circuit.