Kuélap or Cuélap is a walled settlement located in the mountains near the towns of María and

Tingo Tingo (modern Quechua orthography ''tinku'', union) is a district of Luya Province in Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Br ...

, in the southern part of the region of Amazonas,

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. It was built by the

Chachapoyas culture The Chachapoyas, also called the "Warriors of the Clouds", were a culture of the Andes living in the cloud forests of the southern part of the Department of Amazonas of present-day Peru. The Inca Empire conquered their civilization shortly be ...

in the 6th century AD on a ridge overlooking the Utcubamba Valley.

Location

Kuélap is located on a limestone ridge on top of a mountain at an elevation of 3000 metres, on the left bank of the Utcubamba River. It belongs to the district of

, Luya Province, Amazonas. The area is covered with

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

s, with a variety of trees,

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth ...

and

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

s. The protected zone covers an area of and a buffer zone of , both protecting about 12 archaeological sites and the main site of Kuélap.

Architecture

Kuélap is a now-abandoned walled settlement that covers an area of about six hectares, 584 m from north to south and 110 m at its widest. The walls are 10 to 20 m high with masonry of limestone blocks finely worked (some blocks may weigh 3 tons). Kuelap Steine

The city has three entrances: two on the east, the other on the west. The main entrance is trapezoidal in shape and may have had a

corbel arch A corbel arch (or corbeled / corbelled arch) is an arch-like construction method that uses the architecture, architectural technique of corbeling to span a space or void in a structure, such as an entranceway in a wall or as the span of a bridge ...

; it becomes narrower until it allows the passage of one person. All but five of the 421 structures in the site are circular; those five are

quadrilateral In Euclidean geometry, geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four Edge (geometry), edges (sides) and four Vertex (geometry), corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''l ...

. Only the foundations or walls of the structures remain, some of them up to 2 meters high and 50 cm thick. Some walls have

friezes In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neithe ...

, of rhomboid and zigzag shapes, which are protected from the rain by

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s. A few of the structures have been restored. A 5.5-meter-high structure, now known as ''El Tintero'' (Spanish for "inkwell") or ''Templo Mayor'' ("main r majortemple"), in the southwest of the settlement has the shape of an inverted cone. Ceremonial archaeological remains have been found there, and it is hypothesized that the building may have been used as a solar observatory. In the northwest is a sector known as ''Pueblo Alto'' (Spanish for "high town"), entered by two narrow entrances through a wall 11.5 meters high. To the north of ''Pueblo Alto'', a towerlike structure named ''Torreón'' ("big tower") rises to 7 meters; it may have been used for defensive purposes, as stone weapons have been found within it. Many stones at Kuélap bear anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and geometric designs in relief. Numerous burials have been found both in the walls and inside the circular structures. There are also water canals made of stone, which are believed to have supplied water to the settlement from a spring at the top of the mountain.

History

Early history

Human occupation at the site starts in the 5th century AD, but the majority of structures were built between 900 and 1100 AD. The city may have had some 3000 inhabitants, but was abandoned in 1570 due to the

Spanish Conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

. As a consequence the city deteriorated and was covered by tree roots.

Modern history

Kuélap was accidentally rediscovered in 1843, by

Juan Crisóstomo Nieto ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippi ...

, a judge from the city of Chachapoyas. Then, in 1870,

Antonio Raimondi Antonio Raimondi (September 19, 1826 – October 26, 1890) was an Italian-born Peruvian geographer and scientist. Born in Milan, Raimondi emigrated to Peru in 1850, arriving at the port of Callao on July 28. In 1851 he became a professor of ...

made a survey of the site. Explorer

Charles Wiener Charles Wiener (1851–1913) was an Austrian-French scientist-explorer. Born in Vienna, he is perhaps best known as the explorer who traveled extensively in Peru, climbed the Illimani and came close to re-discovering Machu Picchu. Biography Hi ...

visited the site in 1881. In 1939, French general Louis Langlois studied the site and wrote a detailed description of the main buildings. Kuélap was also studied by archaeologists Ernst Middendorf (1887); Adolf Bandelier (1940); spouses Henry and Paule Reichlen (1948); and Arturo Ruíz (1972). Since the 1980s many Peruvian and foreign archaeologists continued with excavations and studies at Kuélap. Since 2013, it has suffered a series of structural instabilities that culminated in the collapse of a section of the perimeter wall in April 2022. The Ministry of Culture, with the support of Peruvian and foreign experts and researchers, launched emergency conservation measures and scientific research to prevent further structural collapses and identify their causes.

Access

Access to Kuelap is gained via El Tingo, a town at approximately 1800m above sea level, near the bank of the Utcubamba. A horse trail also winds along the left bank of Tingo river and leads eventually up to Marcapampa, a small level upland near the site. Access has been made easier in recent years following the completion of a cable car route, which takes the visitor to within 2 km of the fortress from where visitors can walk or often take a horse. The dirt road, adding 37 km to the journey is also still passable.

References

External links

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Kuélap
Ministry of Tourism - Perú (in Spanish) {{coord, -6.426295, -77.9271134, display=title Ruins in Peru Archaeological sites in Amazonas Region Archaeological sites in Peru