AMAZONAS
KUELAP city of the cloud

Kuelap located in northeastern Perú in the Amazonas region, 72 km (44 miles) from the city of Chachapoyas, the regional capital, Kuelap(3000 meters/ 9,840 feet), is an ancient stone fortress built strategically on a mountain top looking over the Utcubamba valley.m Kuelap was discovered in 1843. Is a wonderful work of architecture that show cultural development reached by the Chachapoyas, its oldest than the incas and its stonework remains in remarkably good condition, buildings are decorated with elaborate stone geometric designs. The tall “fair” warriors Chachapoyas built their citadels on defensive peaks in the clouds.

The climate and vegetation give the feeling of an eternal spring and it’s the habitat of a large varieties of orchids and bromeliads, they are also inside the stone buildings.

The main buildings are three long walls up on each one, in a complex of elliptic form, enormous walls support them and other buildings distributed in circle. The first wall is 582 meters long and 20 meters height, Second 275 meters long and 15 meters height.
At 350 meters distance there are two buildings like the firsts. 1.5 kilometers is the total extension of walls. The fortress has 3 doors opening to wide passageways going steeply uphill inside. Since the walls are too high to scale, these doors would seem the logical way for an enemy to storm inside.

However once inside, the defenders on top of this passageway would rain down death to the attackers.

They would discover too late that this passageway narrowed down at the top end to where only one person at a time could squeeze inside the citadel. At the left of the narrow door, we can see a five meters height tower, its walls nice worked. Facing in bottom a sculpted face.

Kuelap contains many surprises such as a mysterious ink well (tintetero in spanish) structure defying gravity. Many believe this to be a mystic oracle where shaman gathered under its lens at special times to forecast events. Inside houses were in from of a central patio on lines with irregular passages Many of the buildings are decorated with elaborate stone geometric designs.

The floors inside all fortress are of land, spacious houses, there are a second floor inside, 8 meters of diameters and walls of 4 meters height, its roofs very leaning and height with straw because it has to resist to much rain. It is curious to see an ingenious system to collect the rain water to be used in home. In the excavations works was found hundreds of burial at the bottom of the big walls and inside the houses that is why same investigators believe in a cemetery city where the alive people don’t want move away from their dead.

As we can observe in that era there were many communities with only one cultural tradition and different politics, the most important were Paellas, Motilones, Chillaos and Chachapoyas.

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