Peru North - Kuelap, Chachapoyas and Royal Tombs of Sipan

The map of the ancient Inca Road

Gilded copper feline head - from the museum of the Lord of Sipan graves.

Gocta Waterfall - the third highest in the world

In Chicklayo - the gateway city to the Chachapoyas region. We flew to Chicklayo from Lima and then took a 9 hour bus ride to Chachapoyas.

At the local market in Chachapoyas

Getting to Ravash Mausoleum involves driving across this countryside

The Andean road to Revash

From the road, we had to hike a few miles to the escarpment with the elaborate graves of Revash. Revash, near the village of San Bartolo, 60 km (37 miles) south of the city of Chachapoyas, is a late Chachapoya funerary complex with chullpas (mausoleums) built high into limestone cliffs, at an altitude of 2,800 m (9,182 ft) above sea level.

Constructed of rock and adobe, plastered and painted pink and cream, they look like little houses, but are in fact tombs. Most were ransacked long ago; a few yielded some bones and funerary offerings for archaeologists to examine.  

Revash mausoleum is located on a rocky shelf over a deep canyon at an altitude of 2,800m.

Revash's funeral mansions are almost intact. The mummies that used to be located inside were destroyed by looters.

While there are many funerary sites, such as Karajia, El Tigre and La Laguna de los Condores, to be found in the Amazonas region, the ones at Revash differ in that they take the form of miniature villages, located in a straight line in a cavity excavated in the rocky wall of the imposing canyon.

The walls of the chullpas are made of stones placed on mud mortar. Each has a rectangular floor and one or two floors. Instead of a front door, they have side doors. The cliff-side forms the back wall. 

The sloping roofs are purely symbolic. They were protected by the cave, so the roofs did not have to withstand rain or sun.

Revash's chullpas have mouldings around the tops of the walls, which are painted with figures, such as felines, South American camelids, people, and circles. 

The town of Leymebamba - main square

The town of Leymebamba

The town of Leymebamba where the magnificent Museo de Leymebamba is located.

The mummies were wrapped in these bundles (on display in the Museo de Leymebamba)

Mummies from the Chachapoyas culture from about 800 AD are displayed at the Museum of Leymebamba. The Leymebamba Museum was built by the Austrians and inaugurated in 2000, specifically to house 200 or so mummies and their burial offerings. The mummies were recovered during a 1997 excavation of Llaqtacocha, a Chachapoya settlement on the banks of Laguna de los Cóndores, a lake about 50 miles south of Chachapoyas.

Studies conducted on these mummies by experts have revealed much information about them. For instance, by studying these mummies, experts are able to understand the manner by which they were embalmed. As another example, by studying a mummy’s teeth, the age of death may be obtained, as these are indicators of age. Additionally, artifacts associated with each mummy may be used to infer the role they played in society whilst they were alive. For example, a mummy wrapped in nets may be said to belong to a bird catcher, a prestigious job in this ancient society, as bird feathers were highly prized. Due to the cold and dry environment these mummies were placed in, much has been preserved, including organic remains, which may be further studied to understand these mummies.

Mummies at the Museum of Leymebamba. The archaeologists recovered the mummies from Laguna de los Cóndores, protecting them from further accidental damage and the grave robbers. It was in 1997 that the Laguna de los Condores caught the attention of archaeologists. In the previous year, workers for a Leymebamba-based cattle rancher named Julio Ullilén stumbled upon the necropolis. As they found it to be full of mummies, they began to hack the bodies up, in the hopes that they would find precious metal artifacts that they could sell. The local police had to intervene when a fight broke out amongst the looters over the spoils, and many of the artifacts, which had been taken by Ullilén, were later confiscated by the police. In April of the following year, an archaeologist by the name of Peter Lerche was sent to the site as an official representative of Peru’s National Institute of Culture to conduct a preliminary survey of the damage that had been done to the mummies. Lerche’s initial estimation was that there were about 60 or 70 mummies interred in the necropolis, and hundreds of associated artifacts scattered on the cliff ledge.

Mummies at the Museum of Leymebamba in a climate controlled room.

Laguna de los Condores mummies likely held high positions in Inca society, due to the elaborate burial process and the lack of wear and tear on the bones usually associated with manual labour. Sites such as the Laguna de Los Condores mausoleums were crucial to the Incas' success in taking control of the region, culture and the people, as they replaced the Chachapoyan way of burial with the Inca tradition of mummification.

When the Incas conquered this area, they replaced the funerary pattern. They emptied the mausoleums [of the pre-Inca Chachapoya dead] and conquered their spirit by conquering their sacred places".

The valley leading to Gocta waterfall

The Gocta waterfall

Gocta Waterfall

Lower bowl of he Gocta Falls

Sonche Canyon near Chachapoyas

Pottery maker

The Andean cloud forest near Chachapoyas, 700 km north of Lima

Many un-excavated ruins dot the landscape around the canyon.

An old Inca mummy

The spectacular road to Kuelap. You can see the construction the cable car in the distance.

Kuelap fortress is located on the ridge/mountain top in the distance at the altitude of 3,000m.

Kuelap, a fortified city on top of a mountain, is one of the most impressive and significant pre-Columbian ruins in all of South America, perhaps only matched in grandeur by Machu Picchu.

And yet, for the time being, it still receives only a fraction of the visitors that go by train or make the trek to Machu Picchu.

This is the largest and most important Chachapoya site, beautifully located at about 3,000 m (10,000 ft) on a craggy mountain-top overlooking the Utcubamba River valley, giving superb views.

Most of the site was constructed from AD 900 - 1100, although some remnants near the main entrance have been carbon-dated to the 6th century AD.

The Incas added a few buildings after they conquered the Chachapoya in the 1470s.

For three centuries after the Spanish conquest, Kuelap lay forgotten by the outside world, until its re-discovery in 1843 by a local judge, Juan Crisostomo Nieto.

Kuelap - a pre Inca Fortress in the Andes. Built by the Chachapoyas, the fortified citadel of Kuelap was home to the Warriors of the Cloud. Kuelap is one of the largest ancient stone monuments in South America.

There are only three entrances, all of which are narrow and highly-defendable.

The main entrance, used today, slopes upwards and becomes increasingly narrow, with high walls on either side, ending in a section which allows only single-file foot traffic. One can easily imagine that attackers would easily be picked off and would find it impossible to enter.

At the other end of the citadel, a 7 m (23 ft) high D-shaped torréon (lookout tower) dominates the wall. In its base, archaeologists discovered a cache of 2,500 rocks which would have been a perfect size for slingshots.  

The many buildings in between are slowly being restored through a project that began in 1999.

Some of the walls are decorated with tiled friezes in rhomboid or zigzag patterns which are a hallmark of Chachapoya architecture. The mural decorations include representations of the eyes of felines, snakes and birds, all different gods to the Chachapoya.

Mysterious Kuelap. Kuelap was built around the sixth century A.D., and continued to be in use until the 16 th century A.D. The most enigmatic structure is the inverted cone-shaped tintero (inkwell) found at the south end, with a face carved in bas-relief on its eastern side.

The function of this 5.5 m (18 ft) high temple is unknown, although several proposals have been made, including as a solar observatory, water tank, and jail.  

The discovery of offerings in conjunction with this building has led archaeologists to consider this to be Kuelap’s main ceremonial temple. 

The main structure is an awe-inspiring, walled stronghold, almost 600 m (2,000 ft) long and 120 m (400 ft) wide. The massive wall, built of large limestone blocks, sometimes reaches heights over 17 m (50 ft), although much is about half of that.

Kuelap - the Chachapoyas were conquered by the Incas sometime in the second half of the 15th century. Kuelap fortress was left alone by the Incas, and the Chachapoyas continued to live there until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century when the Chachapoyan civilization collapsed.

The view from the Fortress of Kuelap.

Sarcofagos de Karajia highlights the coffins of the Chachapoyas culture. Found in in a ravine, the sarcophagi sit in the Amazonian Luya district. Constructed of clay, sticks and grasses, with exaggerated jawlines. Their inaccessible location high above a river gorge has preserved them from destruction by looters.

Karajia (sometimes spelt Carajia), about 48 km (30 miles) northwest of Chachapoyas, is known for the larger-than-life-sized sarcophagi which were sometimes the final resting places of Chachapoya nobility.

Here, standing upright, up to 2.5 m (8 ft) tall, they are bullet-shaped structures made of mud, wood, and straw, topped with an oversized head, colourfully painted, and placed in ledges high on cliffs. Characteristically, each sarcophagus has a face painted to look out over the valley below.

Inside, there were mummies and offerings, long since removed by looters and archaeologists, but the sarcophagi remain, eerily staring out into the distance.

The Chachapoya always buried their important dead high up, in difficult to access locations, looking towards the rising sun or a village, and close to water. 

The remoteness of the location meant that it was not until 1985 that an excursion led by Federico Kauffmann Doig was successful in finding the Karajia sarcophagi.

It it thought that the sarcophagi of Karajia contained the highest officials from the fortress of Kuelap.

Archaeologists believe that the characters with a skull on their head were warriors; while the symbols on one of the sarcophagi points to one of them being a woman.

There are numerous looted sarcophagi in the valleys around Chachapoyas. The inaccessible location did not seem to be a deterrent.

Local restaurant

On the road to Karajia

Rock art from the Bronze Age at the Pitaya petroglyphs near Chachapoyas.

Pitaya petroglyphs near Chachapoyas.

Chachapoyas - main square. Chachapoyas is capital of the Department of Amazonas, with a population of around 50,000. 'Chacha', as it is called locally, is a quiet, pleasant town with an attractive historical centre, a number of interesting churches, and balconied 19th-century buildings.  

Although founded in 1538, none of the early Colonial buildings remain. The Plaza de Armas is home to a small museum and is a great place to people-watch, as the locals enjoy an evening paseo (stroll) around the plaza near sunset, followed by a coffee.

The main attraction of the city, however, is as a base to explore the spectacular natural, archaeological and cultural highlights in the surrounding area.

This once was the land of the pre-Inca Chachapoya, the 'cloud people', still shrouded in many mysteries, with hundreds of lost cities and cliff tombs with recently-discovered mummified warriors, in huge and largely uninhabited cloud forests and Andean highlands.

Chachapoyas

Mesmerizing presentation of health potions at the local market.

Laguna de los Condores, located in northern Peru’s remote Chachapoyas region, became one of the country’s most important Inca sites in 1997 when archaeologists discovered hundreds of mummies in a mausoleum built into the steep surrounding cliff-face. Those bodies are now conserved in the nearby Leymebamba Museum, but thousands more preserved corpses are thought to remain in 17 other mausoleums hidden in the jungle-covered mountains – still unexcavated due to the high cost of archaeology work in this remote region.

According to bio-anthropologist Dr Sonia Guillen, Peru's leading expert on mummies, the Laguna de los Condores excavation is one of the most significant discoveries relating to the Inca period in South America, as it’s one of only two known large Inca burial sites to have escaped destruction by Spanish conquistadors.

"The finding was sort of a miracle". "These mummies are very significant, because they are the first to show us how the Incas prepared their dead in the royal way. They cured the skin to preserve it and made it into leather and they extracted the organs through the anus."

The mummified bodies were then wrapped in woven textiles and surrounded with artefacts and offerings, such as pots, feathers, woven baskets and quipus: knotted Inca tools that recorded stories and accounting. 

The Laguna de los Condores mummies likely held high positions in Inca society, due to the elaborate burial process and the lack of wear and tear on the bones usually associated with manual labour. One of the reasons the Inca mummified their elite was to keep them connected with the community.

At the market in Chachapoyas

At the market in Chachapoyas

At the market in Chachapoyas

At the market in Chachapoyas

The Archeological site of the Royal Tombs of Sipan. A Moche culture of pre Inca northern Peru. The gold found on this site was the largest gold find in all of Americas. It filled up 3 museums. The archaeological site of Sipan lies next to the modern village of the same name, 28 km (17 miles) east of Chiclayo. The road passes through lush sugarcane fields and the village of Pomalca, home to a popular brand of Peruvian rum.

Of the two pyramids (better called 'funerary platform mounds') at the site, the smaller one, Huaca Rajada (Cracked Pyramid) is so-called on account of the deep gullies eroded into its flanks.

It has yielded fabulous treasures from a series of deeply-buried tombs of the pre-Inca Moche culture, who lived in the valleys of Peru's northern coast some 1,500 years ago.

Archaeologists believed that upper-class homes topped the larger pyramid, although none have yet been found. You can climb a short way up the larger pyramid to a viewing platform overlooking Huaca Rajada.

Excavated in 1987-88, the main tomb of the Lord of Sipan dates to about A.D. 350.

In late 1988, another royal tomb was unearthed at a much deeper level in the funerary mound. The man within this tomb—buried about 300 years before the Lord of Sipan—is known as the Old Lord of Sipan.

In 1987, archaeologists decided to take a closer look at one small platform on the west side of the archaeological site called “Huaca Rajada,” close to the little village of Sipán, just 18 miles (30 km) from Chiclayo. Until then, they had no idea they’d been standing on the biggest and most valuable ceremonial tomb in the whole of Northern Peru. Untouched by looters – unfortunately, a rarity in many excavation sites – these gold, jewelry, and artifact-filled tombs of priests and royalty may be the most important archaeological discovery in South America for the past 30 years. 

This huaca (ancient Peruvian sacred object or monument) consists of two large, heavily eroded pyramids to the east of the road and a smaller platform on the opposite side of the road. Recent investigations have centered on the smaller platform, often called simply "Huaca de Sipán," which was used for burials of the highest ranking people within Moche society. This is where the Lord of Sipán’s mummified body was found. Everything that was discovered inside the tombs of Sipán is displayed in the Tumbas Reales Museum in Lambayeque, perhaps the greatest museum in Peru.

The Lord of Sipán, buried 1700 years ago, was 5’4” tall and died of an undetermined illness at 35-45 years of age (the average life expectancy of the Moche population). His tomb is called "the richest tomb of the New World,” filled with gold, silver, copper, ceramics, fabrics, shells, jewelry, knives, food, sacrificed animals, and 6 other people, possibly servants or family members –including, it’s speculated, multiple wives.

Starting in the middle of November 1986 a team of looters led by an unemployed car mechanic named Ernil Bernal began to tunnel into Huaca Rajada. On or around 6 February 1987 the looters encountered Moche bricks in the ceiling of their trench. Upon locating a number of gold beads between these bricks, Ernil Bernal punctured the roof of the tunnel and a torrent of gold, silver and other Moche antiquities literally poured out on top of him (Kirkpatrick 1992: 20).

From what can be pieced together from archaeological excavation, interviews with key participants, and the results of various law enforcement investigations, the looters had located an intact elite Moche tomb (Alva and Donnan 1993). Samuel Bernal, one of the original looters of the tomb interviewed by Atwood in 2002, described finding a layer of hundreds of ceramic pots which were mostly destroyed while the looters searched for more valuable metal objects (Atwood 2004: 42). Over the next few nights the looters filled rice sacks with gold and silver artefacts which they transported to the Bernal family house. Arguments broke out among the looters regarding how the profits from the sale of the Sipán material were going to be split. As a result, one of the looters contacted the police who, with the aid of archaeologist Walter Alva, intervened at the site and effectively halted the looting (Alva and Donnan 1993). The exact trail of many of the objects out of Sipán is unknown.

The Lord of Sipan, like other Moche noblemen, was buried in a cane coffin surrounded by small pottery vessels containing food such as yams, chilies, sweet potatoes, and corn.

But he was not buried alone. The bodies of three women, two soldiers, one boy and several llamas were also found in the tomb. The Lord of Sipán was wearing two necklaces with beads of gold and silver in the shape of maní (peanuts), which represent the tierra (earth). The peanuts symbolized that men came from the land, and that when they die, they return to the earth. Peanuts were used because they were an important food crop for the Moche. The necklaces had ten kernels on the right side made of gold, signifying masculinity and the sun god, and ten kernels on the left side made of silver, to represent femininity and the moon god.

n 1988, a second tomb was found and excavated near that of the Lord of Sipán. Artifacts in this second tomb are believed to be related to religion: a cup or bowl for the sacrifices, a metal crown adorned with an owl with its wings extended, and other items associated with worship of the moon. Alva concluded that the individual buried in this tomb was a Moche priest. Carbon dating established that the skeleton in this second tomb was contemporary with the Lord of Sipan.

The third tomb found at Huaca Rajada was slightly older than the first two, but ornaments and other items found in the tomb indicated that the person buried in the tomb was of the same high rank as the first Lord of Sipán burial. DNA analysis of the remains in this third tomb established that the individual buried in the third tomb was related to the Lord of Sipán via the maternal line. As a result, the archeologists named this third individual The Old Lord of Sipán. The third tomb also contained the remains of two other people: a young woman, a likely sacrifice to accompany the Old Lord of Sipán to the next life; and a man with amputated feet, possibly sacrificed to be the Old Lord's guardian in the afterlife.

A total of fourteen tombs have been found at Sipán.

The Brüning Museum, also known as Museo Regional Arqueológico Enrique Bruning de Lambayeque was inaugurated in 1966 and it is located in two blocks of the principal park in Lambayeque, Peru. It was based on the collections of Hans Heinrich Brüning, a German researcher.

It is an excellent museum based on the collections that Bruning gathered at the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. The Peruvian government acquired this collection from Bruning in 1924. This museum has been constantly enriched by pieces obtained in confiscations, donations and discoveries. The most recent procurement are the pieces acquired in the Tomb of the "Lord of Sipán". His remains and the mortuary trousseau are displayed at the museum. The Golden Room shows up to 500 works of art.