Chayrama

Chayrama, also known as Pueblito or Chairama, was a Tairona settlement on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Stone terraces, retaining walls and paved paths adapted the steep terrain for houses and movement. Streams ran through the settlement, in places bordered by stone walls and crossed by bridges. The site lay within a network of communities between the mountain heights and the Caribbean coast.

Archaeological work indicates that the settlement was occupied during part of the sixteenth century, when Spanish expeditions entered the surrounding region. Its terraces and water channels show the skill with which Tairona builders managed steep slopes and heavy rainfall. The settlement’s surviving stonework preserves the plan of a substantial community in a forested mountain landscape.

The later city of Santa Marta lies here.