Kuelap

Kuélap crowns a high ridge above the Utcubamba Valley, enclosed by immense stone walls and entered through narrow passages. Within stand hundreds of circular buildings, some decorated with geometric bands. The great complex was a political and religious centre of the Chachapoya, whose communities inhabited the cloud-covered mountains of the northern Peruvian Andes. Its commanding position and monumental masonry made it unlike the smaller settlements spread across the valleys below.

Kuélap developed over many centuries, long before the Inca Empire reached this part of the Andes. Its people built circular houses on raised foundations, alongside special structures such as the building known as El Tintero. The high walls may have served defensive purposes, but the site also brought people together for ceremonies and the exercise of authority. Chachapoya builders gave their walls distinctive geometric ornament, a tradition shared with settlements elsewhere in the Utcubamba country.

In the late fifteenth century the Incas incorporated the Chachapoya region into their empire. Rectangular buildings were added among the older circular structures, marking the arrival of a different architectural tradition. Spanish conquest brought another profound change to the region, and Kuélap was eventually abandoned in the sixteenth century. Its walls and crowded foundations remain a vivid record of the generations who built and inhabited the mountain centre.