04 December 2008

A lost city of the "cloud people" found in Peru


Archaeologists have discovered a lost city carved into the Andes Mountains by the mysterious Chachapoya tribe. The settlement covers some 12 acres and is perched on a mountainside in the remote Jamalca district of Utcubamba province in the northern jungles of Peru's Amazon.

The buildings found on the Pachallama peak are in remarkably good condition, estimated to be over 1,000 years old and comprised of the traditional round stone houses built by the Chachapoya, the 'Cloud Forest People'..

The remote nature of the site appears to have protected the site from looters as archaeologists found ceramics and undisturbed burial sites..

Little is known about the Chachapoya, except that they had been beaten into submission by the mighty Incas in 1475…

The women of the Chachapoya were much prized by the Incas as they were tall and fair skinned. The Chronicler Pedro Cieza de León offers wrote of the Chachapoyas. "They are the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have seen in Indies..."

More on the Chachapoya at the link and at Wiki.

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