Karajia

Another cliffside with burials, this time in the form of humans more or less. It dates to post-Inka contact and they say the Inka taught the Chachapoya how to mummify their dead.


Allegedly, all the niches originally had tombs, but have now fallen. It´s inaccessible now and they say the architects destroyed the access route after the mummies and offerings were placed here.


Some of the less elaborate mummies. There are spaces behind where offerings have somehow been looted.


The 6 "most important" Chachapoya of the time. There were originally 7, but one fell. Some still have human crania on top of their little fake heads. These are 2.5 meters tall, much taller than a Chachapoya person in actuality. Underneath the tombs, there are piles of human bones that have fallen and there are areas where you can see partial remains of smaller sarcophagi.

Revash

A cliffside with groups of painted mausoleums in Chachapoyas. They´re still accessible and consequently have been looted and heavily graffitied.

The overview of the cliff.

You can see the first large group from here.

The walkway of sorts had fallen out, so we had to scale some narrow outcrops. Not so fun really.

They´re made of stones with clay and red paint from the local minerals.

There are all sorts of paintings inside and out, from concentric circles to deer.

La Congona

This site near Leimebamba, where the Laguna de los Condores museum is located (which we visited, but not the site itself, as it´s 3 days roundtrip), is fairly small, but located near other small residential settlements.


A hearth in one circular house.


A very nice structure, which our guide claimed showed Inka influence. Don´t know about that.


Some of the geometric frieze of another house.


View of the site.


View of the very small, friendly town of Leimebamba. The furthest mountain is where the Laguna is located. Must return to visit it.

Purunllacta

A rarely visited site where no excavation has been done. Most of it is under cloud forest still and supposedly there is a tunnel that descends the mountain from the top, a purported characteristic at many of these sites.


The most extensively uncovered area.


Buildings at the top of the mountain with more formalized architecture and a tower. There is a looted cemetery nearby, built on an artificial platform.


Fancy stairs for the structures above.


There´s structures in them ther´hills.

Had to wash our boots before we could get back in the 4x4. Super muddy, rainy day.

The Chachapoya Fortress of Kuelap

Kuelap is an extensive fortress of the Chachapoya culture, located on a mountain in the middle of other, smaller settlements in the ceja de selva of northern Peru.


The gigantic Kuelap walls



One of several animals and faces carved into the monumental entrance to the site on the inside.



A nice doorway to a house.



Some of the houses with geometric decoration around the edges.



Part of the site that is still overgrown and uninvestigated.



A reconstructed traditional Chachapoyas house.







One of the many controlled entrances.



The southern tower, from which stone axes and 2500 slingstones were excavated.






The site is located way above the valley floor in the middle of smaller, but also defensible, contemporary sites.



Only 5% of the site has been investigated, they say.

Huaca Magdalena de Cao

An important Moche huaca in the Chicama Valley, built alongside the much earlier site of Huaca Prieta. This temple has five construction phases built on top of each other, one of which was never finished. There are also Lambayeque, Inka, and Colonial settlements here.



Prisoners being led by warriors in the final construction phase.




The room in which the infamous Señora de Cao and her sacrificed buddies were uncovered (beneath those poles), with her tatooed arms and lots of jewelry.


View from the top of the huaca of the nearby ocean.


Inside an area recently excavated, where one temple construction intrudes in the walls and ceiling of another.

Huaca Prieta

View of Huaca Prieta (ca. 2500 BC) from Huaca Magdalena de Cao.



Some traditional totora reed boats hanging out on the beach near the Huaca.

It´s all ashy because it was built up over the years accidentally. They uncovered some tombs this year.

Pampa Rosario

Near Casma, dated 350 BC-0. We thought we were visiting the Pampa de las Llamas - Moxeke.


View from a nearby hill. Notice the huge wall running through the pampa and up the hill across from me.

I think if you click on this photo, it will get bigger, and you may be able to see Chanquillo, a tower surounded by circular walls, off in the distance.


Another view of the rectangular buildings, and the tiny town of Moxeke behind.


The settlment here continues up the hillsides and the shapes of rooms are still discernible.

Cerro Sechin

An Initial Period site (about 3000 years old) in the Casma Valley.


You can´t visit the inside, but there is an even earlier component in there with painted snakes on the walls.


Oops, they cut off my legs!


It´s obviously reconstructed, but the bas-relief is all legitimate.


Does the stomach still function like this?


Still dancing, I´d say.

Pampa de las Llamas photos to come soon.