Kuelap is a fortress that was built amidst the clouds, where men and women could easily reach the stars with their hands. Homeland to a nation encrusted among the steep cliffs of the Chachapoyas Province, name with which they were to be known at the present times. A citadel in which dwelled the men who challenged nature and who were rewarded with a place to live and flourish among this ferocious and uneven territory.

The journey needed to reach this archaeological complex can be regarded as an adventure in itself, and it will undoubtedly fill your traveler's soul with joy and wonder. Once in Chachapoyas, you will have to travel to the Anexo de Kuelap, some three hour trip by an earthen road (72 kilometers). This passage will be a good opportunity to start with the discovery of the marvelous natural diversity of the area, strewn with beautiful landscapes that will keep coming constantly into view at both sides of the road.

Once you have reached the Anexo de Kuelap (to be sure, the Distrito de Tingo District, in the Provincia de Luya, Departamento de Amazonas), you will start the ascent towards this attractive citadel lying at the summit of a mountain. The ascension of it will take you some fifteen minutes under the warm climate of the region. Your mind will most likely wander around the place as if trying to imagine the long gone times of history when it was a place still inhabited by the members of the Chachapoyas Culture.

For a great number of people, the Citadel of Kuelap might only be matched with the Citadel of Machu Picchu in Cusco, due to the beauty of its surroundings and the magnificence of its construction. There is almost always the presence of a mist around the zone, thus creating a micro-climate which favors the growth of Orchids and bromeliads, which can be found in large amounts, embellishing the landscape with their bright and vivid colors.

All of these natural marvels will act as a preliminary preparation, only waiting for the appearance of the impressive monuments that stand at the end of your way. At the top of a steep sided mountain that raises 2,900 m.a.s.l., located in the strip of foggy forests of the North-eastern zone of Peru, awaits this amazing Citadel which will undoubtedly leave you breathless at the presence of the beauty, skill and originality performed in its construction. To the East of this archaeological compound, flows the Utcubamba River in a North-eastward direction, aiming towards its meeting with the Tingo River, while by the South runs the Selcas River.

The Citadel's existence was revealed to the Western world in the year of 1841 by the Judge Juan Crisóstomo Nieto. A rough calculation accounts that in the process of its construction were used 25 million cubical meters of materials, thrice the volume of those needed for the construction of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.

Kuelap contains 505 rooms in its interior grounds and 198 more have been registered at the outside areas, thus more than 700 rooms in total. One of the most impressive features of this compound is its huge dimensions, with a length of 582 meters and 111 meters wide. Another notable element is the twenty meter high wall that delimits the so called "Pueblo Alto" or "Upper Town" from the "Pueblo Bajo" or "Lower Town".

The gigantic enclosing wall that protected the Citadel contains several guard posts, one turret and three narrow accesses, two of which are oriented towards the East and the third was located on the West side. These entrances, built with the shape of a funnel, are three meters wide at the outer side and come down to only 0,7 meters on the inside of the fortress, allowing the pass of just one person at a time, therefore increasing its inaccessibility.

The Citadel of Kuelap was basically arranged into two huge man-made platforms that superimpose one on another, upon which was constructed the village, containing both dwelling and ceremonial facilities. The "Pueblo Bajo" contains 335 round shaped structures among which stands out "El Tintero" or "The Inkwell", which locates at the southernmost part of the compound and designed with the shape of an inverted cone. "El Tintero" was presumably constructed in order to allow the performance of some ceremonial rites. Its height reaches 5,5 meters and its diameter measures 13,7 meters. In its interior exists a bottle shaped chamber more than 5 meters deep.

The "Pueblo Alto" is constituted by 80 stone constructions. The most important among them are "El Castillo" or "The Castle", arranged by three superimposing platforms, and "El Torreon" or "The Turret", located at the northern side of the "Pueblo Alto", seven meters high and with an obvious defensive purpose, which in addition permits the visitor to attain a magnificent panoramic sight of the surroundings.

The great majority of these structures were done in a circular shape due to the particular concept regarding the use of round spaces by this people, differing to the more common construction of square spaces by other Peruvian cultures. This oddity adds to a superb artistic and aesthetic sense, which gets enhanced by the decorative rhomboidal friezes and anthropomorphic representations in high relief upon the walls. The blocks of sandstone used for the construction of this compound attain different finishing qualities, being the most finely worked those destined to the ceremonial buildings.

The building of the Citadel over high platforms allowed for a better visibility of other villages which were constructed over some of the high surrounding peaks, as well as of the access ways constituted by the Marañon and Huallaga Valleys, which actually served as their commercial routes with the rest of the country. This was an inaccessible stronghold to their neighbors, being surrounded by sheer cliffs and insurmountable precipices at its four sides. Until the quechuas (Incas) came and subjugated them, therefore engrossing their swelling Empire with this isolated kingdom.

This compound was inhabited by a human group that was a constituting part of the great Curacazgo (the predominating social organization of the zone in those times), which belonged to the Nation of the Chachapoyas. Its cultural dominance occurred in the lapse comprised by the 10th and 15th Centuries A.D. and it was at the end of this period of economic and social welfare that they became subdued by the Inca Nation, while the latter were engaged on their enterprise to vanquishing the Realm of Quito (Ecuador). The Spanish occupation of this area took place in the 16th Century, during their mythical quest for El Dorado.

The Chachapoya Culture, a great Nation conformed by independent Curacazgos or kingdoms, created for posterity a legacy of several wonderful archaeological monuments scattered around the Utcubamba River area. Other examples of their handsome architecture can be observed in the ruins of Olán, Yalapé, Purunllacta or "Monte Peruvia", Gran Vilaya, Vira Vira, Karajía, Gran Pajatén and Leimebamba, besides several other remains.

The main sustain for the society that dwelled in Kuelap was farming, as well as the exchange of goods and hunting. Basically, they sowed corn (Zea mays), beans (Judíaphaseolus vulgaris), tarhui (Lupinus mutabilis Sweet) and several edible roots and tubercles such as the potato (Solanum tuberosum), the achira (Canna edulis), the mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), the olluco (Ullucus tuberosus), the arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza) and the yacon (Polimnia sonchifolia). Their protein supply was obtained from the meat of the llama (Lama glama), the cuy or guinea pig (Cavia sp.), the majás (Agouti paca) and many other wild animals whose bones have been found among the archaeological remains.

Since their discovery, there have been a lot of scholars who came to these lands in order to carry out different researches of Kuelap. The first one to do so was the Italian scientist Antonio Raymondi in 1860. His accomplishments were followed by Charles Wiener, Adolph Banbelier, Loors Langlots, Paul Henri Reichlen and others, who committed themselves on the same search. But the most accurate and complete description might be the one performed between the years of 1985 and 1987 by Alfredo Narvaez.

Allow yourself to be one of those travelers whose feet stepped over this men's overwhelming achievement. Permit yourself to get entangled by the charm that flows from this Citadel, a true symbol of the architectonical development achieved by the ancient people of the Chachapoyas. You will not regret your visiting this region, a true remainder of the past history that took place between the boundaries of the Highlands and the Jungles of Peru.