Lost City of the Cloud Forest People

[Goldmoon]

This was in the news a while back, but it was quite the nice place, thought I'd share it with you.

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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 area is completely overgrown with the jungle now covering much of the settlement but explorers found the walls of the buildings and rock paintings on a cliff face.

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

Archaeologist Benedicto Pérez Goicochea said: "The citadel is perched on the edge of an abyss.

"We suspect that the ancient inhabitants used this as a lookout point from where they could spot potential enemies."

The ruins were initially discovered by local people hacking through the jungle. They were drawn to the place due to the sound of a waterfall.

The local people "armed with machetes opened a path that arrived at the place where they saw a beautiful panorama, full of flowers and fauna, as well as a waterfall, some 500 metres high," said the mayor of Jamalca, Ricardo Cabrera Bravo.

Initial studies have found similarities between the new discovery and the Cloud Peoples' super fortress of Kulep, also in Utcubamba province, which is older and more extensive that the Inca Citadel of Machu Picchu, but has not been fully explored or restored.

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

When in 1535 the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in Peru, they found willing allies in the Cloud People for their fight against the Incas.

Spanish texts from the era describe the Cloud People as ferocious fighters who mummified their dead.

They were eventually wiped out by small pox and other diseases brought by the Europeans.

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, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incas' wives and to also be taken to the Sun Temple."

[Reef Badlaw]

Wow... Life at rainbow's end, literally. When you're a kid hiking thru wilderness, and you enounter 2-or-3 converging 'trails', but you don't have time to follow them all, your imagination kinda whispers that the ones you couldn't explore would lead-to places like this.

[Jake99]

Originally Posted by Reef Badlaw

Wow... Life at rainbow's end, literally. When you're a kid hiking thru wilderness, and you enounter 2-or-3 converging 'trails', but you don't have time to follow them all, your imagination kinda whispers that the ones you couldn't explore would lead-to places like this.

I actually groomed trails and places like that on conservation lands in the town of Millis MA that in some cases only I knew were there to hide my cabin or the Chariot of Fire which goes anywhere. I also did areas in several other towns and was caretaker for the spring and fall for the best cabins and land on the best trout and salmon lake in the world for 8 years. And it is surrouinded by 5 other sport fishing lakes within walking distance. I had the best 5 person fishing boat I have seen and I never saw anyone out fish me.

My brother has use of a thousand acres in western NY along the Cattaraugus creek that would blow you mind with 400' waterfalls and breath taking views and wildlife that no one sees but a very few.

My limo is shown parked at Jakes Knoll which is 35 acres in Millis that I groomed where I have a hidden cabin in the swamps.

[Reef Badlaw]

Ayuh... Excellent topography up theyuh... (New England-accent). I usually zoomed-thru the Commonwealth on my way to Maine. -Zigzagging back via the White Mountains to upstate NY's Thousand Islands, 'r winknodding across the border to Ville de Mont Joly, etc. That whole area has a 'hidden waterfall' feel to it.

[RobertKairnes]

This is a one more great excavation which leads us to the new discovery of the lost city and a new civilization of the cloud forest people.This old civilization is very rich in its traditions and all the cultural heritage of their habitats and descendants. This is found to be the very oldest and the most ancient civilization of the world which soon turns to be the hub of all the travelers’ communities.
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Shenandoah bed and breakfast~ Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind ~

[The survivor]

Years back I spent a year in the jungles of Peru north of Iguitos working on blowing up columbian dope dealers that were in that country... I have been up in that area where this is but I never knew about it... the locals in that area talked about the people of the clouds and that they were the whitest of white....

wish now, I had paid more attention to the people that we worked with.... sometimes the ignorance of youth outweighs the desire to learn...

[Assassin X]

Theres a picture of this place!:
http://cyphoraxis.home.comcast.net/~.../cloudcity.jpg

[Trenquil367]

that was soooo "national geographic' assassin