Kuelap And The Great Pajaten

THE CULTURE OF CHACHAPOYAS HAS BEQUEATHED US TWO IMPRESSIVE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. BECAUSE OF THEIR MONUMENTAL CHARACTER AND THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE TERRITORY WHERE THEY ARE LOCATED, KUELAP AND THE GREAT PAJATEN ARE TWO IRREFUTABLE PROOFS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT THAT THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS HAD CONSTRUCTED.

Data:
- The moment of the greatest development of the culture

  Chachapoyas took place during the late transitional period.
  (Centuries IX to XV A.D.).
- The fortress of Kuelap is located in the district of Tingo, province of

  Luya, San Martin.
- The Great Pajaten is located inside the national park Abiseo River

  (Mixed Heritage of Mankind).

THE CHACHAPOYAS
The culture of Chachapoyas was actually the result of the integration of diverse related ethnic groups, each one ruled by its own "curaca" (Indian chief). They occupied the territories of the mountains and high jungle, between the basins of the rivers Marañon and Huallaga. The height of this group took place between the 9th and 15th centuries of our era, although their antecedents go back several centuries before. The Chachapoyans, after terrible and bloody battles, were submitted by Tupac Yupanqui during the process of expansion of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire.
In the steep and difficult territory that they occupied, the Chachapoyans devoted themselves to growing maize, potatoes, olluco, mashua, arracacha and yacon (Indian vegetables). Skillful craftsmen stood out for their gold work and textile art but especially, for their architecture, of which Kuelap (in the photo) and the Great Pajaten are two remarkable examples.

THE FORTRESS OF KUELAP
Located at three thousand meters of height, on the top of a hill that dominates the narrow valley of Utcubamba river. This impressive fortress, of six hectares of extension, is one of the most extensive of the Americas, according to the Peruvian archeologist Alfredo Narvaez, who has realized important studies in the site. The fortress was discovered by chance in 1843 by Juan Crisostomo Nieto, a judge from Chachapoyas, when he was on his way to an ocular inspection in the district of Tingo.
After three hours of climbing on the back of a mule, the judge Nieto saw in the distance the walls of the great complex, covered by vegetation, but practically intact. The Kuelap complex is constituted by 420 housings of circular form and sloping roofs of straw. The external walls, of stone and mud, have variable heights. The highest walls are twenty meters high. Its privileged location had the purpose to facilitate the labor of their defenders, who practically just had to worry about taking care of the fortress flank, besides having a panoramic view of the whole valley. The defensive studding is complemented with two fortified towers, north and south of the complex, and narrow corridors designed to force the occasional invaders to advance in rows of one.
Fragments of stone axes and hundreds of round stones for slings, found near the north tower are evidence of combats that took place in the zone. The interior enclosures do not have windows. In their façades are appreciated decorative friezes with rhomboid, anthropomorphous or zigzag figures. "El Tintero" (The Inkpot) sticks out, which is a building that is finely worked in stone, of more than five meters high, and an underground enclosure, six meters deep.

STRUCTURE
The interior of the Kuelap fortress is formed by two gigantic superimposed platforms. Over them, the down town of the complex was built, with housings and ceremonial and administrative buildings. The impressive wall, twenty meters high and six hundred meters long, divides the complex into two parts. The lower part of the town, where is located "El Tintero", is a stone building constituted by 335 circular structures. The higher part of the town, in turn, is formed by eighty buildings, among them stands out the one known as "El Castillo" (the castle). There are three entrances to the fortress, two in the east side and the other in the west side. The three have the shape of a funnel for defensive reasons. In that way, the people could get in just one by one, making it easy for a relatively small group of defenders to control a large invader force.  Photos: (1) View of El Tintero, (2) Fortified tower (3) One of the entrances to the Kuelap fortress.

INVESTIGATIONS AND DIFFUSION
The judge, Juan Crisostomo Nieto, made sure that his finding became known. In 1843, he traveled to Lima carrying a mummy that he said to have found together with many others in the archaeological complex, which he considered "the most worthy work to deserve public attention". Years later, an article of his authorship, entitled "Tower of Babel in Peru," was published in the bulletin of the Geographical Society of Lima. In 1860, Antonio Raimondi visited the zone. Other investigators who were interested in Kuelap were Charles Wiener, Adolph Banbelier y Loors Langots. Between 1985 and 1987, Alfredo Narvaez carried out a meticulous description of the archaeological site.

CONSTRUCTION
The construction of Kuelap was a great challenge for the Chachapoyans due to its difficult location and to the amount of material that was required to erect the fortress. The walls are made of limestone, pasted with yellow clay mortar. It is estimated that only to raise the two main walls, it was required more than one hundred thousand carved stone blocks. This is equivalent to about 25 million cubical feet of material, with a weight superior to ten thousand tons. Another problem that had to be solved by the Chachapoyans was the water supply. During decades, this was a mystery for the investigators. Just in 1965, underground water was found in the surroundings of the fortress, which would demonstrate the existence of a nearby spring.

THE GREAT PAJATEN
This complex, discovered in 1964, has many similarities with Kuelap. It is located at 2,850 meters above sea level in a zone of difficult access. Nevertheless, it is believed that its function was not military. Scholars like Duccio Bonavia and Federico Kauffman Doig, who have worked intensely in the zone, sustain that the complex was an enclave oriented to the agrarian colonization of the forest. Due to its location in the basin of Abiseo river (National Park of the same name), the site was hidden until a group of settlers from the town of Pataz, which is located in the province of La Libertad, 93 kilometers far from the complex, casually arrived to the complex where they were looking for new land to cultivate. Until now, the access to the place is very difficult and for tourists, it is practically impossible. Only investigators properly credited and authorized can visit the site.
The zone in which the Great Pajaten is located has an ample biological diversity. The conjunction of natural and cultural wealth has allowed to be considered Mixed Heritage of Mankind by UNESCO since 1990.

INCAN OCCUPATION
Pieces of ceramics found in the Great Pajaten demonstrate that the Incas stayed in these places after subduing the Chachapoyans. Something similar can be appreciated in Kuelap, where the buildings attached to the fortress have noticeable characteristics of Incan architecture. However, it is documented that the Chachapoyas rebelled against the domination of the Tahuantinsuyo on repeated occasions and welcomed with approval the Spanish conquerors, who recognized them as a different ethnic group. In his chronicles, Pedro Cieza de Leon describes them like "White Indians whose handsomeness was deserving of sovereigns, whose eyes were blue, who were whiter than the Spaniards". The occupation of the Chachapoyan establishments ended with the implantation of the system of Indian Reservations, which forced the natives to concentrate in the lower zones.

Useful Information:
Of both complexes, Kuelap is the one that lends better for tourist activity. It is located at 72 kilometers from the city of Chachapoyas. The trip by road takes three and a half hours. You can come to Chachapoyas parting from Trujillo, using the road that goes through Olmos and Bagua. To the Great Pajaten, you can go there only through the National Park of Abiseo River, previous authorization from INRENA. This Park is located in the district of Huicungo. The best route to go to this archaeological site is starting from Trujillo. You take the road that crosses the towns of Chagual and Pataz, until arriving at Chigualen. This part of the trip takes four hours by car. After this town, you have to continue by foot, the walk to arrive to the Great Pajaten will take 17 hours more.

OTHER SITES
It is considered that there are several hundreds of small establishments that correspond to the Chachapoyan culture. Among them can be mentioned: Leimebamba, Olan, Yalape, Purullacta, Vira Vira and Karajia, all located in the Zone of the Uctubamba River.
(1) The Mummies lake (2) Karajia y (3) The Condores lake, they are three archeological sites that are related to the Chachapoyan culture.

Web pages:
- Ministry of External Trade and Tourism
http://www.mincetur.gob.pe/TURISMO/proyectos/kuelap/index.htm
http://www.unitru.edu.pe/cultural/arq/kuelap.html
http://www.kuelapperu.com.pe/kuelap.htm

The City Of Huari

THE SECOND GREAT EMPIRE, HUARI, THAT DEVELOPED IN PERUVIAN TERRITORY, HAD AS ITS CAPITAL, A CITY WITH BUILDINGS OF TWO AND THREE FLOORS, MAUSOLEUMS, SEMI-UNDERGROUND TEMPLES AND WALLS UP TO 12 METERS HIGH. THE CITY PLANNING ACHIEVEMENTS OF THIS CULTURE LAID THE FOUNDATIONS, OVER WHICH, FOUR HUNDRED YEARS LATER, THE GREAT TAHUANTINSUYO EMPIRE WAS BUILT.

Data:
- The city of Huari is located in the district of Quinua, province of 

  Huamanga, at 25 kilometers Northwest from the city of Ayacucho.
- The Huari culture was developed during the Medium Horizon

  period. Its height took place between the years 600 and 850 A.D.

THE HUARI EMPIRE
As a testimony of their greatness, the Huaris have left at least 51 archaeological sites of importance. In addition to the city of Huari, the places that stand out are Piquillacta, in Cusco (right photo); Granja Sivia, Vista Alegre and Palestina, in Apurimac; and Cajamarquilla in Lima, among others. The Huaris were ancestors of the Incas in many ways. They had a centralized political organization and they created urban centers in all the territories that they occupied. They constructed an important road network and many "andenerias" (terraces for agriculture over the hills) to extend their agricultural land and they used "quipus" (made of strings and knots to count and administer agricultural production). All those elements were later used by the Incas in the Tahuantinsuyo.

THE CAPITAL
The city of Huari occupied a surface of approximately 1,500 hectares. It is estimated that its population did not surpass 21,000 inhabitants. Their wide streets and system of water-drainage channels are two outstanding characteristics of the complex. Its structure is formed by several independent architectural groups, among them, can be highlighted the necropolis of Checo Huasi for the governing elite, where you can appreciate funeral chambers finely carved in rocks; Moraduchayoc, with the characteristic to have a semi underground temple; Ushpa Goto, a zone with great buildings surrounded by walls; and Capillayoc, where there are platforms of one hundred to two hundred meters that show walls 12 meters high.

TIAHUANACO INFLUENCE
The Tiahuanaco culture, that developed in the southern plateau of Peru, between the years 550 and 900 A.D., had influence over the Huaris, mainly in the religious aspect. In some of its ceramic pots (like the one shown in the photo), you can notice the representation of a divinity with anthropomorphous and zoomorphism characteristics, similar to the God of the Crosiers of the Tiahuanaco culture, that is represented in the well-known Façade, located in the complex of Kalasasaya, in Bolivia.

EXPANSION AND DECADENCE
At its moment of maximum apogee, around the year 700 A.D., the Huaris occupied a territory that went from the mountain chains of Cajamarca and the coast of Lambayeque, in the north, to the plateau of Collao, to the south. It did not take long for their decadence to arrive. The capital and other great urban centers like Cajamarquilla and Maranga, in the central coast, were abandoned. Until now, the reasons of the fast collapse of their empire are not clear. After the fall of the Huaris, begun a new period, denominated Late Intermediate, which was characterized by the presence of local Landlords, like the Chachapoyans and the Chimues, instead of a great hegemonic power.

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