Chachapoyas
A region of limestone canyons, waterfalls and cloud forest in northern Peru.
A limestone region
The department of Amazonas lies where the Andes drop towards the Amazon basin. Rivers have cut deep canyons through limestone, and the cliffs are full of ledges, shelters and caves.
The Chachapoya people lived here from about AD 800 until the Inca conquest in the 15th century. They built on the ridges and buried their dead in the cliffs.
Gocta waterfall
Gocta falls 771 metres in two drops over a limestone escarpment. It was little known outside the area until it was measured in 2005. A trail of about five kilometres leads from the village of Cocachimba to the foot of the lower fall.
Kuélap
Kuélap is a walled Chachapoya settlement on a ridge at about 3,000 metres. Its outer wall is up to 19 metres high and encloses more than 400 round buildings. A cable car runs from the valley.
Laguna de los Cóndores
In 1997 a group of tombs was found on a cliff above a remote lake south of Leymebamba. They held more than 200 mummies, which are now kept in the museum at Leymebamba.
In pictures
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