Lost City part 2

Ciudad Perdida consists of a series of 169 terraces carved into the mountainside, a network of tiled roads, and several small circular plazas. The entrance can be accessed only by climbing up 1,200 stone steps through dense jungle. This is all true, and as I walked through the jungle, Astrix definitely popped into my brain a few times,

https://youtu.be/lIuEuJvKos4

Built around 800 CE, Ciudad Perdida was most likely the region's political and manufacturing center on the Buritaca River and may have housed 2,000–8,000 people. The site was originally inhabited by the Tairona (Tayrona) people. According to the Kogi people, who are some of the last preserved indigenous descendants of the Tairona, the Tairona lived for thousands of years, up until the age of the Spanish conquistadors.

The Tayrona people were advanced in construction, engineering, and military operations. They had a complex social hierarchy, a religious and political elite, and were organised as a federation of towns. It’s thought that the Lost City was their capital and most sacred town, connecting and trading with other groups in Colombia. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the Tayrona (an estimated one million people) were suspected to be at the edge of becoming a major civilisation in the Americas. At least 60% of them died from diseases brought over by the colonisers or died defending their land. Finally, the Tairona people were forced to flee from La Ciudad Perdida sometime in the 16th century after years of trade and conflict.

Apart from possibly some indigenous peoples, Ciudad Perdida seems to have been forgotten and "lost" until the 1970s when some farmers who had colonized the lower part of the Sierra Nevada, learned of the possibilities of finding great treasures. Los Sepúlvedas were a small family of looters in Colombia and seemed to have stumbled upon these riches. The family was out hunting and shot down a wild turkey. Upon retrieving the turkey, they noticed it had fallen on a piece of an exposed staircase. Julio César Sepúlveda, later found a series of stone steps rising up the mountainside and followed them to an abandoned city, which the family named "Green Hell" or "Wide Set". Almost simultaneously, another family of looters, the Restrepos (yes, Restrepos!), and their leader Jorge Restrepo arrived and also started looting. The two sides clashed, and the two leaders died in the bloody battle.

Soon after, gold figures and ceramic urns from Ciudad Perdida began to appear on the local black market. This alerted archaeologists and a team led by the director of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología, reached the site in 1976. The site was reconstructed between 1976 and 1982. What little was found of the Lost City in the 20th century was stolen and often sold on the black market. What was recovered is now in the gold museums in Santa Marta and Bogota.

Four main tribes inhabit this sacred region: the Kogui, Wiwa, Arhuaco, and KankuamoRead more