Posted
on September 5, 2015
Chachapoya!
Such
a fun-sounding name, and the tourist sights you can see near this
city in Peru include these guys – and with their upward-tilting
chins, I can't help thinking that they were pretty happy people!
Actually,
these six figures are sarcophagi, built to house the dead bodies of
important citizens. We're talking about the Chachapoya people of
about 600 years ago, of course! Two other sarcophagi were built but
were destroyed by earthquakes.
Other
sights to see in Chachapoya (which was founded by a Spanish
conquistador on this date in 1538) are even older. The fortress of
Kuelap had huge stone walls surrounding more than 400 buildings. The
Chachapoyas began to build this structure way back in the 500s, and
archeologists believe that it was in constant use for about a
thousand years.
Check
out this video about Kuelap – it will give you an idea of
the size of the place!
 |
| This painting shows what we think Kuelap looked like, way back when! |
Chachapoya
doesn't just have ancient ruins to wow us – there are natural
beauties to be seen as well. I love the Gocta Cataracts. The main
waterfall has two drops – with a total height of more than 2,500
feet (more than 770 m). That makes it one of the tallest waterfalls
in the world (various people say that it is the third tallest, the fifth tallest, or the sixteenth tallest in the world – I'm not sure
why the disparity!)
Notice
that there are other, smaller waterfalls nearby. It looks like an
amazing place!
One
of the things that makes this waterfall even more amazing is that,
until a decade ago, almost nobody ever went to the waterfall—not
even the local people who watched it from afar! To see why, watch
this fascinating video.
I
always love visiting a limestone cave, and there is a nice limestone
cave near Chachapoya. There you can see natural features, human-made
artifacts, and even human skulls!
Also
on this date:
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ahead:
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