The cloud forest warriors' last fortress — Kuelap towers above the Amazon headwaters, older and more isolated than Machu Picchu
Chachapoyas is the capital of the Amazonas region in northern Peru and the base for Kuelap fortress — a pre-Inca citadel of the Chachapoyas people at 3,000 metres above the Utcubamba gorge, with stone-walled round towers never fully conquered by the Inca Empire. The surrounding cloud forest hides hundreds of cliff tombs, including the Karajía sarcophagi (six life-size clay warriors on an inaccessible cliff face) and the Gocta waterfall (771 metres), one of the tallest in the world.
The Chachapoyas built a culture across the northern Peruvian cloud forests from approximately 900–1470 CE, characterised by circular stone towers and cliff-face burial sarcophagi. Tupac Inca Yupanqui subdued the Chachapoyas in the 1470s after a long campaign; Chachapoyas warriors later allied with Spanish conquistadors against the Inca as revenge. The Spanish founded the city of Chachapoyas in 1538; the region remained so remote that the Gocta waterfall was not formally reported outside Peru until 2002.