The Fortress of Kuelap

In the last post we discussed the fact that Nephite structures ought to be visible to us today, especially their fortresses with surrounding stone walls such as the ones that Moroni built sometime in the last century B.C. In South America, which is full of once mighty fortresses, forts and outpost resorts, one in particular shows the criteria of such construction.

Called the amazing fortress of Kuelap, or Cuélap, in Chachapoyas, Peru, it is today associated with the Chachapoyas culture, sometimes known as the Cloud Forest people, of which very little is known other than it being one of the most advanced civilizations to develop in the region. Kuelap consists of massive exterior stone walls containing more than four hundred buildings, with an outer wall more than six stories high.

The structure, situated on a ridge overlooking the Utcubamba Valley in northern Peru, is roughly 2000 feet in length and 360 feet in width, about 15 acres in size, though the outside and surrounding areas of buildings extends the complex to 1,100 acres

At one time the interior buildings did not have the surrounding wall, which was added a little later, and reaches as high as 65-feet in places. Built on a ridge overlooking the strategic location between the Marañon and Utcubamba Rivers, both long tributaries of the Amazon, protected it from being devastated. The complex is the Utcubamba Valley in northern Peru, is variously referred to as a fortress and a citadel, obviously suggesting that the complex was a stronghold, bastion, castle or in general, a place of refuge against threat. It is, without doubt, one of the most awesome monuments in all the ancient Americas.

On the summit, the scale of the landscape and of Kuelap is overwhelming. The site is encased in a creamy, colossal wall that stretches away along the ridge some seven football fields long before it is lost in a knot of greenery. The wall wraps a six-hectare urban center; the entire complex, including terraces, tombs and outlying settlements, is around 450 hectares. Built out of big limestone blocks, the wall is blank but for a tall thin slit, the only entrance into the complex.

One of three similar entrances into Kuelap. Note the size of the barely visible man standing in the entrance

With a secure and guarded entrance that would make any medieval castle blush in shame, this slit entrance is so narrow, only three men shoulder-to-shoulder could pass through at a time. Once inside, the entrance continues along a narrowing corridor for several hundred feet, narrowing so only one man can pass, and continually climbing, making any attack next to impossible. On either side are straight walls some sixty feet in height along a level elevated ground, from which warriors could stand and use their slings, shoot arrows, throw spears, or drop rocks on anyone approaching along the lengthy corridor.

Top LtoR: Height of wall compared to people standing beneath it, Note how the ground slopes downward from the wall (far right) making ad attack next to impossible; Bottom LtoR: Top of the entrance into the complex, height of the walls on both side of the entrance corridor; Note how steep the climb is within the entrance corridor

Eventually, the corridor empties out onto the citadel itself, a level, elevated ground where round houses (now low ruins) once stood, clinging together like burst bubbles on water. There are over 400 buildings here, almost all of them circular and between ten and forty feet in diameter, where approximately 2,000 people once lived in these nearly impregnable houses that must have once dominated the skyline.

In addition, the houses were organized into upper and lower sections, with access to the upper section via another tapering, high-walled corridor, funneling attackers up to be picked off one by one; some of the walls are shaped into what resemble parapets; and at the far end and highest point is a tower where 2,500 sling stones have been found, and which has a commanding view of the valley below. “And thus were the Nephites prepared to destroy all such as should attempt to climb up to enter the fort by any other way, by casting over stones and arrows at them” (Alma 49:19).

Archaeologists and anthropologists consider Kuelap an unsolved mystery. It was built in the area of the pre-Inca homeland of the Chachapoya, a people famed for their fierce warriors and powerful shamans, whose civilization flourished in the early A.D. period until the Inca finally conquered the area in the 1470s. These people lived as autonomous ayllus (extended kin groups), in circular houses clustered on high ridges. Remains of their distinctive settlements are scattered all over this vast region, and yet remarkably little is known about them. Already, by the time of the Spanish conquest, an air of exotic otherness hung about this people who lived perched on what seemed the edge of Andean civilization, where wild Amazonia begins—the “Ceja de Selva,” the eyebrow of the jungle. “These are the whitest and most graceful Indians in all the Indies,” wrote Father Calancha, “and the women are the most beautiful.”

Each of the three entrances were built to safeguard the fortress from unwarranted entry. From above, rocks, slingshots, arrows, etc., could be dropped upon intruders as they tried to negotiate this long, narrow corridor, then climb up to the level of the interior
Who were they? Who were their ancestors? What were they called? We only know them by the Inca name used for this enemy that defied the Empire’s aggression with a long, stiff resistance until just before the Spanish arrived—the Chachapoya—meaning “Cloud People.” It was obviously built to defend against a fearful enemy, the outer wall an energetic construction job that took some time to accomplish, and built to defend against a hostile people. However, evidence of these hostile groups at the site is minimal, which brings to mind the statement in Alma: “and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land“ (Alma 48:8) and “the Nephites had dug up a ridge of earth round about them, which was so high that the Lamanites could not cast their stones and their arrows at them that they might take effect, neither could they come upon them save it was by their place of entrance” (Alma 49:4), and “Thus they were prepared, yea, a body of their strongest men, with their swords and their slings, to smite down all who should attempt to come into their place of security by the place of entrance; and thus were they prepared to defend themselves against the Lamanites” (Alma 49:20).

The destruction of this people, when it came, was swift, terrible and complete; their art and iconography were destroyed and even their language was obliterated. The divided Chachapoya were defeated by Inca Tupac Yupanqui around 1475 (although Kuelap, oddly, is missing from the list of his conquests), but rebelled repeatedly against his successors. For their part, the Inca fought repeatedly to subdue this unruly people, who controlled one of South America’s most important crossroads. So determined were the Inca that they summarily executed many Chachapoya warriors and deported half the population to other parts of the empire, importing colonists from elsewhere in their stead.

These Kuelap monumental ruins rival or surpass other archaeological structures in the Americas in size. In some cases, there are decorated walls with friezes of symbolic content that, in general, seem to evoke eyes and birds that take the form of a letter “V” in a chain. There are three huge turret-like structures that stand out from the hundreds of others within the complex, each engineering marvels, indicating how well protected the compound was. In addition the area is surrounded by profuse vegetation with huge trees, covered with bromeliads and orchids that add to its spectacular nature

This curved wall, called El Tinero, is located in the south end of the biggest anden (terraced hillside) and is characterized as a circular turret in the shape of an inverted cone—a real challenge to the laws of gravity

Parts of the citadel were later reoccupied, and dark angular Inca walls squat among Kuelap’s airy ruins. But, apart from the odd family who eked out a living amid the rubble, it was soon forgotten. Like sites throughout Chachapoyas, it has been damaged and looted and vandalised. The race is on to find out as much as possible about this enigmatic people before the clues are destroyed for good.