After damage from heavy rains prompted its closure to travelers in April 2022, northern Peru’s Llaqta de Kuélap ruins—one of the largest ancient monuments in the Americas—has reopened to visitors, with limits in place.
Located in the Andes Mountains in the country’s Amazonas region, the site has in the last decade or so gained popularity among international visitors, especially as an alternative to the overtouristed Machu Picchu—and is especially impressive for its scope. “Kuélap’s size is monumental,” Peruvian travel consultant Marisol Mosquera, founder of sustainable luxury travel company Aracari Travel, tells Condé Nast Traveler, noting that some of its outer walls are more than 60 feet tall and that, unlike most remaining structures from the period, are made of stone rather than adobe. “It’s also older than Machu Picchu, corresponding to the Chachapoyas culture, which predates the Incas,” she adds. “The views are staggeringly beautiful.”
From about 900 to 1400 CE, nearly 300,000 inhabitants, including warriors, shamans, farmers, and merchants, are believed to have lived within the fortified citadel, which covered about 37 acres and sits nearly 9,842 feet above sea level. (Machu Picchu has an elevation of about 7,972 feet.) The site—once the thriving political center of the Chachapoyan civilization—fell during the 16th-century Spanish conquest, leaving behind the ruins of civil, religious, and military structures, as well as 420 circular stone homes with murals, carvings, and geometric friezes, which were discovered in 1842.
But in April of last year, a segment of the fortified town’s southern perimeter wall suffered collapses—and the site was forced to close. According to José Bastante, Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Program of Kuélapthe, the deterioration and subsequent collapse stemmed from “the infiltration of rainwater into the artificial platform core of the monument,” which exerts significant pressure on the perimeter wall.
The local team worked with the World Monuments Fund and the Getty Conservation Institute on devising better ways to drain liquid and to prevent future water damage to the structures. They’ve since replaced the drainage system and fortified the structures’ surfaces in the southern section, says Bastante, while also executing archaeological excavations, conservation, and maintenance in various sections of the site and stabilizing the perimeter wall in the process.
After nearly 16 months of work, the Llaqta de Kuélap reopened to travelers on August 19, but with quotas in place “for conservation and safety,” says Bastante. Each day, 144 people can enter the central area of the ruins between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., with groups of 12 entering through the Access 1 entry point in 45-minute intervals. (There’s hope that by November, visitor capacity and time limits will be able to increase.) Visitors must book through an official travel agent or send a direct request and shouldn’t arrive without a confirmed booking. But as part of the reopening, visitors are treated to a major perk: entry will be free through the end of the year, according to Promperú, Peru’s tourism office.
Due to the delicate nature of the ruins, Bastante notes that a “great portion” of the Llaqta de Kuélap remains inaccessible to visitors because of “security measures.” But, he says, visitors should remember that these ruins are just one part of of the surrounding 336-acre area, called the Archaeological Monumental Zone of Kuélap (ZAMK), home to five archaeological monuments.
Though the greater ZAMK area was also closed in April 2022, sections of it were reopened in July, including an interpretation center and authentic Chachapoya house. Visitors can also walk down one of the area’s pre-Hispanic roads and see the front of the Llaqta de Kuélap. Those who don’t have a reservation, or miss their entry time, will continue to have access to those areas.
In the aftermath of the collapse, Bastante emphasizes that planning ahead—in particular, securing reservations to help manage the site’s visitation and maintenance—is essential. “Our archaeological monuments are sacred and fragile places,” he says. “They deserve the same respect as sacred places in any other part of the world.”
A major part of the experience to Kuélap is the journey there, which starts in the city of Chachapoyas, less than a two-hour flight from Lima. From there, travelers can take an hour-long bus ride to the village of Nuevo Tingo, where they can reach the site either by trekking about 5.6 miles or hopping on the 20-minute cable car, which opened in 2017.
Rocio Florez, owner of the Gocta Natura Reserve, an eco-lodge in nearby Cocachimba, points out that while Kuélap is a major highlight of the Amazonas region, it’s not the sole attraction. The area is also primed for nature activities like trekking, rafting, and birdwatching (especially in Cocachimba’s Valera district), as well as for exploring other citadels like Yalape and Ollape and funerary sites like Revash, Lengate, Karajia, La Petaca, and Laguna de las Momias—where more than 200 mummies were found in 1997, and are now housed at the Leymebamba Museum. The region is so rich with centuries of history, she says, that she advises travelers to take the time to visit surrounding sites and neighborhoods, which help provide Kuélap’s context.
It’s a goal that everyone in the region hopes to work toward: encouraging slow and mindful travel not only in Kuélap but throughout the Amazonas, and giving travelers more time to explore the region’s history and culture. After all, says Florez: “It is a land of discovery.”
Source : CondeNastTraveler