Ciudad Perdida: Colombia's Lost City in the Sierra Nevada
Ciudad Perdida — the Tairona civilisation's mountaintop city, built around 800 CE and hidden from the outside world until 1972 — is reached only by a 4-day jungle trek through the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta; it is Colombia's most dramatic archaeological site
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Ciudad Perdida Discovery 1972
The Lost City (Teyuna in Kogui) was discovered by grave robbers in 1972 - its existence became known to archaeologists only when looted gold began to appear on the black market; the Colombian government took over the excavation and it opened to visitors in 1976
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The 4-day Jungle Trek
The only access to Ciudad Perdida is a 4-day round trip through jungle, river crossings and steep mountain paths from Machete Pelao near Santa Marta; the trek is one of South America's great adventure treks, passing through Kogui and Wiwa indigenous territory
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The 1,200 stone steps
The final approach to Ciudad Perdida's main platform - 1,200 steep stone steps cut into the mountainside of Tairona - suddenly emerges into the circular terraced city; the arrival after the jungle trek is one of Colombia's most dramatic moments
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Tairona Civilization
The Tairona—ancestors of the modern Kogui, Wiwa, Arhuaco, and Kankuamo peoples—built cities throughout the Sierra Nevada from AD 200. and forward; Ciudad Perdida, at 1,300 m altitude, was likely a major political and ceremonial center
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Kogui Native Guardians
The Kogui people – direct descendants of the Tairona – regard the Sierra Nevada as sacred and themselves its guardians (Mamos); they maintain a complex cosmological system that describes the sierra as the 'heart of the world' requiring constant spiritual maintenance
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Sierra Nevada Ecosystem
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – rising from sea level to 5,775 meters within 42 km – is the world's highest coastal mountain range; it contains ecosystems from tropical beach to arctic glacier in one of the most biologically diverse places on earth