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Kuelap Kuelap is not, strictly speaking, an Inca ruin but was built by the Chachapoyas, a fierce, northern tribe who were finally conquered by the Incas only a short time before the arrival of the Spanish. The fortress of Kuelap lies in a remote part of Peru and averages only a few visitors per week. It is built on the top of a high ridge and is completely invisible from the valley below. The encircling wall of the fortress is 8 metres high and covers a distance of some 2 miles. Inside the fortress are several hundred buildings including a royal enclosure, religious quarters and several watchtowers. It has been estimated that Kuelap contains 40 million cubic metres of stone, compared with a mere 16 million cubic metres of stone used to construct the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
Kuelap has several sinister features. One
is the mysterious el tintero (or "inkpot"),
a circular building with only an opening in the top, said to
be used for housing jaguars which were fed with human captives
as sacrifices. Another is Kuelap's main entrance, termed a "killing
corridor" in Hilary Brandt's "Backpacking
and Trekking in Peru and Bolivia".
"Kuelap was designed to be a death trap. Its walls were so high and backfilled to prevent any chance of breeching. However, its three doors leading inwards were open and laid out to give an optical illusion to the approaching enemy that they could storm inside. However, inside was a killing corridor with huge walls on the sides and a steep climb as the corridor got narrower and narrower to a final point where only one man at a time could squeeze through". This "killing corridor" entrance to Kuelap is littered with bones. Manco Inca probably considered retreating to this mountain fortress when the Chachapoyas offered him assistance after the failure of the Great Rebellion. The fortress shows little sign of the Spanish destruction evident in other nearby ruins. |
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