Ciudad Perdida

시우다드 페르디다

Ciudad Perdida, Spanish for "Lost City", is the ruin of a Tairona city high in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Colombia. It is also called Teyuna and Buritaca-200. Only people willing to climb about 1,200 stone steps through thick jungle can reach it.

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At a glance

Country: Colombia
Location: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
Built: 800
Type: Ancient site

Quick answers

Where is Ciudad Perdida?

Ciudad Perdida is in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.

When was Ciudad Perdida built?

Ciudad Perdida was built in 800.

A Tairona city on a jungle ridge, reached by some 1,200 stone steps and spread over circular stone-rimmed terraces.

The city is believed to have been founded around 800 AD, roughly 650 years before Machu Picchu. It consists of 169 terraces carved into the mountainside, a network of tiled roads and several small circular plazas. Experts think it was the political and craft centre of the region, with perhaps 2,000 to 8,000 inhabitants.

Discovery

In 1972 a family of treasure hunters, Los Sepúlvedas, reached the site. They had shot a guan, a jungle bird, and when they went to pick it up they found it had fallen on a staircase of stone steps. Soon gold figures and ceramic urns appeared on the black market, which alerted archaeologists. A team from the Colombian anthropology institute reached the site in 1976, and the site was reconstructed between 1976 and 1982.

Who lived here

The Tairona people built the city, and today the Kogi people, who say they are their descendants, call it Teyuna. They report that they visited the site regularly long before it became widely known. Only about 30 to 40 percent of the sites in this region have been explored, and lidar scanning, which maps the ground with lasers, is helping find more.

Fun facts

It is thought to be about 650 years older than Machu Picchu.
A bird that fell on a hidden staircase led treasure hunters to the ruins in 1972.
The only way in is climbing about 1,200 stone steps through the jungle.