By
Daily
Mail
Reporter
-- A
lost
city
discovered
deep
in
the
Amazon
rainforest
could
unlock
the
secrets
of a
legendary
tribe.
Little
is
known
about
the
Cloud
People
of
Peru,
an
ancient,
white-skinned
civilization
wiped
out
by
disease
and
war
in
the
16th
century.
But
now
archaeologists
have
uncovered
a
fortified
citadel
in a
remote
mountainous
area
of
Peru
known
for
its
isolated
natural
beauty.
An
ancient
Chachapoyas
village
located
close
to
the
area
where
the
lost
city
was
found.
It
is
thought
this
settlement
may
finally
help
historians
unlock
the
secrets
of
the
'white
warriors
of
the
clouds'.
The
tribe
allegedly
had
white
skin
and
blonde
hair
-
features
which
intrigue
historians,
as
there
is
no
known
European
ancestry
in
the
region,
where
most
inhabitants
are
darker
skinned.
The
citadel
is
tucked
away
in
one
of
the
most
far-flung
areas
of
the
Amazon.
It
sits
at
the
edge
of a
chasm
which
the
tribe
may
have
used
as a
lookout
to
spy
on
enemies.
The
area
where
the
lost
city
was
discovered
by a
team
of
archaeologists.
 |
The
Chachapoyas,
also
called
the
Warriors
of
the
Clouds,
were
an
Andean
people
living
in
the
cloud
forests
of
the
Amazonian
rainforest
in
northern
Peru.
The
Amozonian
Andes
constitute
the
eastern
flank
of
the
Andes,
which
were
once
covered
by
dense
Amazon
vegetation.
The
main
encampment
is
made
up
of
circular
stone
houses
overgrown
by
jungle
over
12
acres,
according
to
archaeologist
Benedict
Goicochea
Perez.
Rock
paintings
cover
some
of
the
fortifications
and
next
to
the
dwellings
are
platforms
believed
to
have
been
used
to
grind
seeds
and
plants
for
food
and
medicine.
The
Cloud
People
once
commanded
a
vast
kingdom
stretching
across
the
Andes
to
the
fringes
of
Peru's
northern
Amazon
jungle,
before
it
was
conquered
by
the
Incas.
 |
A
mummy
of a
baby
from
the
Chachapoyas
culture
with
a
possibly
enlarged
head.
The
tribe
later
sided
with
the
Spanish-colonialists
to
defeat
the
Incas.
But
they
were
killed
by
epidemics
of
European
diseases,
such
as
measles
and
smallpox.
The
term
Chachapoyas,
or
'Cloud
People',
are
best
known
for
the
Kuellap
fortress
on
the
top
of a
mountain
in
Utcubamba,
which
can
only
be
compared
in
scale
to
the
Egyptian
pyramids,
or
Machu
Picchu
retreat,
built
hundreds
of
years
later.
Some
pottery
found
in
the
area
dates
back
to
1000
years
B.C.
This
tribe
built
a
fortress
on
top
of a
mountain
and
their
mummies
are
different
than
the
surrounding
tribes.
Two
years
ago,
archaeologists
found
an
underground
burial
vault
inside
a
cave
with
five
mummies,
two
intact
with
skin
and
hair.
Chachapoyas
chronicler
Pedro
Cieza
de
Leon
wrote
of
the
tribe:
'They
are
the
whitest
and
most
handsome
of
all
the
people
that
I
have
seen,
and
their
wives
were
so
beautiful
that
because
of
their
gentleness,
many
of
them
served
to
be
the
Incas'
wives
and
to
also
be
taken
to
the
Sun
Temple.
'The
women
and
their
husbands
always
dressed
in
woollen
clothes
and
in
their
heads
they
wear
their
llautos
[a
woollen
turban],
which
are
a
sign
they
wear
to
be
known
everywhere.'
