Ciudad Perdida

Ciudad Perdida, Spanish for lost city, also known as Teyuna and Buritaca-200, is the archaeological site of an ancient city in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of Colombia, within the municipality of Santa Marta. It was built by the Tairona and is believed to have been founded about 800 AD, which would make it predate Machu Picchu by about 650 years. It was most likely the region's political and manufacturing center on the Buritaca River and may have housed 2,000–8,000 people.

The site consists of a series of 169 terraces carved into the mountainside, a network of tiled roads and several small circular plazas. It can be reached only by climbing up 1,200 stone steps through dense jungle.

It was discovered in 1972 by Los Sepúlvedas, a group of local treasure looters. The family had shot a bird while hunting, and while retrieving it they noticed it had fallen on a series of stone steps rising up the mountainside. They climbed them and found an abandoned city. Soon after, gold figures and ceramic urns from the site began to appear on the local black market, which alerted archaeologists, and a team led by the director of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología reached the site in 1976. The site was reconstructed between 1976 and 1982. Only about 30–40% of the sites in the Sierra Nevada region have been explored.

Members of local tribes, notably the Kogi people, have stated that they visited the site regularly before it was widely reported but had kept quiet about it. They call the city Teyuna and believe it was the heart of a network of villages inhabited by their forebears, the Tairona. According to the Kogi, who are some of the last preserved indigenous descendants of the Tairona, the Tairona lived for thousands of years, up until the age of the Spanish conquistadors. The Tairona were forced to flee the city sometime in the 16th century, after years of trade and conflict.

The area was affected by the Colombian armed conflict. In the 1980s and 1990s FARC and ELN settled in the zone, and by the late 1990s most of the territory was under the paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia. On 15 September 2003 the ELN kidnapped eight foreign tourists visiting Ciudad Perdida and released the last of them three months later. Access has since resumed under cooperation between national parks and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.

Ciudad Perdida was discovered in 1972 by Los Sepúlvedas, a group of local treasure looters.

Los Sepúlvedas were a small family of looters living in Colombia. The family often went hunting in the forests, and one day they shot a "pava" presumably a Band-tailed Guan. While retrieving the bird, they noticed it had fallen on a series of stone steps rising up the mountainside. They climbed up the stone steps and discovered an abandoned city, which they named "Green Hell" or "Wide Set". After the murder of one of the Sepúlveda sons at the site of Ciudad Perdida, fights broke out among the looters.

Soon after, gold figures and ceramic urns from Ciudad Perdida began to appear on the local black market. This alerted archaeologists, and a team led by the director of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología, reached the site in 1976. The site was reconstructed between 1976 and 1982.

Although La Ciudad Perdida is an impressive site, it is not the only one of its kind. Only about 30–40% of the sites in the Sierra Nevada region have been explored. However, thanks to recent widespread lidar access, more and more of these sites are being discovered.

Members of local tribes – notably the Kogi people – have stated that they visited the site of Ciudad Perdida regularly before it was widely reported, but had kept quiet about it. They call the city "Teyuna" and believe it was the heart of a network of villages inhabited by their forebears, the Tairona.