The Sarcophagi of Karajía

The Chachapoya buried some of their dead in purunmachus, upright capsules of clay and straw moulded over a wooden frame around a seated mummy bundle. At Karajía a row of them stands on a narrow ledge in a limestone cliff, each about two and a half metres tall, painted in white and ochre with long jutting jaws and blank faces, a few of them topped with skulls. They have been there since roughly the fifteenth century and were reached originally from above, which is why they survived: the ledge is unclimbable from the valley. Earthquakes have taken several of the group; what remains stands in a line, facing out.

What you actually see

• The standing figures - painted clay capsules in a row on the cliff ledge.
• The cliff setting - a limestone face above a green valley, unreachable from below.
• The walk in - a steep farm track down through fields and hedgerows.
• The community stalls - weaving and food sold at the trailhead by Cruzpata families.

When to go

May to September, the drier half of the year, when the path down is not a mudslide. Morning light falls on the cliff face; by afternoon the figures are in shadow and much harder to photograph. The walk down and back takes about an hour in total, so this fits easily around another Chachapoyas site the same day.

Honest expectations

You view them from below, behind a barrier, at a distance of some tens of metres, so without binoculars or a zoom lens you will see shapes rather than faces. The path is steep both ways and the climb back at around 2,800 metres is harder than the descent suggests. In the rains it is slick clay. The actual viewing is fifteen minutes for a two-hour round trip from town.

Nearby

Kuélap, Gocta waterfall and the Leymebamba museum are all in the same region.