Revash Mausoleums

Revash is a set of Chachapoya funerary structures built on a ledge partway up a limestone cliff - small buildings of stone and mud plaster with gabled roofs, doors and openings, finished in red and cream, so that from below they look like a row of miniature houses stuck to the rock face. They are collective tombs, built around 1250 AD, and the remains and grave goods inside were removed by looters long ago. Red pictographs are painted on the rock around them. The Chachapoya buried their dead in high, inaccessible places, and the position here - visible from a distance, unreachable without ropes - is the point of the design. Visitors walk to a viewing area on the slope opposite or below; entering the tombs is not possible or permitted. The walk from San Bartolo takes an hour or two and there are horses available.

What to look for

• The tombs - gabled house-like structures in red and cream on a cliff ledge.
• The pictographs - red rock paintings around the mausoleums.
• The placement - built to be seen from below but reached only with difficulty.
• The Chachapoya practice - collective burial high on cliff faces.

When to go

May to September for the walk. Three to five hours including the hike from San Bartolo. Horses can be hired. Binoculars help considerably.

Practical notes

You view from a distance - there is no access into or right up to the tombs, and without binoculars the detail is lost. The walk is steep in places at around 2,800 metres. All grave contents were looted long ago; the Leymebamba museum holds material from comparable sites.

Nearby

Leymebamba and its mummy museum are south; the Utcubamba valley runs north.

Key facts