Ventanillas de Combayo

Combayo has the same kind of burial niches as Otuzco but many more of them - estimates run into the hundreds or over a thousand - cut into cliff faces across a wider area of a valley at around 3,000 metres, in several concentrations rather than a single face. The niches are Cajamarca-culture collective tombs, generally placed between roughly 300 and 800 AD, some at heights that are hard to reach and must have required scaffolding or ropes to cut. Because the road is rough and the site is thirty kilometres from the city, almost nobody comes: where Otuzco has a ticket office and vendors, Combayo has a track, a few houses and the cliffs. The valley itself is farming country with dairy pasture. The area sits near the Conga mining project, a scheme that has been the subject of long-running local opposition in Cajamarca.

What's there

• The niches - hundreds of burial openings across several cliff faces.
• The scale - far larger than Otuzco and spread over a wider area.
• The high placements - niches cut at heights that required ropes or scaffolding.
• The emptiness - almost no visitors and no infrastructure.

When to go

May to September; the road is poor and worse in the rains. Two to three hours including travel from Cajamarca. Arrange transport - public options are limited.

What to expect

Rough road access needing a suitable vehicle. No facilities, signage or staff. At 3,000 metres with walking between the groups of niches. Do not climb to the openings - the rock is soft and it is dangerous.

Nearby

Otuzco is back towards the city; Cajamarca is south-west.

Key facts