Teyuna, the discovery of the Lost City
of the Tayronas in Colombia

In the 1970s, after several days’ trekking through the jungle, a group of guaqueros – indigenous grave robbers – made an unexpected discovery: they had stumbled upon a priceless – and unmarketable – treasure. Before their very eyes rose a forgotten city, virtually buried under the vegetation. An incredible ruined city made up of a hundred limestone terraces built into the mountainside. Alerted by the improbable discovery, the Colombian government protected the site, and the first thrill-seeking tourists ventured there in 1984.

Teyuna, a city not entirely unknown…

A secret place until it was discovered? Not quite.The abandoned city was in fact well known to some of the Amerindians living on this mountain – Kogis, Wiwas, Arhuacos...- descendants of the Tayronas (a people 80% of whom were decimated by the colonists), but they had « hidden » its existence. For them, Teyuna – as the natives call it – is a place steeped in mysticism, and its terraces considered ceremonial sites. « For the indigenous populations of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Teyuna Ciudad Perdida is sacred, inalienable, the guarantor of their culture and the balance of the world « *, analyses Marie-Laure Guilland, of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de l’Amérique latine.

And just when you think you’ve reached your goal, you have to climb another 1,200 stone steps (allow an hour and a half!). At the top, circular grassy terraces, linked by staircases and served by the remains of complex water distribution systems, are revealed. The Tayronas huts have disappeared. Nestled in a breathtaking virgin forest, the Lost City is encircled by curtains of tagua palms and tree ferns.

Little is known about the way of life of the Tayronas, a lost civilization. But the topography of their territory, from the Caribbean Sea to the highest mountain peaks, allowed them all kinds of agricultural activities, in addition to fishing and hunting. Archaeological discoveries have revealed that they were highly skilled craftsmen, ceramists and goldsmiths of the highest order. Great builders, the Tayronas had dotted the massif with villages, linked by stone paths. Above all, they were daring architects: to adapt to the slopes of the land, they became experts in terraced construction – for both housing and agriculture. Their architecture consisted in preventing erosion caused by rainfall on the slopes, thanks to an efficient rainwater distribution network. This ability to carry out large-scale earthworks suggests that their social organization was efficient.