page_title: Kuélap
section_title: Modern history
hierarchical_section_title: Kuélap / History / Modern history
context_page_description: Kuélap or Cuélap is a walled settlement located in the mountains near the towns of María and Tingo, in the southern part of the region of Amazonas, Peru. It was built by the Chachapoyas culture in the 6th century AD on a ridge overlooking the Utcubamba Valley.
context_section_description: Kuélap was accidentally rediscovered in 1843, by Juan Crisóstomo Nieto, a judge from the city of Chachapoyas. Then, in 1870, Antonio Raimondi made a survey of the site.
  Explorer Charles Wiener visited the site in 1881. In 1939, French general Louis Langlois studied the site and wrote a detailed description of the main buildings. Kuélap was also studied by archaeologists Ernst Middendorf (1887); Adolf Bandelier (1940); spouses Henry and Paule Reichlen (1948); and Arturo Ruíz (1972).
  Since the 1980s many Peruvian and foreign archaeologists continued with excavations and studies at Kuélap.
caption: The massive walls that protected the fortress.
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