Tairona

The Tairona wove coast, slope and snowpeak of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta into one of the Americas most engineered landscapes. From a formation reaching back to the 10th and 11th centuries, allied chiefdoms ran an integrated system: seaside salt pans and fishing towns, mid-slope terraces of yuca and maize worked since 1200 BCE, and the great stone cities of Pueblito and Ciudad Perdida, lifted on terraces above the jungle with paved ways, drains and bridges. Tairona goldsmiths cast bat-men and serpent beings; cotton, salt and beads moved between vertical worlds. Spaniards were first tolerated, but by 1600 confrontations drove part of the people into the high Sierra, where they outlasted the colony through the 17th and 18th centuries. The Kogi, Wiwa, Arhuaco and Kankuamo of the massif today are held to descend directly from the terrace builders, keeping the pre-Hispanic balance of the mountain alive. Ciudad Perdida's terraces still drain the rains after a thousand years.