Chachapoyas – Cloud People of Peru

A massive ruin offers fresh clues about the culture of Peru’s vanished Chachapoya, the “cloud warriors” who battled the Inca Empire more than 500 years ago. Best known for building mountainous cliff-side tombs and filling them with bundled mummies, the Chachapoya (cha-cha-POY-ah) were once rulers of the northern Andes. Aside from cliff tombs and stone houses, they have left archaeologists few large ruins to study.

USA Today (2007)