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Ciudad Perdida
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==History== [[File:YAEL PHOTOS 819.jpg|thumb|Boulder with carved markings, believed to be a map of Ciudad Perdida and paths connecting it to the larger area]] Built around {{CE|800}},<ref name=":1" /> Ciudad Perdida was most likely the region's political and manufacturing center on the Buritaca River and may have housed 2,000–8,000 people. The site was originally inhabited by the [[Tairona]] people. According to the [[Kogi people]], who are some of the last preserved indigenous descendants of the Tairona, the Tairona lived for thousands of years, up until the age of the [[Conquistador|Spanish conquistadors]]. The Tairona people were forced to flee from La Ciudad Perdida sometime in the 16th century,<ref name="Muse2004" /> after years of trade and conflict. === Indigenous tribes === {{Citations needed|section|date=January 2023}} Indigenous peoples had established advanced communities 1,500 years before the Spanish arrived. These communities were connected by stone paths, which facilitated the exchange of food and products of gold, stone, and clay. The inhabitants took advantage of the rich variety of foods and resources available in this mountainous region near the sea. They had gardens to grow vegetables such as tomatoes and corn, and fruits such as avocado, guanabana, pineapple, and guava. Due to their close proximity to the ocean, they obtained a large variety of seafood. Indigenous children learned stories and legends from elders and learned to create fabrics to make clothes and [[Arhuaca mochila|mochilas]]. Children and adults admired the warriors who protected the indigenous people from the Spanish conquerors. Although they are generally referred to as the "Tairona people", there were many groups and settlements spread across the mountains and beaches in distinct, smaller communities ([[Polity|polities]]) all trading and working together. The Tairona people, much like the Kogi people today, were not violent people. The Kogi believe in kindness and equality. The Tairona people lived to protect and serve the earth, not only for themselves but for everyone. As the European colonizers settled in indigenous territory, they began enslaving the natives who fished and collected salt on the coast. The Tairona people in the mountains, dependent on the fish and salt farmed by the coastal Tairona people, told escaped enslaved Tairona members to return and bring the Europeans gifts of gold to appease them. The Europeans took the gold but were not appeased and became more hostile to the natives. The Tairona eventually fled in the 1500s. Around 1970, some farmers who colonized the lower part of the Sierra Nevada, up to approximately 700 meters above sea level, learned of the possibilities of finding great treasures. In a short time, some of them organized themselves and without any archaeological preparation, they dedicated themselves to the looting of the Tayrona tombs, an illegal activity called guaquería. The guaqueros went deeper and deeper into the Sierra until, in 1973, one of them, Julio César Sepúlveda, arrived at the lost city and began to loot it. Almost simultaneously, another guaquero, Jorge Restrepo, along with his men arrived in Teyuna and dedicated himself to looting. The two sides clashed and the two leaders died in the bloody combat. History repeated itself. After almost 500 years since the first Europeans landed in America, the mania for getting rich with the gold buried in indigenous tombs continued to kill victims.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Teyuna, the lost city of the Tayrona • Neperos |url=https://www.neperos.com/article/s579qib1bcf4d9de |website=Neperos.com}}</ref> The effects of the conquistador's colonization of their villages are still seen today. As the years passed, the Europeans took more and more of the gold originally crafted by the indigenous people. Much of that gold still resides in museums across Europe, leaving the current descendant tribes of today—the Kogi, Arsarios, Arhuacos, Kankwamos, and Chimilas—without any of the gold of their ancestors. The Kogi people live in the last pre-Columbian settlement and have more-or-less kept the ways of the Tairona people since they were forced out of their settlements by the conquistadors. Although the Kogi can provide insight into the Tairona, they are distinct from the people who lived 500 years ago. The Kogi believe that everything buried in La Ciudad Perdida contributes to the peace, harmony, and balance of the world. After teaching one of their members Spanish, they presented this case to the Colombian government and successfully reclaimed the rights to their ancestral land. Now, groups like the [[Global Heritage Fund]] continuously work to protect the historic site against, as the Kogi people would say, "younger brother's" harm.
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