Over 100 Ancient Structures Just Uncovered in the Andes' Forbidden Cloud Forest -- A Hidden Civilization Unfolds
Buried deep in Peru’s cloud forest, a long-forgotten site is rewriting the story of a vanished culture. Researchers uncovered something far larger than anyone expected.
Juliette Dubois
Published on June 7, 2025
Read : 3 min
The Abiseo River National Park. Credit: WMF/Heinz Plenge Pardo | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel
High above sea level in the remote northern Andes, an extraordinary discovery has brought new clarity to one of Peru’s most mysterious archaeological landscapes. Hidden for centuries beneath dense vegetation in the Río Abiseo National Park, more than 100 previously unrecorded structures have been uncovered at the site of Gran Pajatén, offering rare insight into the elusive Chachapoya civilization.
The findings, announced in May by the World Monuments Fund (WMF), are the most significant at the site since the 1980s, when only 26 structures had been documented. With this new discovery, archaeologists are beginning to reevaluate the scale and sophistication of a society that once thrived along the eastern flanks of the Andes, between 6,500 and 9,800 feet above sea level.
A City Emerges From the Trees
Gran Pajatén lies within the boundaries of Río Abiseo National Park, a UNESCO Mixed World Heritage site known for its rich biodiversity and archaeological heritage. The site, first revealed to researchers in the 1960s, was long believed to be relatively modest in size. Now, newly identified buildings—among them ceremonial platforms, temple foundations, perimeter walls and staircases—suggest a far more expansive and organized settlement.
The structures are scattered across a steep forested slope, appearing to follow a deliberate urban plan consistent with Chachapoya and later Inca influence. Archaeologists say the arrangement of the site, combined with the discovery of nearby roads linking Gran Pajatén to other archaeological zones such as La Playa, Papayas, and Los Pinchudos, points to a well-connected regional network.
“This discovery radically expands our understanding of Gran Pajatén and raises new questions about the site’s role in the Chachapoya world,” said Juan Pablo de la Puente Brunke, Executive Director of WMF Peru. “Evidence now confirms that it is not an isolated complex but part of an articulated network of pre-Hispanic settlements from different periods.”
More:
https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/06/over-100-ancient-structures-just-uncovered-in-the-andes-forbidden-cloud-forest-a-hidden-civilization-unfolds/
- click link for images of this site from Google images -
https://tinyurl.com/a7ar3jtm
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Researchers uncover over 100 new structures at Gran Pajatén site
Researchers working in Peru have discovered more than 100 previously unknown structures at the Gran Pajatén archaeological complex, significantly expanding the 26 buildings known since the 1980s and revealing that the Chachapoya civilization, known as the "people of the cloud forest," lived at the site from at least the 14th century.
More:
https://www.perplexity.ai/page/researchers-uncover-over-100-n-W72uefhPRVO1rIRzaYixJg
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's really sad that Europe-centric science has taken so very long to pay real interests to the cultures of the cultures in the Americas Europeans invaded, enslaved, subjugated and abused centuries ago and have abused continually since.
Andean citizens have been treated as poorly as have Central and Northern Native citizens. Apparently you have to completely dehumanize and devaluated populations before you can feel comfortable in appropriating the land upon which they and their ancestors have lived for thousands of years!
It's really about time they were shown a little respect, one would think!
I am totally unaccustomed to seeing the circular structures. Have only comparitively recently learned Native cultures as far north as Mexico constructed circular pyramids, even!
So much ahead to learn. One almost feels there's no time to waste at all!
Thank you so much for your comments. 
By Andy Corbley -Jun 9, 2025
Conservation work on the North Basing of Building 1 in Pajatén, Peru – credit, Heinz Plenge Pardo
At a UNESCO Heritage Site in Peru, archaeologists have announced the discovery of over 100 additional hidden structures belonging to a pre-Incan civilization.
Gran Pajatén is located high in the northeastern Peruvian Andes, and was likely a major center of the Chachapoya civilization, which thrived for 400 years before being conquered by the Inca.
Discovered in the 1960s, and excavated in the 1980s, the remoteness of the site led to its eventual neglect.
Between 2022 and 2024, an interdisciplinary team from World Monuments Fund Peru carried out a conservation and documentation project within Río Abiseo National Park, a UNESCO Mixed World Heritage site recognized for its extraordinary cultural richness and natural beauty.
Using technology like LiDAR, the researchers identified “a sophisticated urban settlement complete with agricultural terraces, circular buildings and cliffside tombs at altitudes of up to nearly 10,000 feet above sea level,” Smithsonian Magazine writes.
“This discovery radically expands our understanding of Gran Pajatén and raises new questions about the site’s role in the Chachapoya world. Evidence now confirms that it is not an isolated complex but part of an articulated network of pre-Hispanic settlements from different periods,” said Juan Pablo de la Puente Brunke, Executive Director of WMF in Peru, in a statement from the fund.
The Chachapoya society (pronounced cha-cha-POE-ya) was composed of regional chiefdoms that nevertheless shared a distinctive architectural and artistic language, as reflected in their unique circular buildings, geometric friezes, and highly decorated cliffside burials.
More:
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/hundreds-of-newly-found-structures-reveal-the-true-scope-of-this-little-known-pre-incan-civilization/