The Lost City in the Sierra Nevada
Ciudad Perdida, known locally as Teyuna, was built by the Tayrona people around AD 800, centuries before Machu Picchu, and was abandoned after the Spanish conquest. It lies in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, reached by a four- to six-day return trek with licensed guides, crossing rivers, sleeping in camps and passing villages of the Kogi and other Indigenous peoples. At the end, around 1,200 stone steps climb to a series of circular terraces rising out of the forest. It is hot, muddy and deeply rewarding.