A group of expedicioners lead by Tony Velázquez, dressed with adventure, a napsack and a wholesome physical strength, left to meet a scenery that from urban areas, seems to have been kept intact by nature, for the amazement of the human being, so as to remind his origin. And "Teyuna" the Lost City of ancient Tyrone civilization, located in the jagged Mountain Range of Santa Marta, Colombia, is that singular place of the world. Testimony of an ancient culture and traces of a forgotten history.

This city was built by Tyrones during the XVII Century; who were obliged to look for refuge, leaving their towns behind, due to the constant confrontations with Spanish Conquerors. This made them go up the Snowed Mountain Range, the highest mountain of the world, sitting next to the sea, to build their Sacred Cities. Throughout their development in Titical architecture they were able to modify the hard conditions of the landscape, terracing erosive areas with drainages, underground channels and anchored walls. Likewise, they used their goldsmith metallurgical techniques for melting gold and turning it into beautiful artistic gold objects, truly representative of the Pre-Colombian Art. In the same way that "Guaqueros" (gold diggers) dicovered this city, which even today has just been excavated on a tenth part of it, the expeditioners also arrived to Teyuna. After a thousand stair steps they were in direct contact with a natural world; archeological and historical. It was a behold of snowed roads, its flora and fauna reservoirs and fluorescent civilization that emerged there.

Tony Velázquez narrates his experiences: "We started our trip in a Venezuelan peasant district; a journey that took us to Maicao, a border town. From there to Riohacha City, we headed towards Santa Marta, through the coast. During the journey, we explore the outlet into the sea of the Buritaca River, a flow of water where the Lost City is located in its source.

The second part of our expedition begins at the mountainfoot of La Tagua, in the Snowed Mountain Range. We started our climb by foot until we reached 1200 meters high, trough rugged and wooded roads. We struggled in a three day journey through the mountain until we reached Teyuna. At the end of the afternoon, of this first climbing journey, we arrived at a camping called Fila Cartagena at 750 meters above sea level. Here we made contact with Kogui descendants. Our guide, as tradition calls for, greeted the natives chewing coca leaves." According to Velázquez, for these communities, coca consumption has a ritual character and is practiced only by men, upon reaching an adult age. In a ceremony of initiation, the "Mama" a priest gives a young male, a rucksack with leaves of coca and a "poporo; some kind of gourd where lime is kept; produced from grounded mollusk shells.

The mixture of coca and lime produces a stimulant, used in their ceremonies and in long journies, since it provides longer resistance. "We continued our journey. We walked for two days under intensive sun until reaching the source of the Buritaca, where we took a much needed rest, before taking the two thousand stone steps built by the Tyrones from the bank of the river two thousand years ago. Along our way we could appreciate the vegetation; abundant in exotic fruits. palms, trees higher than 40 meters and ferns. At last, in the middle of the heavy and damped woods a red of stone roads is shown before us, where foliage is interrupted by terraces and anchored walls of some 9 meters high. We stared at a pretty large stone, carved by tyrone ancestrals. It is considered to be a map of the city and it has helped today's arqueologysts and anthropologysts in rebuilding the urban structure.In the Tyrone Museum of Santa Marta you can find a magnificent reproduction of what was the typical architecture of this civilization. A vast net of roads communicated the many villages and eased the trade flow with other towns. Their houses were made of wood and the rooves of straw. Furniture of cane and cotton rush mats. The foundations of their buildings were circular, constructed over artificial terraces arranged at regular intervals supported by anchored walls of stone.During our stay at Lost City we felt the presence of a phylosophic and religious sense that guided their existance.

We could appreciate the total respect they had for the environment; the adecuate use of the available resources and how they obtain a perfect equilibrium between their habitat and the environment". Those men who made this special journey, as they return through the trails of the Snowed Mountain Range, had a feeling of admiration for this civilization, which didn't surprise me at the time but that it did leave a testimony of its majesy, powerfulness and sense of life for the whole world to behold.

Written by :

Frank Khazen

 

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