The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the north of the country, was inhabited by the Taironas. At the height of their splendour, after AD 1000, they built many villages and cities with stone foundations, covered today with thick vegetation. Their engineering and architectural works are remarkable: terraces, sewers, bridges, roads and stairs. Their urbanism indicates a hierarchy of political management, with great cities controlling smaller settlements through an élite composed of chiefs and a powerful priestly class.
