Paez: Archaeology and Culture
Accommodation in Paez
If you’re looking for a hotel in Paez and are interested in archaeology, Tierradentro Archaeological Park is a specific cultural point of interest in the municipality. The park is located near the town of San Andrés de Pisimbalá. Its history and preserved sites offer several points of interest to help shape your travel plans.
Tierradentro Archaeological Park
The park was established in 1945 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. These dates represent different milestones: 1945 is the year it was established, and 1995 is the year of its UNESCO designation. Together, they put the park’s history in context without dating the same event twice.
The archaeological sites include underground tombs, known as hypogea, and stone statues. The park description divides the sites into five zones: Loma del Aguacate, Alto de San Andrés, Loma de Segovia, Alto del Duende, and El Tablón. Their names help you keep track of the park’s different areas.
A total of 162 pre-Columbian underground tombs preserved in situ are reported across four sites. Alto de San Andrés has 23 hypogea, Alto de Segovia has 64 tombs, and Alto del Duende has 13 burials. At Alto del Aguacate, 62 hypogea lie along a 250-meter-long ridge. The figures show both the overall size of the preserved collection and how the number of tombs assigned to each site varies.
El Tablón is also part of the park. It protects and displays stone sculptures associated with tombs from earlier periods. Thus, alongside the hypogea, the archaeological heritage includes sculptures whose connection to earlier tombs is part of the site’s description.
Museums and Exhibitions
The municipality also includes the Casa Museo y Biblioteca, a 19th-century building. It houses the Archaeological Museum and the Ethnographic Museum. The names of the two museums make clear that both archaeological and ethnographic subjects are represented here.
The Archaeological Park Museum features an outdoor exhibition with 80 hypogea, nine statues, and related archaeological materials. The figures for the sites and the exhibition answer different questions: 162 refers to the tombs preserved in situ at four sites; 80 refers to the hypogea in the outdoor exhibition. The two figures therefore describe different aspects of the park.
For planning what to explore, you can choose among several areas of focus: the park’s historical dates, the distribution of tombs across the four sites with figures provided, the stone sculptures at El Tablón, or the museum collections. This makes it easier to focus your interest in Tierradentro rather than treating all the archaeological topics as the same focus for a visit.
Plan Your Visit and Find a Hotel
ICANH lists the Tierradentro Archaeological Park’s opening hours on days when it is open as 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (as of September 2026). These hours apply on opening days. Check the ICANH website for planned closures before your visit.
When choosing accommodation in Paez, the sites and museums in the municipality can help you decide which cultural topics interest you. The historical information, different sites, and exhibitions offer different perspectives, from the park’s historical context to the preserved tombs and displayed objects.
Discover more destinations: Popayán, Boca Grande, Yaquiva, Aguablanca, El Crucero, Portachuelo, Camarones, El Medio.
For the regional travel overview: Cauca.
