The trek is not technical and it is not easy. Four days of river crossings and relentless humidity end at twelve hundred stone steps, which is the only way in.

What is actually at the top

Not a city in the way the name suggests, but roughly two hundred terraces cut into a ridge, linked by paved paths and stairways, and still tended by the indigenous communities who never left the range.

Guides are mandatory and the routes are agreed with those communities. Several sections are closed at particular times of year for reasons that are explained but not negotiable.

Go in the drier months if you can, carry less than you think you need, and accept that every photograph will fail to convey the heat.