Morro de Tulcán is the principal pre-Columbian archaeological monument within modern Popayán. What can resemble a natural hill is an engineered earthen platform commonly described as a truncated pyramid. Municipal tourism material associates it with the Pubenense societies of the Cauca valley and with funerary and ceremonial activity uncovered when roads and landscaping cut into the mound.
Dating on Popayán’s official pages is inconsistently written—one page even labels a range “500–1600 BC” while calling it the Late Chiefdom period. Responsible interpretation avoids repeating that typographical chronology as settled fact. The safest description is that the mound belongs to the pre-Hispanic societies that occupied the valley before the Spanish foundation of Popayán, with archaeological phases requiring specialist context.