The Sounding Galleries of Chavín
Beneath a 3,000-year-old Andean temple runs a maze of dark stone passages, built so that sound would travel through them strangely.
What was reported
Chavín de Huántar, high in the Peruvian Andes, was a great religious centre around 3,000 years ago. Under its temples runs a network of narrow stone galleries, ducts and chambers, in near-total darkness.
In 2001, archaeologists found 20 decorated conch-shell trumpets, called pututus, buried in one gallery. Water channels beneath the temple also roar when water runs through them.
Explanations offered
Acoustics researchers, including a team from Stanford University, have shown that the galleries carry and distort sound, so a trumpet blown in one place could seem to come from everywhere, or from the stone itself. Many archaeologists think the temple was designed to create an unsettling experience during rituals.
- When
- Temple used about 1200–500 BCE
- Where
- Chavín de Huántar, Áncash, Peru
- Witnesses
- Archaeologists and acoustics researchers
- Status
- Mostly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.