María Lionza of Sorte Mountain
On a forested mountain in Venezuela, thousands of people come each year to honour a goddess of nature who rides a tapir.
What was reported
María Lionza is the central figure of a Venezuelan religion that combines Indigenous, African and Catholic beliefs. In the best-known legend she was an Indigenous princess with green eyes who was taken into a lake by a giant anaconda, and became the spirit of the water and the mountains.
Her sanctuary is Sorte mountain in Yaracuy, where pilgrims gather at rivers and shrines, especially in October. A large statue of her riding a tapir, by the sculptor Alejandro Colina, stands on a highway in Caracas.
Explanations offered
The legend can't be checked, and isn't meant to be: it's the story of a living faith followed by many Venezuelans. Historians trace the figure back to Indigenous beliefs about a water spirit, reshaped over the centuries.
- When
- Told for centuries, and today
- Where
- Sorte mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela
- Witnesses
- Followers of her religion in Venezuela
- Status
- Legend
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.
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