Face In The Forest
Mystery Stone Head Of Guatemala
By James Donahue
It was sometime around 1950 that a landowner in the jungles of Guatemala discovered a gigantic carved stone head on his property and took a picture of it. The photograph eventually found its way to the office of Dr. Oscar Rafael Padilla Lara, a philosopher and lawyer, who published it with a short article in a newsletter that got into the hands of famed explorer and writer David Childress.
Childress noted the oddities about the image of the stone head. Unlike the native pre-Hispanic people living in that area, this head had Caucasian features, with thin lips, a large nose, and a face that was turned up toward the sky. It suggested that an earlier Caucasian civilization or perhaps a visitation by Caucasian explorers from the old world may have stirred an ancient craftsman to chisel out such a face in that remote jungle part of the world. Childress wanted to learn more.
He tracked down Dr. Padilla, who in turn located the owners of the property. It was learned that the monolith was located near a small village in the southern region of Guatemala. An expedition was launched and the remains of the head were eventually found. But to their horror, the head was found smashed into fragments.
It turned out that area revolutionaries had used the head for target practice. It had been fired at by high powered guns and bombed into almost complete ruin. Padilla was able to measure its original height at between four to six meters. Since the rebel forces were still at war, the team evacuated the area and never returned.
Thus we have a mystery in that jungle that may never be solved, thanks to the foolishness of local tribal warfare and militants armed with modern arms. Incapable of seeing the historic value in such a work of art located deep in that jungle, the natives used the head for target practice.
Interest in the mystery head was rekindled when filmmaker Raul Julia-Levy used the site and the story to produce a movie "Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond." The film suggests that aliens from other worlds made contact with past South American civilizations.
Hector E. Majia, a Guatemala archaeologist, offered the following statement in relation to the film: "I certify that this monument presents no characteristics of Maya, Nahuatl, Olmec or any other pre-Hispanic civilization. It was created by an extraordinary and superior civilization with awesome knowledge of which there is no record of existence on this planet."
Thus the speculation about the strange carved Caucasian head in the jungle goes on. That it has been blasted into pieces by the illiterate wayfaring natives has only served to deepen the mystery. Since researchers are unable to study what once stood there, there appears no way to ever learn its history.
That a single photograph of the head was snapped when the head was first discovered is the only real record of its existence at all.
By James Donahue
It was sometime around 1950 that a landowner in the jungles of Guatemala discovered a gigantic carved stone head on his property and took a picture of it. The photograph eventually found its way to the office of Dr. Oscar Rafael Padilla Lara, a philosopher and lawyer, who published it with a short article in a newsletter that got into the hands of famed explorer and writer David Childress.
Childress noted the oddities about the image of the stone head. Unlike the native pre-Hispanic people living in that area, this head had Caucasian features, with thin lips, a large nose, and a face that was turned up toward the sky. It suggested that an earlier Caucasian civilization or perhaps a visitation by Caucasian explorers from the old world may have stirred an ancient craftsman to chisel out such a face in that remote jungle part of the world. Childress wanted to learn more.
He tracked down Dr. Padilla, who in turn located the owners of the property. It was learned that the monolith was located near a small village in the southern region of Guatemala. An expedition was launched and the remains of the head were eventually found. But to their horror, the head was found smashed into fragments.
It turned out that area revolutionaries had used the head for target practice. It had been fired at by high powered guns and bombed into almost complete ruin. Padilla was able to measure its original height at between four to six meters. Since the rebel forces were still at war, the team evacuated the area and never returned.
Thus we have a mystery in that jungle that may never be solved, thanks to the foolishness of local tribal warfare and militants armed with modern arms. Incapable of seeing the historic value in such a work of art located deep in that jungle, the natives used the head for target practice.
Interest in the mystery head was rekindled when filmmaker Raul Julia-Levy used the site and the story to produce a movie "Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond." The film suggests that aliens from other worlds made contact with past South American civilizations.
Hector E. Majia, a Guatemala archaeologist, offered the following statement in relation to the film: "I certify that this monument presents no characteristics of Maya, Nahuatl, Olmec or any other pre-Hispanic civilization. It was created by an extraordinary and superior civilization with awesome knowledge of which there is no record of existence on this planet."
Thus the speculation about the strange carved Caucasian head in the jungle goes on. That it has been blasted into pieces by the illiterate wayfaring natives has only served to deepen the mystery. Since researchers are unable to study what once stood there, there appears no way to ever learn its history.
That a single photograph of the head was snapped when the head was first discovered is the only real record of its existence at all.