User:AuthenticAphrodite/Cueva de los Tayos

Cueva de los Tayos (Spanish, "Cave of the Oilbirds") is a cave located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains in the Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador. It became infamous for reportedly having "golden plates" that contains the history of mankind. It owes its name to being the home of the native nocturnal birds called Tayos (Steatornis caripensis), which live in caves in the tropical rain forest of South America. The cave attracted worldwide attention as a result of the claim of Erich von Däniken in his book The Gold of the Gods (1972) and a 1976 expedition in which U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong took part. Despite numerous claims, these objects have never been credibly recovered or photographed. The consensus from the archeological community is that the supposed "Golden Library" is a hoax.

The Origins of the Golden Library
Janos ‘Juan’ Móricz was a Hungarian explorer who reportedly discovered a 'Golden Library' in the cave sometime in the 1960s. He was interested in the Thule Society, a German occult group that had connections to the pseudoscientific Nazi organization, the Ahnenerbe. Móricz believed that Magyars, ancient Hungarians, traveled from Eastern Europe to South America via the Pacific Ocean by way of the "lost continent" of Lemuria. Móricz’s essay, El Origen Americano de Pueblos Europeos (Spanish, "The American origin of European peoples") argues that the indigenous languages of South America share words with ancient Magyar and this supports his idea that South America is the cultural birthplace of humanity. According to Móricz, the Golden Library is the last remnant of this ancient Magyar society. He claims that one of the chambers in the cave system contains a polished stone desk with large books made of gold. Móricz describes the books as having “engraved hieroglyphs” and would later assign the writing as Phoenician and cuneiform. During this first encounter with the Golden Library, four aliens spoke telepathically to him congratulating for his "wit" in getting into the cave. He never gave an exact location for the library and demanded that anyone wanting to verify his claims give him money. Móricz's evidence for his claim of Magyar hyperdiffusion has been debunked by others as Móricz's search for a long-lost white race in the Americas.

Jaramillo's account
Captain Petronio Jaramillo Abarca states that his childhood Shuar friend and their father had shown him the Golden Library. He states that the cave had a large number of carved stone animals and a large crystal coffin that stores a nine-foot-tall golden human skeleton. Jaramillo describes the Golden Library as “shelves made of yellow metal [that had] hundreds of huge books made of a golden metal”. The books resembled geometry books according to him. The descriptions of the Golden Library differ from each account. Jaramillo would later describe the Golden Library as having Magyar writings. Jaramillo’s wife states that she never believed her husband. She says “I knew it wasn’t true [...] it isn’t true he grew up as a child with [the Shuar]”.

The 1968 Mormon Expediton
A group of Mormons came to believe that the metal plates that Móricz claimed were in the cave were the same golden plates described in the 1830 Book of Mormon attributed to Joseph Smith. The Mormons requested Móricz's guidance in the expedition, but he never took them to the supposed 'Golden Library'. According to Avril Jesperson, a member of the Mormon expedition, Móricz didn’t know what he was doing, “It seemed this was the first trip Móricz took to the area”. Jesperson reiterates his claim years later, believing that Móricz had never been to the caves and had never seen the supposed Golden Library.

1976 expedition
As a result of the claims published in von Däniken’s book, an investigation of Cueva de los Tayos was organized by Stanley Hall, a Scottish engineer. One of the largest and most expensive cave explorations ever undertaken, the expedition involved over a hundred people, including experts in a variety of fields, British and Ecuadorian military personnel, a film crew, and former American astronaut Neil Armstrong. Hall never claims to have seen the Golden Library. He, however, repeats their claims that golden plates lie in Tayos Caves. Hall states in an interview with Alex Chionetti “Not only do I believe with all my heart [that the Golden Library] exists, but beyond being a unique treasure, I believe it is a chapter of the history of South America”. Hall also states he believes that, despite admitting to having never seen the library, there are two libraries, housing thousands of golden books.