In 1965, on the territory of Ecuador, entrepreneur and ethnologist Juan Moricz, with the help of local Indians, discovered the oldest man-made underground communications system. According to him, he found in its halls a unique library of books, the sheets of which were thin metal plates covered with mysterious symbols. Journalists immediately called this find the Library of Atlantis.
Mysterious Metal Books
The story of this sensational discovery is very confusing, full of intrigue and tragic accidents. As a result, what could change the whole history of mankind turned out to be lost again – let’s hope not forever. It all started with the statement of the Argentine businessman Juan Moricz about the discovery in Ecuador of a huge ancient underground labyrinth, in which he discovered a mysterious library of books with metal pages.
According to Moricz, the underground tunnels discovered by him stretch for thousands of kilometers under the territories of three states at once – Argentina, Peru and Ecuador. Its main entrance is located in the inaccessible jungle region where the Santiago and Coangos rivers come together. The researcher noted that the tunnels are clearly of artificial origin, their walls are very smooth, literally polished, the ceilings are even and flat, as if covered with glaze. Passages from tunnels led the researcher to impressive underground halls. However, much more interesting than the underground communications was what Moricz discovered in them. So, according to the researcher, he found an ancient library of 20-kilogram books consisting of thin metal sheets measuring 96 by 48 cm.
On each of these pages some mysterious signs were engraved or stamped. According to Moricz, it was a library of an ancient extinct civilization.
Man Soaring Above The Earth
In addition to the library, Moricz found in the dungeons a large number of golden figures of various animals. There were elephants, bison, crocodiles, monkeys, jaguars. These figures were placed along the walls of halls and walkways. Interestingly, the floor of the tunnels was decorated with very interesting drawings. For example, one depicted a round Earth and a man hovering above it. It was clear that the representatives of the most ancient civilization clearly knew about the spherical shape of our planet.
It is worth recalling another floor drawing. Engraved on the floor of the tunnel, a fossil dinosaur was depicted! Let get reminded that, according to generally accepted data, dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, however, this figure is dated at about 4-9 thousand BC. What can be said about real meetings between dinosaurs and the representatives of this ancient civilization?
Moricz also found a very mysterious outdoor figure. A strange creature with a rectangular body and a round head stood on a globe-ball and held the sun and moon. Another figure, nicknamed the “pilot”, was in a helmet with headphones. The suit of the “pilot” resembled a spacesuit, wires led to it, a ring was attached, and the figure’s hands in gloves. One of Moricz’s astounding finds resembled the Concord model of a supersonic passenger airliner.
Juan Moritz sent one such figurine of an “airplane” to the museum of the Colombian capital Bogota, and left another in a dungeon. Experts who studied the artifact cast in pure gold came to the conclusion that the figure is actually a model of an airplane. This was indicated by geometrically regular wings and a high vertical keel, which, as you know, are not found in birds.
Squeezed By The “Grip” Of His Secret
Newspapers reported that Juan Moricz, during negotiations with the President of Ecuador, allegedly negotiated for himself the right to full control over the find and reserved the rights to filming and photography.
It seems that after his discovery, Moricz stopped sleeping soundly. Perhaps he was afraid that someone more eminent would appropriate his discovery or that some gang would plunder the treasures of the dungeons, leaving him with nothing. That’s why he kept secret the entrance to the dungeons and pulled in every way its disclosure.
However, the discovery still required him to take some action, it was necessary to maintain a certain “buzz tension” around the find, otherwise the hope for major sponsors and the assistance of well-known scientific institutions would disappear. It was then that he decided to involve Erich von Daniken, who became very famous after the publication of his book Chariots of the Gods.
In 1972, Moricz and Daniken met in South America. Daniken claimed that it was then that Moritz showed him a secret entrance to the underground communications system in in the Cueva de los Tayos (Spanish for “Cave of the Oilbirds”).
In his writings, Moricz says:
“(This is . . . ) an archaeological reality that has so far been either entirely unknown or at least flat-out denied by mainstream scientists. The first expedition serves as the steppingstone for a second part of the expedition with which we intend to obtain proof that the discovered underground cave system is an area of activity of the progenitors of mankind.”
However, the discoverer did not open the hall with a mysterious library to Daniken, but only showed him an amazing maze.
After Moricz and Daniken emerged from the caves, Moricz took him to see Father Carlos Crespi, who possessed a large collection of similar metal plates that were also covered with mysterious engravings and glyphs, and that have remained undeciphered to this day. Some of the plates look ancient, finished very elaborately and engraved with glyphs. Others appear to be almost new and made in a simplistic style. Most of the plates consist of brass, zinc and copper. (A note about the metals: the American scientist, Professor Heather Lechtmann of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proved in a study that the pre-Columbian people of South America were masters at coating metal with very thin layers of gold, in some cases, 0.5 to 2 micrometers thick.)
Part of Father Crespi’s collection now resides in the Museum of the Banco Central in Cuenca, Ecuador. The chief restorer there, José Maldonado, wrote:
“We know nothing about the origin of these objects, nor where they were found.”
Following the trail of this “adventure”, Erich von Daniken published the book “Gold of the Gods”. In it, he described the straight and smooth walls of the tunnels that shocked him so much. However, in an interview with the German publications Stern and Spiegel, Juan Moricz unexpectedly stated that he had never been in tunnels with Erich von Daniken. This statement dealt a blow to the reputation of the Swiss, which scholars had already taken hold of after his book Chariots of the Gods.
He was accused of fabricating facts proving the presence of aliens from outer space on the planet in antiquity. Daniken claimed that it was then that Moricz showed him a secret entrance to the underground communications system. However, the discoverer did not open the hall with a mysterious library to Daniken, but only showed him an amazing maze.
Later, Moritz nevertheless admitted that he showed Erich von Daniken an insignificant cave unrelated to the main network of dungeons. Most likely, at the very last moment, Moricz realized that the Swiss, already “promoted” in the media, could well push him as a pioneer into the background. That’s why he framed the famous researcher and writer.
Daniken’s attempts to somehow justify himself were unsuccessful at that time. In an interview with the Spiegel magazine on March 19, 1973, Moricz confirmed the reality of the tunnels that he had discovered and that a certain person had indicated them to him, whose name he refused to tell. Soon, a Scottish scientist and traveler Stanley Hall contacted Moricz. He invited him to organize a joint Ecuadorian-British expedition with the participation of the Ecuadorian army, biologists, botanists and various specialists.
Stanley believed that the expedition should be led by a very authoritative person, and offered to do this to astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon. He accepted his offer, and on August 3, 1976 a group of researchers led by Armstrong went down into the tunnels. They managed to find a funerary cave with a sitting mummified body, and the biologists who joined the expedition discovered about four hundred unknown plants near the cave.
However, this all ended – they never got to the metal library. It seems that Juan Moricz was once again afraid that all the laurels of discovery would go to a different person, because Armstrong was much more authoritative than Daniken.
Fading Ray Of Hope
In 1991, Moricz died, but Hall managed to find a man who showed him the entrance to the tunnel. It was Petronio Jaramillo. He agreed to meet with Hall and stated that Moricz had shown Armstrong’s expedition a completely different cave. If you believe Petronio, then he got into the room with a library of metal books back in 1946 with his uncle, who was friends with the Shuar tribe, which guarded the entrance to the labyrinths. Jaramillo confirmed that he personally saw thousands of metal books on the shelves.
He visited the dungeons again and chose to take out 7 books from the shelves, but could not take pull them out, it was extremely hard. By the way, he said that in the second hall there were some quartz tablets, possibly also carriers of information. Petronio talked about the numerous statues of people and animals and the sealed golden doors leading, most likely, to the graves. Wandering through the dungeons, he went into the room where there was a large translucent sarcophagus of a huge gilded mummy. Hall agreed with Jaramillo to organize an expedition to research the dungeons. Alas, the conflict between Peru and Ecuador that arose in 1995 forced researchers to postpone it. Then, in Ecuador, the political regime changed, and a sharp aggravation of the situation in the country forced Hall to return to Europe.
In 1998 he received terrible news – Petronio was killed right next to his house. Although the attack looked like a street robbery, it cannot be ruled out that someone eliminated the “key” to discovering the Atlantis library.
Although Hall never knew the exact location from Petronio Jaramillo, after the death of Jaramillo in May 1998, Hall arranged a trip with Mario Petronio, the son of Jaramillo, during which they combined their knowledge. The journey was only aimed at reaching the “zero point”.
In May 2000, Hall returned.
He showed aerial maps, indicating a bend on the river and a cliff line that hides the entrance cave – the entrance to the system, which stretches for several miles. His assumption – a rock collapse (evidence of an ancient earthquake) opened an underground network. Hall visited this place and concluded that it fits perfectly with Jaramillo’s description.
Need for cooperation
The information that Jaramillo managed to share with Hall prompted the researcher to speculate where the entrance to the cave could be, because, as Jaramillo said, the entrance is hidden under river water, and to get into the maze, you need to swim through an underwater tunnel.
So, on January 17, 2005, Hall informed the Ecuadorian government about the location of the cave, which meets the description of Jaramillo, and which, he hoped will be the goal of the expedition, this place turned out to be the bend of the Pastaz river.
For anyone who is interested, the coordinates are: – 77 ° 47’34 ′ west longitude and 1 ° 56’00 ′ south latitude.
Hall thinked it would take decades or a shift in worldview before people can work together for a common purpose. He argued that the 1976 expedition took place only because the military regime was in power; “The democratic bureaucracy will flood the expedition before at least one marshy river meets on the way.”
All that is required is a sense of cooperation and openness. Too many people have tried to use the library as evidence of their own theory of an alien coming, all-conquering Hungarians or the Hall of Records. Perhaps that is why these missions were doomed. Maybe we should let the library speak for itself. Answers to questions regarding who built it, where they came from, etc. we can find inside. After all, is it a library or not?
To this day, dozens of enthusiasts and treasure hunters are engaged in its searches, but so far without success.
