The Pedra da Gávea inscription
The account
Marks on the rock would be Phoenician letters saying a king of Tyre was buried there, and the mountain's profile would be a carved face.
What investigators found
Geologists attribute the marks and the "face" to natural erosion of the rock. No Phoenician trace has ever been found at the site.
The story
Pedra da Gávea, about 840 meters high, is one of the most famous mountains in Rio de Janeiro. From a certain angle, its summit looks like a face. On one of its slopes are grooves that, to some, form ancient letters.
In 1839, the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute even studied the marks. In the 20th century, an amateur researcher claimed to have translated them from Phoenician as a tribute to a king of Tyre. The idea that Phoenician sailors reached Brazil before Cabral won fans. Geologists explain the marks as erosion of the gneiss over millions of years, and there is no Phoenician archaeological find anywhere in the country.