The Painted Rock of Roraima
The account
The great boulder covered in symbols supposedly holds messages from ancient visitors and hides secrets in its caves.
What investigators found
It is an archaeological site with paintings made by Indigenous peoples thousands of years ago, studied by archaeologists.
The story
In the middle of Roraima's open savanna, inside the São Marcos Indigenous Territory in the municipality of Pacaraima, rises an enormous block of granite covered in red paintings. The Pedra Pintada features geometric designs and figures, as well as rock shelters and hollows where archaeologists have found traces of ancient human occupation, including burials.
Like other sites in Brazil, the place fuels speculation about symbols of unknown origin and contact with visitors from other worlds. Archaeology treats the paintings as rock art made by Indigenous peoples, part of a long history of human occupation in the Amazon and the north of the continent. The site is protected, and visits require permission from the Indigenous communities.