Parque Arqueológico Nacional de Tierradentro
The Tierradentro Archaeological Park (Spanish: Parque Arqueológico Nacional de Tierradentro) in the Cordillera Central in southern Colombia in the area of the municipality of Inzá in the Departamento del Cauca is traversed by numerous underground tombs , which are unique in South America due to their size and staircases. Above ground there are several figures carved in stone. In 1995, UNESCO named the Tierradentro archaeological park a World Heritage Site .
 
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Location of the Tierradentro archaeological park |
The burial chambers and figures probably go back to Tierradentro culture, an agricultural culture with a highly developed cult of the dead . Little is known about the culture. The shaft graves that are more than five meters deep in the rock are characteristic . These underground places were used to store urns . The walls of the best-preserved chambers are painted with geometric patterns in white, black and red. Up to 100 urns were found in the side niches of the burial chambers. Some of the ceramic urns contained gold jewelry that suggests grave goods. However, these were largely lost through looting. The skull and bone remains show, however, that there were no uniform burial customs.
Web links
- Tierradentro Archaeological Park on the UNESCO World Heritage Committee website
- Tierradentro Archaeological Park on the UNESCO website
- Tierradentro Archaeological Park on the Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia e Historia (ICANH) website (Spanish)
Coordinates: 2 ° 34 '58.8 " N , 76 ° 1' 58.8" W.
Heritage: Port, fortifications and monuments of the colonial era in Cartagena (1984) | Historic center of Santa Cruz de Mompox (1995) | Tierradentro Archaeological Park (1995) | San Agustín Archaeological Park (1995) | Coffee cultural landscape (2011) | Qhapaq Ñan - Andean Road System (2014)
Natural heritage: Los Katíos National Park (1994) | Malpelo Nature Reserve (1994)
Cultural / natural heritage: Chiribiquete National Park (2018)