The world’s largest necropolis, filled with gods, mythical animals, and heroes, rests in the southwestern Andes of Colombia
The largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in South America can be found at the San Agustín Archaeological Park. This park is located in the municipalities of San Agustín and Isnos, in the department of Huila, Colombia. This UNESCO World Heritage Site consists of San Agustín, Alto de los Ídolos (The High Idols) and Alto de Las Piedras (the High Stones). The site is perhaps best known for its impressive stone statues, numbering 600 at present.
San Agustín is located about 400 kilometers (249 miles) to the south-west of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. This site, which covers an area of 2000 square kilometers (772 square miles), is situated in the Colombian Massif at an altitude of 1800 meters (5906 feet) above sea level. It has been suggested that between 3300 BC and 600 BC, agriculture had not been introduced in the area of San Agustín. Yet, the society that inhabited this area possessed rudimentary stone technology consisting of basalt chips. Therefore, it is possible that some of the earliest stone statues at San Agustín were made during this period of the site’s occupation by humans.
