It is widely accepted that South America split away from the ancient supercontinent Pangaea more than 220 million years ago. Since that monumental drift, the continent’s nations have endured wars, plagues, and revolutions, yet their peoples have continued to thrive and expand. Today, the region’s vibrant history and kaleidoscopic cultures draw millions of travelers to iconic destinations such as Machu Picchu, the sprawling Amazon, and the enigmatic Nazca Lines.
top 10 intriguing South American mysteries
10 The Eye
Deep within the swampy reaches of the Paraná Delta in northeastern Argentina, a curious island known as The Eye sits like a perfect coin amid a thin, crystal‑clear ring of water. The circular landmass measures roughly 130 yards (119 metres) across, and its surrounding water is noticeably colder and clearer than nearby bodies. Even stranger, satellite imagery shows the island slowly rotating—or perhaps floating—around its own centre, a motion visible when comparing early 2003 photos with later Google Earth sliders.
Many observers argue that such a flawless circle could not be a natural formation, prompting speculation that it might be a deliberately crafted structure. Among the most popular theories is the notion that an alien base lies concealed beneath the island’s surface, a hypothesis that fuels both scientific curiosity and wild conspiracy.
A filmmaker has launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance a team of scientists and experts who hope to investigate the phenomenon on the ground, hoping to finally answer the lingering questions surrounding The Eye.
9 Parallel Worlds
In the early 1970s, a professor from the University of the Andes strolled across his campus parking lot, chatted with students, and then opened the driver’s side door of his car. He stepped inside, but the vehicle never moved. When onlookers approached the car later, they were stunned to find it empty, the professor vanished without a trace.
Police reports confirmed that witnesses saw him enter the vehicle, yet the car never left the spot. The prevailing theory suggests that when he opened the door, a portal opened beneath him, sucking him into a parallel universe.
In 2015, cosmologists reported evidence for “eternal inflation,” a process that would cause countless universes to bubble into existence, each separated by ever‑expanding space. This scientific insight lends credence to the idea that parallel realities could indeed be reachable under extraordinary circumstances.
Looking back at the professor’s disappearance, it seems the notion of parallel worlds may have been more than speculative fiction—it might have been a real, unexplainable event.
8 Down Stairs
Within the massive Sacsayhuamán citadel in Peru, explorers have documented a gigantic granite boulder that bears a set of stairs—only they ascend upside down on the stone’s upper half. The puzzling orientation has sparked intense debate among architects and archaeologists.
Some scholars propose that the rock was once part of a larger structure that collapsed during an earthquake, leaving the stairs inverted. Others argue that an unknown force deliberately turned the stone, causing the stairs to point toward the sky rather than the ground.
The precise technology the Inca employed to maneuver such enormous stones remains a mystery. One plausible theory suggests they built a ramp, slid the boulder onto a log‑pile, and then removed the logs one by one, allowing the stone to settle gently into its final position.
7 Amazonian Stonehenge
High on a hill in Amapá, northern Brazil, archaeologists uncovered a startling arrangement of 127 massive stones that jut out of the earth, forming a circle reminiscent of England’s Stonehenge. The discovery challenges long‑held assumptions that the pre‑colonial Amazon lacked complex societies capable of such engineering feats.
The stones are spaced apart and stand upright, leading researchers to hypothesize that they may have functioned as a solar calendar or astronomical observatory, allowing ancient Amazonians to track celestial cycles and plan agricultural activities.
Pottery shards dating the site to at least two millennia have been found, yet the exact purpose of this “Amazonian Stonehenge” remains speculative, pending further excavation and analysis.
6 Los Roques Curse
On 4 January 2013, a small aircraft carrying fashion magnate Vittorio Missoni, his wife, and four others vanished while en route from the Los Roques archipelago to an airport near Caracas. The disappearance sparked rumors of a “Los Roques curse,” especially after a string of similar incidents in the same air corridor.
Historically, more than fifteen small‑plane mishaps have been reported in the region, including a crash that claimed fourteen lives with only a single survivor. The pattern of unexplained disappearances led many to draw parallels with the infamous Bermuda Triangle, coining the area the “Devil’s Sea” of South America.
Six months after Missoni’s aircraft vanished, authorities recovered wreckage off the coast of Key Carenero. While most bodies were eventually found, Missoni himself remained missing, fueling ongoing speculation about the curse.
5 STENDEC
On 2 August 1947, a British South American Airways flight named Star Dust, carrying six passengers and five crew, disappeared during its Buenos Aires‑to‑Santiago route. For five decades, the fate of the aircraft and its occupants remained a baffling mystery.
Speculation ranged from extraterrestrial involvement to espionage, but the truth lay hidden in the Andes. In 1998, mountaineers discovered a fragment of the wreckage on a glacier fifty miles east of Santiago, and after a harsh ice storm, the full crash site was reached in 2000.
Investigations suggest that the pilot, after encountering severe weather, attempted an emergency landing, transmitting the cryptic code “STENDEC” to the Santiago control tower before the aircraft plummeted into the Tupungato glacier, killing everyone aboard. The meaning of “STENDEC” remains an unresolved enigma.
4 Band of Holes
Stretching across the Pisco Valley, near the famed Nazca Lines, lies a curious formation known as the Band of Holes. Thousands of shallow depressions, each about a metre wide and up to two metres deep, have been carved into the rocky plateau.
These perforations appear to have been laboriously hand‑dug, yet no discernible pattern unites them; some align in straight rows, while others seem randomly scattered. Archaeologists agree the holes are man‑made, but their purpose remains a puzzle.
Recent theories propose the holes formed part of an Inca tax‑collection system, while others suggest they served as vertical burial sites, water‑catching structures, or trail markers. The true function continues to elude researchers.
3 Mystery Tomb
The weathered stone slab in Plymouth, Tobago bears a haunting inscription: “Within these walls are deposited the bodies of Mrs Betty Stiven and her child. She was the beloved wife of Alex B Stiven… She was a mother without knowing it, and a wife without letting her husband know it except by her kind indulgence to him.” This cryptic epitaph has puzzled historians for years.
One popular theory claims that Betty, desperate to secure a marriage, intoxicated Alex with copious alcohol, leading him to wed her unknowingly. After becoming pregnant, she allegedly fell ill and gave birth while unconscious, never realizing she was a mother.
Another, more sensational hypothesis suggests a clandestine relationship between Alex and a enslaved woman of African descent, with the inscription deliberately obscuring the truth. Yet another wild speculation posits that Betty bore four children in a state of unconsciousness, never aware of her motherhood—a scenario that would explain the puzzling wording.
2 Twins of Atlantis
For decades, scholars have chased the elusive clues surrounding the legendary lost city of Atlantis. Recent research points to Bolivia as a possible fragment of this ancient civilization, based on recurring twin motifs found in Andean art.
These twin depictions—both human and animal—mirror Greek accounts of Poseidon’s twin rulers, suggesting a cultural crossover. Bolivian folklore tells of a divine city destroyed by floods and earthquakes, with the chief deity Tunupa either sinking beneath a lake or vanishing into the Pampa Aullagas mountains, a site some scientists propose as the remnants of Atlantis.
Greek myth recounts that Poseidon and Cleito produced five pairs of twins who governed ten provinces, collectively forming Atlantis. Bolivian legends describe a similar tale: two brothers survive a cataclysmic flood, one drowns, the survivor marries a woman shared with his brother, and together they father five sons each, echoing the Greek narrative.
These striking parallels have led researchers to hypothesize that the Bolivian twin myths may be a localized echo of the broader Atlantis story, hinting that parts of the fabled empire could have once stretched into South America.
1 Disappearance of Keith Davis
In August 2015, fisheries observer Keith Davis boarded the tuna‑transshipment vessel MV Victoria No. 168, crewed by Taiwanese and Chinese sailors, to monitor a routine catch transfer.
Five weeks later, while the ship floated roughly 500 miles (800 km) off the Peruvian coast, Davis was on deck watching the hand‑off of tuna when crew members called him to sign a document. When they turned around, he had vanished without a trace.
Four hours after the incident, the captain ordered a comprehensive search of the surrounding waters. Several nearby vessels joined the effort, but after 72 hours the hunt was called off, leaving only Davis’s untouched life jacket and survival suit in his cabin.
Prior to his disappearance, Davis had confided in friends about rampant lawlessness at sea and even shared a video showing four men being shot while their attackers posed for selfies on a fishing boat. Yet his final email to his father was mundane, offering no warning that something was amiss, deepening the mystery surrounding his fate.
Estelle, a resident of Gauteng, South Africa, reported the story.