The Mysterious Jungle Sinkholes at the Guiana Highlands of Venezuela

South America is gifted with enriched flora and fauna. With the mighty Amazon jungle and the River Amazon, the country is blessed with the most spectacular geographical wonders and many of which are still unexplored, resting in the laps of Mother Nature since eons. Venezuela is one of the most significant South American destinations housing some jaw dropping mysteries of Mother Nature.

The mysterious sinkholes on the Guiana Highlands

The jungle sinkholes on the Guiana Highlands are one of those mysteries that are yet not resolved by men even after years of research. The place is scattered with impenetrable jungles and even the most intrepid explorers might find it challenging to cross the silhouettes of the green trees basking across the highlands. Within the jungles several tepuis are scattered here and there across the rainforest. These are flat-topped mountains with a height of around 1,000 to 3,000 meters touching the murky ambiance. Mostly, the hills are remained covered in the white clouds across the verdant scenario creating a spectacular view altogether.

Where is the mystery?

The native Pemon clans call the flat-topped mountains as Tepuis which means “house of the Gods”. But these houses of the Gods have several sinkholes which were first seen in the November of 1963 by a Jungle Pilot Harry Gibson while flying across the highlands. As he looked down to take a look at the yawning gigantic pits covered by the clouds atop the tepuis as these are definitely a natural wonder that was not revealed to human beings before.

The expedition to know the truth

But, the quenching thirst of knowing the truth led an expedition team led by David Nott and Charles Brewer-Carias to sustain the perilous terrains of the dense rain forests full of dangers here and there in 1974. The team was trained and was sent equipped with useful tools and gears to trek up on those mountains and again to peep into those secret sinkholes of mother earth. Considering the situation, they had plans to descend through the pits to find out what lies beneath those mysterious sinkholes.

The team chose Sima Humboldt presumably the largest of them and the helicopter dropped them on the tepuis. Along with extended ropes and other gears such as chainsaws, the expedition team trekked to the gigantic Sima Humboldt and started descending down. But the more the go down the more they only have to cut the verdant trees living in the isolation for eons and continuing their descending. They found nothing and found it to be challenging to escape the dungeon if not ascended on time. They came up with the help of rope ladders dropped from the helicopter and later on specified that the only witnessed the flora everywhere and some of them are yet unrevealed to mankind.

At the end of the expedition, it was mentioned that the sinkholes were formed by an underground river which may have dried up now as the members of the expedition couldn’t witness any sign of the dead river.

In 1976, another expedition team under in cooperation with the Venezuelan and Polish Government went followed the footsteps of the previous team but this time they targeted to unveil the hidden facts of the Sima de la Lluvia, which is 1.35 Km long quartzite cave. They explained that lack of water source eroded the undergrounds causing the fissures on the flattened mountains.

Early Speculations and the unrevealed fact

Initially, it was predicted that those were the footprints of the giant animals ruled over the area in the pre-historic times. But per anthropological data, no such references matched the speculations.

Though the speculations of the existence of the evil spirits are also made but it was only by the locals to create the awe for the mountains or may be for protecting the virgin beauty of the incredible nature there.

Again another team of thinkers wondered whether the sinkholes are the marks of aliens when the UFO came to earth. It is still unknown to many that various instances of alien connections with Earth have been found across various regions of South America. From the Mayan relics to that of the steps of Machu Picchu- everywhere, scientists have speculated the alien connection. Does it have to do same with these hundreds of perilous sinkholes inside the tepuis? The fact is yet not revealed.