The mysterious ‘Face of HarakƄut’ was recently rediscovered in the Amazon jungle. Now, it has been declared as part of the national cultural heritage of Peru.
What ʋis in the photo above is what some HarakƄut Indians call the ‘HarakƄut Face’, the ‘HarakƄut Face’. It is located in the HarakƄut reserʋa, in a super remote part of the southeastern Peruvian Amazon. Its discovery in 2014 has aroused great curiosity, but it has not yet been studied in depth. So, it is still full of puzzles, the most important question being: Is it a man-made monument or a natural phenomenon?
The HarakƄut believe that the Face has always existed, as they have always heard stories about it from their elders. It has been in your oral history for generations and generations. According to them, the Face is like a God to the HarakƄut people. They also believe that there are two other Faces. The problem is that they don’t know how to reach them. However, they found the first one.
In October last year, a group of new HarakƄut men, accompanied by British filmmaker Paul Redman, visited the ‘Face’. The film resulting from that expedition, ‘The Reunion’, was screened for the first time in Lima last November and was focused on two HarakƄut Leaders, Luis Tayori and Jaiмe Korisepa.
The film, which can be seen below, includes Tayori saying: “Four years ago, working with the Sapiteri [a HarakƄut clan], we heard, from the elders, Face. [That] means a lot to us,” and Korisepa says, “The Face has always existed. The problem was that we didn’t know how to get to it”. After they finally come face to face with him, Tayori says, “This is a meeting with our ancestors. I think this could strengthen our people. . . It was very emotional to see the Face”.
There are no other rocks remotely similar in shape in that ʋalley of the river… [It is] perfectly perched near an ʋalley, and presides over a waterfall and a basin that resembles an amphitheatre… There are marks everywhere indicating that it was cut with tools rudimentary… Actually, there are two Faces: a Face within a Face: look under the nose… The rocks along the river are arranged in such a way as to channel the flow away from hitting the [Face’s] face directly, and from In a way that would make it impossible for the face’s formation to have been caused by the impact of even the strongest of storms… The HarakƄut have no written history, but they claim that Face has been in their oral history for generations upon generations.
Still, as noted above, according to the information from the elders, there are two other ‘Faces’. This information is confirmed by Manuel Roque Prada, who said that in 2009 he took the short photo while working for South American Exploration, which was joined by Hunt Exploration Oil to carry out seismic explorations.
Recently, the Ministry of Culture of Peru has recognized the site as “Cultural Heritage of the Nation”, which means that it will be protected from now on. Apparently, however, this means ‘opening the doors to more people so that they can learn about the cultural richness that the aforementioned Madre de Dios protected natural area houses’.
We’re not sure if more people will mean anything good to the holy site, but let’s hope all goes well.
