Key facts

• The Funerary Chambers: the most precisely San Agustín single underground burial chamber volcanic tuff stone slab internal paintings burial goods gold ceramic heritage — the burial chambers at San Agustín (carved from volcanic tuff; roofed with stone slabs; many painted on the interior with geometric and zoomorphic designs in red, yellow, black, and white — the best-preserved cave paintings in Colombia; containing burial goods of gold jewelry, ceramic vessels, and carved stone objects) were the residences of the dead: the statue outside was the guardian; the body inside was prepared for the afterlife
• The Fuente de Lavapatas — The Sacred Water: the most precisely San Agustín single Fuente de Lavapatas 1600 CE carved riverbed serpents human faces water channels heritage — the Fuente de Lavapatas (the “Washing of the Feet Fountain”; carved directly into the solid rock bed of a stream in the archaeological park; a labyrinth of serpent channels, human faces, and ritual basins through which the stream water flows; the most elaborate ritual water sculpture in pre-Columbian South America; the water animates the serpent carvings — they appear to writhe and move; the carving is attributed to the San Agustín culture c.300-700 CE)
• The Mystery of Abandonment: the most precisely San Agustín single abandonment 800 CE unknown descendant Nasa Inga connection heritage — the San Agustín culture apparently ceased c.800 CE; the site was empty when the Spanish arrived; no known group identifies as the descendants of the San Agustín people; the current Nasa (Páez) people of the region and the Inga people may share distant ancestry; the reason for the abandonment (migration? epidemic? absorption into another culture?) is completely unknown; the civilization produced extraordinary art and then vanished
• GPS: 1.8874° N, 76.2791° W