Melimoyu volcano, the growling mountain

p>Patagonian volcanos were the home of fantastic beings, one volcano known as Melimoyu, Mapuche for "four tits" because it had four horn-like prominences on its summit which have since vanished. By 1843 Captain Juan Guillermos called it "tres puntas" (three tips), and now it only has two.

One source says that the earthquake that ravaged Valparaiso and southern Chile on August 16, 1906 (8.2 magnitude) which was accompanied by mysterious lights in the sky, caused the collapse of two of the four horns. The mountain became "Epumoyu" (two tits).

Melimoyu volcano (notice two, not four crests). Source

It is 2,400 m (7,900 ft.) tall and is located southwest of Chiloé close to the sea, on the mainland (44°04’S, 72°52’W). It is reputed to make odd sounds.

José Manuel de Moraleda, a Spanish naval officer who explored the coastline south of the Arauco between 1786 and 1793 mentioned that the Chilotes (Natives of Chiloé) said they "heard cannon shots or rifle shots" in the mountains and assumed they were made by the inhabitants of the lost City of Caesars. The Palena River is 20 km (12 mi.) north of the volcano.

But Moraleda attributed these strange sounds to strong gales that beat the coast and produce "a sound that imitates a distant thunder, a canon or musket shot […] the frequent avalanches in the Cordillera make a similar sound."

Map

This map (which I am preparing with Musters' itinerary across Patagonia, with all the encampments), shows the spot where he heard the cannon shot, and the location of the volcano.

The legend of the City of Caesars began in the mid-16th century. It revolved around an incredibly rich city set in Patagonia; its roads were paved with gold. It was inhabited by people of European origin who led secluded lives there. Several expeditions were sent to find it, and it was not until the late-18th century that it lost credibility.

Melimoyu volcano's crests

One century later (1885), in his report to the government after exploring the Palena River, Serrano Montaner wrote about an Indian called Caucalán who was seeking the City of Caesars along this river, when one "night the explorers heard loud and ugly roaring." Caucalán’s party attributed it to the spirit of the river, and full of fear they returned to Chiloé. Serrano asserted that "you can usually feel in that spot, and along the course of the river, certain strange noises similar to those that frequently accompany earthquakes." Serrano believed they were caused by avalanches in the high summits of the Andes.

Fortunately, we have a comment penned by Musters in 1870, who wrote about this phenomenon while camping at Chiriq Aike (now known as Arroyo Cherque) close to the town of Gobernador Costa in Chubut, on the eastern side of the Andes roughly 100 km (65 mi.) east of the volcano:

"During our stay here an incident occurred which led to the collection and comparison of the traditions concerning the hidden or enchanted city which still are current and believed among the Indians and Chilotes. One day while hunting we were startled by a loud report, as of the discharge of a cannon, and looking to the west saw a black cloud of smoke hanging above the peaks of the Cordillera. My companion Jackechan told me that on several previous visits to this station the Indians had observed similar columns of smoke in the same direction. On one occasion so convinced were they that it was caused by human agency, that a party set out to endeavour to penetrate the forests and reach the dwellings of the unknown residents, which the smoke was believed to point out. They proceeded some distance into the recesses of the mountain forests, but the extreme difficulties of travelling compelled them at last to abandon their purpose and retrace their steps. It is of course most probable that both the explosion and the smoke proceeded from some unknown active volcano in the range; but the Indians firmly believe in the existence either of an unknown tribe, or of an enchanted or hidden city."

Map

See this map, it is part of an ongoing project, mapping Musters' itinerary across Patagonia, with all the campgrounds he stopped at with the natives. It shows the Ciriq site and Melimoyu volcano (red icon) and the straight line linking them (yellow line).

Once again, a reference to the legendary City of Caesars. The sounds caused by volcanos can resemble cannon shots. see this video with the sounds of Villarrica volcano (Chilean Patagonia) before its 2015 eruption.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

"White" Indians in Patagonia

Diego de Rosales, a Jesuit missionary and historian, wrote a history of Chile (Historia general del reino de Chile. Flandes Indiano) in 1674 (online here). In it he mentions bearded white Natives:

"In the part of Chile that has cold land, three are white Indians and in the Chonos I have seen them so white that they look like Spaniards. And, additionally next to the Strait of Magellan, there are with beards, and white, that if they dressed with Spanish clothes, they would all be judged [unintelligible] and of Europe [unintelligible] men so dark, that compared with these Indians, they look like Indians, and the Indians, Spaniards."

Torres del Paine, Chile, Patagonia.
Could the white bearded men have lived here? Source

De Ovalle also mentions an expedition along the southern coast of Chile, that took place in 1640 when Diego de Vera advanced by sea towards the Strait of Magellan (source) in search of the City of Caesars.

"They caught a naked bearded indian, tall... they assured him that they wouldn't hurt him, that they wanted to know where were the Spaniards that they heard lived in the region of the Strait [of Magellan], to which sometimes he answered that there, were the Viracochas, called so becaus that was how they named the Spaniards in that region, taking from the Indians of Pery the name that they gave to the Spaniards, calling them Viracochas after their God Viracocha; and on other times he said they were already dead... and they found an Indian woman, who told them that the Spaniards they had seen were whiter and had fairer hair then them. And that the Viracochas that they knew were those of the territory of that indian. That like him, and those of his territory, they were bearded, so they looked like Spaniards, they called them with the same name they gave the Spaniards: Viracochas."

Viracocha is a Quechua word, and it was used by the Inca people of Peru to designate their creator god. Viracocha was the creator of earth, humans, and animals. The Inca spread their religion into Chile when they occupied North Central Chile up to the Bio-Bio River in the late 1400s. defeating the Mapuche.

City of Caesars

The “City of Caesars” was an “El Dorado” located in Patagonia. We can be summarize it as follows: The legend of the City of Caesars began in the mid 16th century. When a Spaniard named César reported finding a city of incredible wealth in South-Central Argentina.
The myth revolved around an incredibly rich city that some believed was set in the hidden mountains of western Patagonia. Its roads were paved with gold, and the kitchenware was silver.
It was inhabited by people of European origin who led secluded lives there. In some variants they were Spaniards, survivors of shipwrecked expeditions on the Strait of Magellan, who allied with the Tehuelches built their city on an island in a Patagonian lake around 46° South. In others they were Inca princes who had escaped the Spanish conquest and built their new empire in Patagonia.
Several expeditions were sent to find it, and it was not until the late 18th century that it lost credibility and searches were discontinued.

The City of Caesars. Copyright © 2025 by Austin Whittall

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall © 

Location of the "Phoenician" stones in Patagonia

 
Map showing where the Patagonian "Phoenician" inscriptions were found.
 
See Index on all my posts on Phoenicians in America.
 

Map showing the main sites and locations of the Phoenician inscribed stones of Patagonia. Copyright © 2011 by Austin Whittall

Let's take a look at the places where the "Phoenician" inscriptions were found. As I mentioned in my previous post, they are very different to the authentic native (Tehuelche) rock inscriptions, though they appear in the region which was the former homeland of these natives.

The places

Garcés [3] says that he bought (paid for, purchased - this is interesting as we will see in the next post) an inscribed stone from a Mr. Miguel Terraza, who told him that these stones come from the central part of the province.

Terraza indicated that they came from the area between Cerro Negro, Sierra Nevada, Sierra Rosada and the Chico River. A barren area. Just to the south of this region are lakes Colhue Huapi and Musters, fed by the Senguer River, which provides water to irrigate an agricultural colony settled by Boers who fled from the war that was raging between them and the British in South Africa in the last years of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. They settled around the current town of Sarmiento in southern Chubut.

According to Garcés, the custodian at the Rawson Museum (in 1943), [3] told him that there were over one hundred of those stones and that the Boers collected most of those stones and took them back to South Africa with them. He also noted that many foreigners also took them abroad.

To the east is Comodoro Rivadavia, an oil city, on the coast, which housed the "Lady of Elche" of the Patagonia, now lost.

Just north, along the coast is Punta Visser, where one of the Phoenician stones was found.

Still further north, is the original Welsh colony, at Madryn, Trelew, Rawson and Dolavon. The Museo Salesiano at Rawson, holds many of these "Phoenician" inscribed stones in its collection.

To the northwest of Rawson is Sierra Colorada. This is where I have managed to locate the site of another stone, which was said to come from "Chullucurá".

The name does not exist, there is no "Chullu" anywhere in Chubut. And regarding the second part of the place name, "Curá", fortunately there is only one place with the word "Curá" in it, and it is known as "Quelle Curá". [2]

This sounds very lie "Chullu", so it may be a typo or a spelling mistake. The place name means, in Mapuche language: "Quillá" or "Clá" = three, and "Curá" = Stones; therefore it is "three stones". [1] It is described as being located about 50 km to the northeast of the small village of Telsen, in northern Chubut. Exactly where I marked it on the map.

Garcés also mentions some stones that were collected by the wife of Dr. Elizagaray, the District Attorney at Trelew, one of which came from a place close to Puerto Lobos dug up when they laid the natural gas pipe from Patagonia to Buenos Aires. This place (which I did not mark on the map above) is located where the northern border of Chubut (white dashed line) meets the ocean, to the east of Sierra Colorada.

Then we have the inscription with the Yaz symbol (ⵣ) at Lake Puelo, in the western part of the province, in the Andean foothills, just to the north of the second Welsh colony (they moved west as their population grew in the late 1800s), at Esquel and Trevelin.

Remarks

The stones seem to come from two distinct areas. One along the northern part of the province, just north of the Chubut River, at is western sources (close to Lake Puelo) and on the coastal area north of its mouth on the Atlantic. The other is the central part of the province, a barren desolate place. What would people be doing there sculpting stones? Is there mineral wealth there?

I do recall however reading a remark by a Welsh explorer, Llywd ap Ewan who returning from an expedition to the Andes of Chubut and Santa Cruz, cut across from the fork where the Mayo and Senguer rivers meet and followed a route that lies roughly along the blue line (see map) that joins the Sierra Nevada and Sierra Rosada, and he wrote in his diary that he saw a strange stone columns or monoliths. I, just like the editor believed that it was some natural artifact, a rock carved by erosion (sandblasted by the relentless Patagonian winds) but, now, I am looking at it with another point of view. It may have been man made.

I will check the book and quote him here later.[4]

The City of Caesars and the Phoenicians

The “City of Caesars” was an “El Dorado” which is a tale that deserves a book of its own, yet it can be summarized as follows: The legend of the City of Caesars began in the mid XVI^th century. It revolved around an incredibly rich city set in the hidden mountains of western Patagonia (i.e. its roads were paved with gold) and was inhabited by people of European origin who led secluded lives there. Several expeditions were sent to find it, and it was not until the late XVIII^th century that it lost credibility and searches were discontinued.

So you can imagine my surprise when I came across a map drawn by French scientist Martini de Moussy [5] showing it!

He had been commissioned by the Argentine government to study the geography of the country. After traveling throughout the country he produced his Description Geographique et Statistique de la Confederation Argentine (1860-1864) and an Atlas (1869). This Atlas contains several maps, and I reproduce part of one below:

Map showing the City of Caesars in 1869, Patagonia. Adapted from [5] by Austin Whittall

To the left (West) and quite far from its usual location in the Andes, is the City of "Los Cesares" (of Caesars), on one of the rivers that flows from the Andean foothills to form the Chubut River (in those days also known as Chupat). The Welsh colony figures in the map as a project. Note that above the colony are the "Calli he ches" Indians (exactly where the "Quelle" or "Chullu" site is). In Spanish, "Calli" "Quelle" and "Chullu" sound very similar.

What is the City of Caesars doing so far away from the Andes and the forests? Why is it set there in the middle of the steppe? Perhaps there was some mineral resource there?

Yes, actually, close to the sources of the Chubut River, at the town of Esquel there is gold, and the locals have been battling large mining concerns for years, to keep them from ruining the scenery and polluting the area if they ever get the necessary permits to mine the stuff.[6]

Could the City of Caesars by a Phoenician mining village? Were these wealthy people of "European" origin actually surviving "Phoenicians" or "Carthaginians"?
Intriguing, and something that I haven't seen written elsewhere. So it is an original idea! and backed by some (though I must admit tenuous) evidence.

We still have to look into the authenticity of these stones and consider the possibility that they are fake.

Sources.

[1] Lázaro Fleury, (1944). Guiliches, Tradiciones, leyendas, apuntes gramaticales y vocabulario de la zona pampa-araucana. Universidad de Córdoba. pp. 61.
[2] Rodolfo M. Casamiquela, (2000). Toponimia indígena del Chubut. Author's edition. pp. 213.
[3] Antonio Garcés,(1951). Libro del Cincuentenario de Comodoro Rivadavia, 1901-1951. Aspectos de la Arqueología Patagónica. Chap. 29.
[4] Roberts, T. and Gavirati, M., (2008) Diarios del Explorador Llywd ap Iwan. Villa Adelina: Patagonia Sur Libros; Gral. Roca: La Bitácora Patagónica.
[5] Martin de Moussy, (1865). Carte de la Patagonie et des archipels de la Terre de Feu, des Malouines et des cotes occidentales jusqu'au Golfe de Reloncavi.
[6] Gold at Esquel

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall ©