Pedra da Gávea
Encyclopedia
Monolith
A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument...
rising 842 meters above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
at the highest point, located in Floresta da Tijuca
Tijuca Forest
The Tijuca Forest is a mountainous hand-planted rainforest in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the world's largest urban forest, covering some 32 km²...
in Barra da Tijuca
Barra da Tijuca
Barra da Tijuca is a famous neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, located southwest of the city on the Atlantic Ocean. Barra, as it is popularly known, will have most of the venues of the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be the first edition held in South America. Barra is well-known for its...
, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. It is the world's largest monolith on a coastline. The rock is composed of gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
and granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, and due to its position, size and coastal location, as well as the lack of purchase for vegetation, has been heavily eroded
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
by the elements. The damage caused to the vertical face of the rock creates the impression of a stylized human face - a pareidolic
Pareidolia
Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse...
simulacrum
Simulacrum
Simulacrum , from the Latin simulacrum which means "likeness, similarity", was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, used to describe a representation, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god...
. Several alternative explanations for the appearance of the rock have been forwarded over the years, but there does not appear to be any sound archaeological basis for claims of human shaping.
The formation is visible at sea, and is an ideal reference point for navigation
Pilotage
Pilotage is the use of fixed visual references on the ground or sea by means of sight or radar to guide oneself to a destination, sometimes with the help of a map or nautical chart. People use pilotage for activities such as guiding vessels and aircraft, hiking and Scuba diving...
.
Mystery inscription
There is an apparent inscription carved into the rockface, which is purported to be Phoenician, a SemiticSemitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
language known to modern scholars only from inscriptions. The transliterated
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
inscription is as follows:
Taking into account that as with Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, a closely related language, Phoenician is written from right-to-left, this inscription is said to read TZUR FOENISIAN BADZIR RAB JETHBAAL", which is translated roughly as "Here Badezir, King of Tyre, Jetbaal's oldest son. This is alleged to correspond to a ruler of Phoenicia named Badzir, from around 850 BC
9th century BC
The 9th century BC started the first day of 900 BC and ended the last day of 801 BC.- Overview :The 9th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Africa, Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians...
. The "face" of the rock is alleged to be carved to the likeness of Badzir.
There are a number of problems with this inscription: not least that the Phoenicians did not refer to themselves as Phoenicians - rather, that is an ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
term for them, or more accurately, a derivation of the Greek term. also, as far as currently known, the traversing of the ocean was far beyond the Phoenician naval skills, who traveled always close to the shores. The brevity of the inscription, as well as a somewhat sloppy appearance, point to a crude forgery intended to explain the rock in terms of Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
civilizations
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
. See Persian Princess
Persian Princess
The Persian Princess or Persian Mummy is a mummy of an alleged Persian princess that surfaced in Pakistani Baluchistan in October 2000. After huge publicity and further investigation, the mummy proved to be an archaeological forgery and possibly a murder victim.-Discovery:The mummy was found...
for an example of a more complex forgery discovered via similar imperfections.
The inscription was not reported until the 1800s, although it was also suggested at this time that the inscription dated from pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
times. During the nineteenth century, the study of Phoenician was well underway, and even amateur students of Phoenician in this period would have had a strong knowledge of Biblical timelines. It is notable that the inscription is first described officially during the early years of the independence of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
under the Emperor Pedro I: suggesting an attempt at nation-building
Nation-building
For nation-building in the sense of enhancing the capacity of state institutions, building state-society relations, and also external interventions see State-building....
by the Brazilian Empire
Brazilian Empire
The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II, both members of the House of Braganza—a...
.
See also
- ApopheniaApopheniaApophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, who defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness", but it has come to...
- Archaeological forgeryArchaeological forgeryArchaeological forgery is the manufacture of supposedly ancient items that are sold to the antiquities market and may even end up in the collections of museums. It is related to art forgery....
- Archaeology of the AmericasArchaeology of the AmericasThe archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of North America , Central America, South America and the Caribbean...
- CydoniaCydonia (Mars)Cydonia is a region on the planet Mars, and has attracted both scientific and popular interest. The name originally referred to the albedo feature that was visible from Earthbound telescopes...
, specifically the "Face of Mars". - Gávea (disambiguation)Gávea (disambiguation)Gávea is a Portuguese word meaning topsail. In Brazil it can also refer to:* Gávea, a neighborhood located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.* Estádio da Gávea, a Brazilian football stadium.* Hipódromo da Gávea, a Brazilian horse racing venue....
- Geography of BrazilGeography of BrazilThe country of Brazil occupies roughly half of South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil covers a total area of which includes of land and of water. The highest point in Brazil is Pico da Neblina at...
- Michigan relicsMichigan relicsMichigan relics is a name for forged, supposedly ancient artifacts that were supposed to prove that people of an ancient Near Eastern culture had lived in Michigan, USA....
- Out-of-place artifacts
- Pseudoscience
- Ten Lost TribesTen Lost TribesThe Ten Lost Tribes of Israel refers to those tribes of ancient Israel that formed the Kingdom of Israel and which disappeared from Biblical and all other historical accounts after the kingdom was destroyed in about 720 BC by ancient Assyria...
- Wilhelm GeseniusWilhelm GeseniusHeinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius was a German orientalist and Biblical critic.-Biography:He was born at Nordhausen...