36.14 - MU Podcast - The Tayos Caves Mystery Part 1

Summary

Hosts Joe Hodgson and Brandon Thomas dig into the legend of Ecuador's Tayos Caves, where explorers claimed to find a hidden library of metal books, golden statues, crystal coffins, and a giant gold skeleton. Drawing on Alex Chionetti's 2019 book, they compare clashing eyewitness accounts from Juan Moricz, Julio Aguado, Avril Jesperson, and Petronio Jaramillo. The result is a tangled web of notarized claims, failed cameras, booby-trapped chambers, and a murdered informant, and no physical proof ever surfaced.

Key takeaways

• 1Juan Moricz, a Hungarian-born explorer, filed a notarized declaration in July 1969 claiming artificial underground galleries filled with engraved metal plates in Ecuador's Tayos Caves.
• 2Avril Jesperson, part of a 1968 expedition with LDS (Mormon) backing, wrote in his journal that Moricz seemed lost in Méndez and was likely a fraud. Julio Aguado, who was on the same trip, said he saw a stone table with seven chairs, a quartz sarcophagus, and thousands of metal plates.
• 3Photos offered as evidence of Moricz's plates appear to match items from Father Carlo Crespi's collection in Cuenca, some labeled 1971.
• 4Petronio Jaramillo claimed a Shuar chief named Samakachi showed him the cave in 1956. He described a stone slab booby trap, a 9-foot gold skeleton in a crystal coffin, chimera statues, and a library of golden metal books, some in Magyar script. He linked the site to El Dorado and to the tall, fair-skinned 'Akiwanos.'
• 5Jaramillo was killed in 1998, and his widow told author Alex Chionetti that his story was untrue and that he had a vivid imagination.
• 6Erich von Däniken covered the legend in 'The Gold of the Gods' (1972). Neil Armstrong also reportedly visited the Tayos Caves.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

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Excerpt from Mysterious Universe, Oct 9, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.