Cueva de los Tayos

Cueva de los Tayos is a cave located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains in the Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador. It owes its name to being the home of the native nocturnal birds called tayos, which live in numerous caves in the Andean jungles of South America.

The location became the focus of a popular myth perpetuated by Erich von Däniken about a hidden library of golden plates inscribed with hieroglyphs, variously ascribed to extraterrestrial beings or a lost human civilization. Despite numerous scientific and pseudoscientific expeditions, including one in 1976 that included American astronaut and engineer Neil Armstrong, the library has not been found. The consensus from the archeological community is that the “golden library” was a hoax.