Sao Tome das Letras Brazil, Mysterious, Un-explored, Man made tunnels

I am native from Minas Gerais and I have always listened the craziest stories about this town. But I have to admit that it is the first time I hear about this tunnel connecting to Machu Pichu. As far as I know, Sao Tomé is well known as a destiny of hippies and people that believe in magic, ETs and other supernatural things. In fact, most of people go to this town and take drugs expecting to see anything "different". I remember that my uncle has a sticker of this city written Sao Tome das Letras with a little witch on it. However, I do believe that any story might have at least something of real. On this site there is a small picture of the cave, Gruta do Carimbado. It is also written that many believe in the existance of several tunnels on America converging in Machu Pichu. There's also another famous place there, called Ladeira do amendoim (peanut hill), where compasses get crazy and havy cars with their motors turned off climb this hill like if they were attracked by a magnet.

the world is full of creepy stories about mines

here's one of the best ones not as good as this Brazilian one I have to say but here goes
I was reading about the Daytolov Pas incident and decided to find out about the area
and I found this
Queen of the Copper Mountain

she wears a dress made out of green stone like malachite and inhabits some kind of subterranean world in the Ural mountains in the Region of Daytolov Pass. She is a lizard or a snake somehow, and has a weird mind control ability. and has untold treasures like gems and minerals.She tried to marry a hapless miner who encountered her there around the 30s or late 20s I think, anyway his description of her is terrifying

How frustrating that so little is known about this tunnel. I'm massively intrigued after reading this thread, thanks for bringing it to my attention...things such as this fascinate me!
I will be attempting my own research, and also checking here for more info! Massively interesting!!

Hi guys and girls, sorry for not posting for a while...real life has had to take preference over the last few months but I have managed to put a fair bit of effort in to a few 'areas' of the original post.

A few facts for you!

'As the crow flys' the distance between Sao Tome das Letras and Machu Picchu (one of the 'supposed' destinations of the tunnel; according to the story of the restaurant owner) is 1905 miles (or 3066 Kilometres) ...that; in anybody's book, is a huge distance to comprehend undertaking on foot!

I was trying to get an idea of how far the Brazilian army would have covered on their 4 day walk before getting to the 'chamber' with the other tunnels coming off it but it's really hard to predict because of not knowing how fast they were moving and for how long they walked each day...the average human being travels at 3.1 mph so that would mean they covered 31 miles in a ten hour day (however they must have been carrying a fair bit of tackle so it was probably less hours than this and less speed?)...however, for arguments sake lets say that they did cover that distance at that speed...that makes the 4 days worth of travelling a distance of 120 miles...

The longest 'man made' tunnel that is completely cut through rock is The 57km (35 mile) Gotthard rail tunnel in Switzerland...ok it's quite big in diameter (around 10m I think?)...kind of puts the tunnels in Brazil in to a whole different perspective doesn't it!!


more soon...

Because it attracks a lot of people interested over the years...are there any accounts of people being "vanished" in that part of the village where the tunnel starts?

And is there any knowledge about tunnels at Muchu Puchu or those other places this tunnel suppose to end?

What would be the estimated cost for a 4 person expedition...on bicycles?

reply to post by zatara


Depends on whether the people are in the region or have to fly in

I'd take anything Childress comes up with a very large piece of salt, about the size of Malta.

Contact the closest University geology department to that town and ask them also check with a local Speleology group, they probably have more accurate information on the cave(s).

There is probably more information on the caves but its probably in Portuguese

I have been in touch with a British guy that lives near this tunnel entrance (a friend of a friend etc), he confirms it is there and has been in it a couple of times; only as far as a couple of hundred metres, but his opinion is also that it is man made as it is very consistent and uniform in shape and size? (I appreciate that a couple of hundred metres of this tunnel doesn't mean the whole thing is like this and this could have been done at any time by humans)

Bicycles?...hmmm...not an option on the first trip unfortunately...last thing we want is a quick drop down a hole into god knows what...second trip onwards...very possible...

The initial plan at this stage is to make the trip in April 2013 to establish that the 'chamber' exists and then work on using it as a stores for equipment and operations moving forward on the second trip later in the year...I,m going to copy and paste the aims, objectives, timeline and equipment list of the 'sighting' trip shortly.

Best wishes

Originally posted by optimus fett
I have been in touch with a British guy that lives near this tunnel entrance (a friend of a friend etc), he confirms it is there and has been in it a couple of times; only as far as a couple of hundred metres, but his opinion is also that it is man made as it is very consistent and uniform in shape and size? (I appreciate that a couple of hundred metres of this tunnel doesn't mean the whole thing is like this and this could have been done at any time by humans)

Bicycles?...hmmm...not an option on the first trip unfortunately...last thing we want is a quick drop down a hole into god knows what...second trip onwards...very possible...

The initial plan at this stage is to make the trip in April 2013 to establish that the 'chamber' exists and then work on using it as a stores for equipment and operations moving forward on the second trip later in the year...I,m going to copy and paste the aims, objectives, timeline and equipment list of the 'sighting' trip shortly.

Best wishes

Who owns the caves, ie the land where the entrance is? The state, city, company or a private individual?

reply to post by optimus fett


Hi Optimus, great thread! I'm from Rio de Janeiro.

Bad news for you: the cave was officially close for public visitation in order to preserve it.
(In portugues)
Link in portuguese


This is an intersting link in Portuguese too, please use the google translator.

The interesting fact is that our major TV explored the cave with specific gear and researchers. According to the link they managed to cover 15 km of the tunnel until the air was apparently too thin and hot.

The tunnel indeed exists. No one actually found its end. It's all a fact.
I'll look for what TV GLOBO found exactly about this tunnel...

By the way.. Just google "gruta do Carimbado" and you'll find hundreds of pictures such as this one:

Lordadef - Thank you so very, very much for your post...exceptionally valuable! Having taken a look at the pictures on google images I am still undecided on whether these 'tunnels' are man made?...Initially I would have to say that certain parts look very naturally formed and then other parts look 'mined'...

Several of the mines I have been in over the past few years have sections where they have broken in to 'natural' cave systems...however over the period the mines have been worked, these sections have started to take on a similar look to the man made parts due to wear and man 'tidying' them up for want of a better word!

I am just trawling through the links you sent me and trying to find a few more things that may be of interest.

kindest regards and best wishes.

The following is translated from the link Lordadef kindly provided in Portuguese...



The Grotto Carimbado brings one of the biggest mysteries of the city of stones, as already deserted the interest of geographers, historians, researchers and the Brazilian media. The TV Headline sent a team to the city to investigate the cave, but they do not realize. Then the Globo TV with a whole specific equipment, technicians and researchers entered the cave with a mission to reach its final, traveled nearly 15 miles and found no exit, the thin air and high temperature of the room, made the continuation of the expedition infeasible.

To date, no one has achieved greater distances or come to some conclusion about where you can get the underground path. For those that take into account the geophysical aspects of the local relief, say it is impossible that will have more than 20 or 30 miles long, which would be an isolated fact, unprecedented in Brazil, but do not know how it could be A study bolder and effective without harming the environment and without changes in the structure of the site.

One person up to 1 m and 70 cm high by walking quietly initial path only slightly sloping path, which reinforces the theory of the slit was made by ancient civilizations and not a work of nature. Ancient civilizations believed that mystical as the Incas, have discovered through mapping astral, the city of São Thomé das Letras and developed an underpass there. Still others believe that there is an intra-terrestrial civilization, people living in the centre of the earth and are more advanced intellectually.

The very legend of Chico Taquara brings up the issue of the powers and mysteries of caves and passages magnetic, the dimensional portals and the interrelationships between humans, aliens and intra-terrestrial, giving lessons to mankind.

The mystical aspect and energy that connect the cities of Machu Picchu and São Thomé das Letras is not able to summarize all existing interactions and builds on these sites that reflect the oldest human rituals, worship the gods and nature. But all this is a mystery that surely will never be revealed, leaving us to accept it or not


Hmmmm...this would kind of dispel the '4 days underground' trip the Brazilian army apparently made? if the film crew only managed 15km before the air became thin and hot...to uncomfortable/dangerous for them to proceed.
(I,d be keen to know what time of year they did it..weather on the surface can effect temperatures inside mines and airflow)

It would indicate that if the air was becoming thin then 'fresh' air is not 'venting' in anywhere...well, certainly not by the point they got to...I,d be keen to know how specialised the 'cavers/miners' were that accompanied them were..what the oxygen levels were at when they turned back?

reply to post by optimus fett


I've been deep into this kind of stuff much of my life time, because this kind of stuff interests me. Actually there is another huge, long tunnel that was built by others that exists in the northern USA. A tunnel with traps that were set to keep people out. A group of explorers stopped at the last death trap they ran into after redigging out loads of fill that was designed to keep people out.

Caves and tunnels and old mines are very dangerous, but they are very interesting to explore. Unfortunately I've got to go right now, or I'll be late; otherwise I'd tell more about it.

The initial plan at this stage is to make the trip in April 2013 to establish that the 'chamber' exists and then work on using it as a stores for equipment and operations moving forward on the second trip later in the year...I,m going to copy and paste the aims, objectives, timeline and equipment list of the 'sighting' trip shortly.

Best of luck not long to go there. You may be able to still access it in the interest of research. Would just need to organize with the key holder. Also the fact that its locked at the moment means you may not have to run into any nasty surface dwellers whilst exploring.