Guayabo Monument (Costa Rica)

Deep in the Costa Rican rainforest, on the southeastern slopes of Volcán Turrialba, lie the ruins of Guayabo. Founded centuries before the Common Era, this once-thriving metropolis developed nonstop and became home to thousands. Its scale and engineering genius still amaze modern visitors: intricate stone aqueducts continue to flow after millennia, and paved causeways stretch for miles, linking the hub to outlying villages. Then, seemingly overnight, the city was abandoned.

For years no one knew why. Only with the discovery of old chronicles did the secret come to light: Guayabo had been struck by a terrible curse—one cast by its own ruler.

To understand that curse, picture a chief who wielded absolute power: worldly and occult, civic and spiritual. He was the living bridge between the human realm and the spirit world. Eventually he realized that Guayabo’s growth—more than ten thousand souls strong—was ravaging the land. Forests fell, riverbeds shifted, whole hillsides were ripped apart for stone. When the city crossed the line into outright sacrilege, the chieftain performed a ritual to end it all and halt the desecration of the Earth.

Legend says the high shamans could command cosmic forces, summon disasters and unleash plagues. Armed with such mastery, the chief carried out a final rite, tearing open rifts and releasing the Demons of Be—malevolent entities bent on destroying humankind through disease and madness.

Guayabo’s magic lingers in carved stone slabs covered with petroglyphs—shamanic maps marking power-vortices and gateways to other realms. But the most sinister relic is the Sacrificial Stone, a massive altar with blood-channels cut into its surface. On this very slab the chieftain sealed his city’s fate.

From 100 Cursed Places · Fern Flower Press