The Valley of 400 Megaliths
In the highland valleys of Lore Lindu National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, stand more than 400 granite megaliths. These ancient stone works are distributed across the Napu, Besoa, and Bada valleys. The artifacts include statues, stone mortars, and most curiously, enormous cylindrical stone vats called kalamba. The largest of the megalithic statues, known as Palindo, is over 4.5 meters tall. The kalamba themselves vary in size; the smallest are under a meter high, while the largest can measure between 1.8 and 2.1 meters in diameter.
The kalamba are carved from single blocks of stone. While most are plain, some found in the Besoa Valley have carved decorations, including human faces and animal figures like monkeys. Many are found with equally massive, fitted stone lids called tutu'na. The specific type of stone used to create the megaliths is not found in the immediate vicinity, meaning their builders transported these multi-ton objects across difficult terrain. Archaeological dating of the sites is broad, with estimates placing their creation anywhere from 3000 BC to 1300 AD. Carbon-14 dating at one site in the Besoa Valley suggests it was inhabited around 2,170 years ago.