MEGALITHS OF BADA VALLEY

Bada Valley, situated within Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, is renowned for its remarkable collection of hundreds of enigmatic megalithic monuments—locally referred to as watu (“stone”) or arca (“statue”)—dating from potentially as far back as 5,000 years ago to as recent as the 14th century; these artifacts encompass stylized human-form statues (some reaching up to 4.5 m like “Palindo”) and mysterious stone jars called kalambas, yet their creators, purposes, and cultural context remain largely unknown, despite their first documentation by Europeans in 1908, and the valley's dramatic, hill-framed landscape only deepens the enigma