El Obelisco Tello
El Obelisco Tello
El Obelisco Tello
The Tello obelisk is a stony sculpture in the form of a rectangular prism belonging to the Chavín
culture of ancient Peru, with a height of 2.52 m, sculpted on all four faces. It was discovered in
Chavín de Huántar by Trinidad Alfaro around 1907, but it was the archaeologist Julio C. Tello
who first studied it, highlighting its importance, for which he was baptized with his name.
It represents a complex deity, with different interpretations of its nature: a double deity or
hermaphrodite god with the head of a feline; the union of two alligators; or a bird god with a
feline mouth.