Travel to Costa Rica and among the archaeological curiosities you may be fortunate enough to see

are the famous stone spheres, great globes of solid rock carved more than a thousand

years ago, and weighing up to 15 tons.

What are they?

What were they used for?

What mysterious properties might they possess?

One thing we know for sure is that most of the info about them is false.

The truth behind the stone spheres of Costa Rica is coming up now unskeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

For Brian Dunning, this is guest host Ryan Halp for Skeptoid.com.

Imagine yourself in southern Costa Rica in the 1930s.

You're a digger working for a banana plantation, excavating the shallow tropical soil to make

way for another row of agricultural monofilm, replacing the once-burdened and diverse forests.

Your shovel hits something hard, maybe an errant stone in the soil, so you work your shovel

around the periphery to no avail.

As you continue to dig around the object, you eventually reveal a two-meter sphere made

entirely of stone.

Having grown up in the region, you've heard stories about these stone spheres known locally

as Las Bonas.

They're a thousand years old, carved with magic potions, perfectly spherical, and filled

with gold.

Have you really stumbled upon an ancient magical relic?

...