There's just something about an echo chamber, magical spaces that have the power to transform sound.
An article in Nature (discussed at collision detection some weeks ago and more recently at aptly-named blog Echo Generation with anecdotal evidence) Mayans may have built the El Castillo
pyramid with specific audio-filtering capabilities. Echoes can sound
like chirping birds and falling rain. The Mayans may have been
performing aural imaging along with visual effects created naturally be
the space.
For modern echo chamber creation, look no further than UK media artist Chris O'Shea's Echo Chamber (via near near future),
where glitchy electronic sounds emerge from a gorgeous 3D soundscape —
enter an audio input with a mic, and a 3D sprite version of it
interracts organically in the virtual space.
To me, though, the more successful of the two sonically and
conceptually is the Mayans. Modern society has some catching up to do.
(Then again, we don't kill people for losing sporting events — lucky for the NY Jets.)