Ancient buildings in Peru were created using technologies that today would be called innovative
For a European person accustomed to nature in temperate latitudes, Peru, with its microscopic hummingbirds, tree ferns and bizarre lichens, seems like another world from which the head is spinning.
The feeling of being on another planet is enhanced when you find yourself in the vicinity of the ancient capital of the Incas of Cuzco. Not far from the city, hidden in the mountains, there are many unique ancient monuments, about whose creators practically nothing is known. Fortress walls and other structures are made of building blocks of various shapes and sizes - from small stones to giant boulders weighing hundreds of tons. They all fit together so perfectly that the needle will not fit into the gap. Before the erection of monuments using high technology, even today, was attributed to the Incas, however, the structures hidden in the mountains are much older. What mysterious civilization left us with its stone heritage?
Inca puzzle
Remember the game "Tetris", where blocks of different shapes had to be placed so that the result was a wall without the slightest gaps. It seems that the ancient Peruvians who lived in the area surrounding modern Cusco played their "Tetris". Only in their performance the game was much more intricate: there were a lot of figured blocks of different sizes - from small stones to megaliths weighing 200-300 tons - but they all resembled each other in an amazing way. Remains of ancient masonry are also found in Cusco itself, which was the capital of the Inca state before the Spanish conquest. They were used as a foundation for their buildings by the conquistadors, since this masonry, laid without any fastening mortars, withstood powerful tremors for centuries.
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But the most amazing examples of the work of ancient architects are found outside the city - this is the Sacsayhuaman fortress, Ollantaytambo, famous for its "Princess Baths", and other complexes located at different distances from the city. The Sacsayhuaman fortress consists of three rows of walls built from granite blocks according to the principle of a puzzle. You might think that they were easily laid by the invisible hand of a giant who had previously cut out the blocks, measuring their dimensions down to a millimeter. Historians are still arguing about what technologies were used in the construction of the fortress and other objects, how the blocks were produced, and who was the author of all these structures.
The Spanish chroniclers seem to have no doubt that it was the Incas who built the Sacsayhuaman fortress: they learned amazing details about the construction of this complex from local legends. So, according to the records of Pedro de Cieza de Leon, each Indian community allocated a certain number of workers for the construction for 10 years. At the same time, 30 thousand people were engaged in the construction of fortresses and pyramids, of which 4 thousand were cutting down blocks in the quarries, and 6 thousand were engaged in transportation. As historians have established, it took the builders 120 years to build the fortress.
The chroniclers do not report on how the workers made calculations in order to create blocks that fit perfectly to each other (today such operations would be performed by a computer), what tools were used to cut out blocks and grind them. Over time, several versions have appeared of how builders could handle granite, which in modern conditions requires special processing. So, according to one of the hypotheses, local craftsmen possessed recipes for unique solutions that soften the stone. This explains both the slight convexity of the blocks, and the fact that each of the bricks fits perfectly under the other, as if they were molded from plasticine. It is difficult to imagine such a technology in the 15th - early 16th centuries, when the Inca civilization flourished. “The main constituent of granite is silicon oxide,” explains the researcher. Andrei Sklyarov, director of the III Millennium Science Development Fund - he can be influenced, for example, with hydrofluoric acid. But this is already high technology, temperatures under a thousand degrees during production and the like. It is clear that one cannot find it in nature just like that. Against the theory of rock softening or smelting of blocks, it is also said that workings are found in different places in the region, where it can be seen that the blocks were cut out of the rock entirely.
Ivan Watkins, professor of geology at the University of Minnesota at St. Cloud, proposed his hypothesis. “The sun worship could have had other reasons besides blind worship of a deity,” explains Professor Watkins. “The Incas learned to use its energy for their own purposes. Inca gold is nothing more than parabolic mirrors. With the help of a system of reflectors and lenses, the ancient Incas could amplify the effect of the sun's beam and use it as a laser to process stones. However, this version has not yet been confirmed experimentally. Therefore, another alternative view appeared: the Indians, rather, themselves turned out to be random guests on the ruins of the life of another civilization.
Battlefield - Earth
The Peruvian historian Garcilaso de la Vega, who lived in the 16th-17th centuries, in one of his works drew attention to the fact that the Incas could not cope with the task of the conquistadors who demanded to lift one of the boulders up. For builders, whose ancestors have been rolling huge boulders for generations, and even carving them figuratively, this is at least strange. Moreover, many structures found in the vicinity of megalithic structures and are unambiguously attributed to the Inca period were built according to a simple, if not primitive, method. This is a common masonry of small stones connected to each other with clay mortar. Today, experts have no doubt that Sacsayhuaman and other monuments in Cusco date back to an earlier period than the Inca culture. “The civilization in question,” explains Andrey Sklyarov, “is at least ten thousand years old. Peruvian archaeologists and historians are now talking about this a lot. The Incas just came to this place, saw the ruins. There are good blocks, good buildings, why not stay here. " Alas, this explanation only adds to the mystery. What kind of mysterious civilization could have possessed technologies that still baffle scientists today? Why, with all her might, did she leave the region? According to Sklyarov, the answer should be sought in mythology and in the stories of different peoples of the world about the numerous gods bringing blessings and destruction to ordinary people, enlightening or destroying them. Of course, these were not gods in the literal sense of the word, but certain peoples, more intellectually and technologically advanced. Perhaps the territory of Peru became a place of colonization long before the Spanish conquistadors landed on the coast of South America. And, as is often the case with colonies,the area around Cusco has attracted more than one creator of unique buildings. Perhaps the unknown guests disappeared as the region began to be attacked by another civilization of equal development. “There is a regular shaped lake not far from the Sacsayhuaman fortress. The Incas considered it sacred, says Andrei Sklyarov, its bottom is an ideal funnel that could have formed at the site of a powerful explosion. There are also rocks, as if torn apart by an explosion from the inside. " It is possible that thousands of years ago this land became a field for events that were reflected in the myths about the battle of the gods. After the mention of it, the history of the decline of civilization begins, when only ordinary people remained on earth, who have not yet managed to reach the heights proposed by prehistoric creators.unknown guests disappeared, as the region began to be attacked by another civilization of equal development. “There is a regular shaped lake not far from the Sacsayhuaman fortress. The Incas considered it sacred, says Andrei Sklyarov, its bottom is an ideal funnel that could have formed at the site of a powerful explosion. There are also rocks, as if torn apart by an explosion from the inside. " It is possible that thousands of years ago this land became a field for events that were reflected in the myths about the battle of the gods. After the mention of it, the history of the decline of civilization begins, when only ordinary people remained on earth, who have not yet managed to reach the heights proposed by prehistoric creators.unknown guests disappeared, as the region began to be attacked by another civilization of equal development. “There is a regular shaped lake not far from the Sacsayhuaman fortress. The Incas considered it sacred, says Andrei Sklyarov, its bottom is an ideal funnel that could have formed at the site of a powerful explosion. There are also rocks, as if torn apart by an explosion from the inside. " It is possible that thousands of years ago this land became a field for events that were reflected in the myths about the battle of the gods. After the mention of it, the history of the decline of civilization begins, when only ordinary people remained on earth, who have not yet managed to reach the heights proposed by prehistoric creators. The Incas considered it sacred, says Andrei Sklyarov, its bottom is an ideal funnel that could have formed at the site of a powerful explosion. There are also rocks, as if torn apart by an explosion from the inside. " It is possible that thousands of years ago this land became a field for events that were reflected in the myths about the battle of the gods. After the mention of it, the history of the decline of civilization begins, when only ordinary people remained on earth, who have not yet managed to reach the heights proposed by prehistoric creators. The Incas considered it sacred, says Andrei Sklyarov, its bottom is an ideal funnel that could have formed at the site of a powerful explosion. There are also rocks, as if torn apart by an explosion from the inside. " It is possible that thousands of years ago this land became a field for events that were reflected in the myths about the battle of the gods. After the mention of it, the history of the decline of civilization begins, when only ordinary people remained on earth, who have not yet managed to reach the heights proposed by prehistoric creators. After the mention of it, the history of the decline of civilization begins, when only ordinary people remained on earth, who have not yet managed to reach the heights proposed by prehistoric creators. After the mention of it, the history of the decline of civilization begins, when only ordinary people remained on earth, who have not yet managed to reach the heights proposed by prehistoric creators.