Sacsayhuaman is a megalithic temple complex located at an altitude of 3,701 m above sea level on the northern outskirts of the city of Cuzco (Peru). Perhaps this is one of the most incredible in its beauty and energy monuments of architecture, which modern people inherited from the civilization that preceded the Incas.
The design features of Sacsayhuaman are simply breathtaking: stones cut in an incomprehensible way and fitted to each other with amazing precision, a combination of sharp edges and smooth wall surfaces.
Modern archaeologists believe that the oldest parts of this city were built by a sprat (civilization of the pre-Inca period) a thousand years ago, however, the Inca tribes tell ancient legends that the city was built in ancient times - it was created by the gods who descended from heaven.
Here you can see amazing photos of the ancient megalithic structures that make up the complex. The masonry of Sacsayhuaman is huge walls, consisting of stones weighing more than 50 tons, fitted to each other, like parts of a large "tetris", so tightly that it seems as if they are fused together. It is impossible to push even a sheet of the thinnest paper between them. As if an unknown giant bent them and blinded them like plasticine.
In many places in Sacsayhuaman there are so-called "thrones" or "chairs". As the guides explain, these are ancient altars, but this interpretation does not look very convincing. Perhaps carved from a very hard material (with such impressive ease as if the rock were a lump of butter) flat surfaces were something else.
It is hard to believe that all of this was done thousands of years ago, as even modern processing tools cannot always cope with such a task. What can we say about ancient peoples, with whom such cyclopean installations are not associated in any way.
Often, the walls are made up of stones of different geometric shapes and sizes (some of them have 12 or more faces), assembled very aesthetically, like an ideal constructor - with smooth surfaces, precision and smooth transitions. The same rounded corners can be seen elsewhere on the planet. In the same Egypt, for example.
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Archaeologists and specialists in the field of architecture and construction are racking their brains: how did ancient stonecutters achieve such precision in processing? This is the first thing. And secondly, how did they manage to drag the heavy boulders and put them in place? What tools and devices? Is there really a factor of alien intervention, and the Inca legends tell the truth about the gods who descended from heaven? But how many such gods were there if they built up the entire Earth with similar structures?
This issue needs to be carefully dealt with. We have to consider different theories. Alien is the most fantastic of them. There is another, more "down to earth". According to this theory, the megalithic complexes of earthlings were built with the help of now lost technology. In the distant past, the civilizations of South America, Eurasia, Africa and other parts of the world had at their disposal an ancient method that made it possible to cut, transport and install multi-ton stone blocks in the manner prescribed by the builders. Modern technology cannot move some of these megaliths, let alone position them.
Puma Punku, Ollantaytambo, Stonehenge, pyramids - this is not a complete list. There are hundreds of such structures. Sacsayhuaman is just one of them. According to a number of researchers such as Jan Peter de Jong, Christopher Jordan and Jesus Gamarra, the ancient civilizations of Peru and Bolivia had a secret technology that allowed them to soften stones.
As proof, they cite the smooth granite walls of Cusco, similar to giant glassy structures, which is possible only when exposed to ultra-high temperatures - at least 1100 degrees Celsius. Based on this, scientists concluded: “Ancient man possessed an advanced technology that allowed him to melt stones, which were then placed in the right position - among pre-laid rigid polygonal blocks - and cooled down.
All of this constitutes an extraordinary enigma that challenges today's rational understanding. The end product is perfectly formed stones that remain firmly fixed among other stones in a near-perfect manner, giving the impression that the megaliths have been melted in the right position. Firmly fixed, the stones are placed in such a position that even a sheet of paper cannot be inserted between them. And all this was achieved thousands of years ago."
Yong and Jordan are sure that they knew how to smelt stone not only in ancient Peru and Bolivia; they believe that evidence for such technology can be found around the globe. This method could explain how the Incas, Maya, Aztecs, Olmecs, as well as the civilizations that inhabited Central and South America in ancient times, built their structures. In many complexes, strange marks can be found - as if the stone was being processed when it was in a "soft" state. But how did the monoliths soften?
British surveyor and traveler Lt. Col. Percy Fawcett told a truly incredible story about this.
In the forests on the slopes of the mountains of Bolivia and Peru, there is a small bird that looks like a kingfisher. She makes her nests above the river - in neat round holes on the surface of the rocky slopes. These holes can be seen by anyone, but they are not easy to reach. As a rule, future "nests" are found only where these birds live.
Once the colonel expressed surprise: how lucky the birds were to find such convenient holes - neat, as if they had been hollowed out with a drill. It turned out that the birds themselves make these holes. They fly to the cliff, holding the leaves of some plant in their beak, and then, clinging to the rock, like woodpeckers to a tree, begin to rub its surface in circular movements until the leaf is crumbled. Then they fly away again and return with leaves, continuing the rubbing process.
After three to four times, the bird no longer brings fresh leaves. She begins to gouge the stone with a sharp beak and - lo and behold! - the rock begins to crumble, like wet clay; a round hole is formed in it, deep enough for the bird to make a nest.
There was one more case. Together with other Europeans and Americans, he went to a mountain camp located in Cerro di Pasco (central Peru). At the excavation site, they managed to find an earthen vessel with an incomprehensible liquid, securely sealed with wax. The bottle was opened, thinking it contained an alcoholic drink called chicha, popular with the local population.
The thick, viscous liquid in the vessel smelled unpleasant, and the company decided that one of the local Indians should try it first. However, the tasting did not take place, because the expert resisted for a long time and desperately. As a result, the bottle shattered, and after ten minutes, the rock beneath this place became soft like wet cement. The stone turned into a paste and became like wax, from which you could sculpt anything.
Soon Fawcett was lucky enough to see the plant itself, the juice of which gave such a fantastic effect - about 30 cm tall, with dark reddish leaves.
As an example, I will give one more opinion. An attempt to reproduce the construction of Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo was undertaken by the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Protzen of the University of California. For several months he experimented with various methods of shaping and fitting the same rock formations that the Incas or their predecessors had once used. Protzen considered the time of the creation of stone structures in Cusco in 1438, when the Ninth Inca Pachacuti came to power, allegedly ordering the construction of the capital of his nascent empire. He found that the amazing structures were made with very simple means:
“The stones were taken from landslides or simply broken off - from rocky ledges, in wedges. If it was necessary to split large blocks, large stone bumpers were used. For further processing of the stones, smaller half-kilogram hammers were used - until the stone acquired the required shape.
Fitting one stone to another was done by trial and error, by grinding the already laid stones. Experiments show that by these methods the stone can be mined, chipped, hewn and fitted without much effort and in a short time."
But does this theory explain the accuracy within fractions of a millimeter, the combination of technique and aesthetics, the geometry of the joints, often curved?.. Protzen was amazed at the "degrees of freedom that allow the blocks to move around and within the position." This problem led him to a number of questions regarding the loading and transportation of stones, which he could not answer. Protzen also noted that the carved marks found on some of the stones are strikingly reminiscent of the unfinished obelisk at Aswan, Egypt. Thus, the construction of megalithic structures still remains an unsolved mystery.
Author: Elena Muravyova