For someone, this is another pile of stone, and someone may learn something new for themselves, or, on the contrary, ask additional questions about the history of our planet.
In the XII century, the Inca civilization reaches great greatness on the territory of modern Peru. Actually, "Inca" was called the ruler of the existing empire, descended from the sun god. Inca culture reflects the important influence of the sun. And, not surprisingly, the main city of the Cusco empire, according to stories, was built of gold, symbolizing the sun. And the Sacsayhuaman fortress humbly towered over the city.
At the top of the mountain (3500 m above sea level), there is a monumental complex of structures Sacsayhuaman - (Quechua Saksaywaman, Sacsayhuaman Spanish - "Gray-stone bird of prey", or "Fed hawk", or "Proud falcon") - the military and religious center of the Inca empire … According to legend, it was erected by the first Inca Manco Capac (according to another version, it was built by two Incas - Tupac Yupanqui and Huayna Capac). There is also an assumption that it was built in 900-1200 AD. pre-Inca culture Kilke.
The entire complex consists of 33 archaeological sites. The most important temple of Cuzco (dedicated to the Andean cosmology) could be located here and serve as a place of worship for Inti (Sun), Quilla (Moon), Chaska (stars), Illapa (light) and other deities.
The most famous of the sites is the Sacsayhuaman Fortress.
According to the historical information that has come down to us in the Spanish chronicles, the construction of Sacsayhuaman was begun by the great Inca emperor, conqueror Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438-1471), but it continued under his successors until the outbreak of civil wars in the Inca empire in 1528. In popular literature, Sacsayhuaman is most often referred to as a fortress or citadel. Indeed, its Cyclopean walls evoke a sense of indestructible power. However, Sacsayhuaman was not a fortress as such. From Spanish sources, only one case is known when the hill was attacked.
The colossal fortress is built of huge stone blocks, fitted to each other with practically no gaps, and so skillfully that for many centuries they have stood unshakably without the slightest maintenance and repair. The Incas built this complex to defend against enemies. Here you can see three parallel powerful stone walls of a zigzag shape (there is a hypothesis that Sacsayhuaman was dedicated to the god of lightning). They were built of stone blocks, the largest of which is 8.5 m high and weighs about 200 tons. The longest wall is 400m and 6m high.
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The Spanish conquistadors, having seized Cuzco in 1534, installed Manco Inca Yupanqui, the son of the last Great Inca, Huayne Kapac, on the Inca throne. However, already in 1536 Manco Inca raised an uprising against the Spanish conquerors. In May of this year, a huge Indian army (according to the chroniclers, numbering from 100 to 200 thousand people) laid siege to Cuzco. The Indians captured the Sacsayhuaman hill and from its top began to fire shells at the very city in which the Spaniards settled. To avoid a crushing defeat, the conquistadors launched a counterattack on the hill and captured it on the second day. This was done during a night sortie, when the Spaniards used wooden assault ladders. And this is not surprising, since for soldiers who had experience in storming European castles, overcoming 5-6 meter walls was not an overly difficult task.
That is, this episode of the only case of hostilities in Sacsayhuaman clearly shows that from a military point of view, this grandiose structure was not actually a fortress. Moreover, some Spanish chroniclers pointed out that Sacsayhuaman was, first of all, a grandiose temple complex, the Real House of the Sun (as some chroniclers called it), which only the Incas had the right to enter. It is now impossible to imagine the architecture of the Inca Sacsayhuaman. The chroniclers did not leave enough detailed descriptions, and after the suppression of the uprising in 1536, the Spaniards began to actively dismantle the buildings of this complex. Sacsayhuaman's finely worked stone blocks were used to build cathedrals and residential buildings in the central part of colonial Cuzco.
Over the centuries, the religious tradition has turned into a theatrical show. Sacsayhuaman now celebrates the Inti Raimi (Festival of the Sun), an annual festival of the winter solstice, which attracts thousands of tourists every year on June 24.
However, the purpose of the Sacsayhuaman megalithic wall is not the only mystery left by the ancient architects. No less mysterious is the question of the very technique of such construction. In modern science, thanks to the efforts of American researchers, only half a century ago, the point of view was established that all known masonry techniques on Inca sites belonged to the Incas proper. Although before that, many researchers believed that the cyclopean stone structures were erected by a developed ancient culture that existed here long before the arrival of the Incas.
Indeed, according to today's views, the Incas came to the Cusco Valley and founded their capital here around 1200 AD. But even before their arrival, this fertile area was densely populated. Archaeological research, including on the territory of Sacsayhuaman, has confirmed this point of view. The artifacts found here testify to the existence of earlier cultures here, centuries before the arrival of the Incas. Moreover, the Inca empire, which seized its power over most of the west of South America, existed for less than a hundred years. Before the accession to the throne of the ninth Inca Pachacuti Yupanqui (1438 - 1471), the state of Cuzco was only one of many and by no means the largest formation in the Andes. Until that time, the Incas had to wage constant wars for survival with their closest neighbors.
By the way, the Incas did not know any fastening solutions, no wheels, no levers, and during construction they used only an inclined plane. The Spaniards, when they ravaged the fortress, also used this simple method, throwing stones down, where they were processed and built into buildings. Therefore, the current appearance of the walls does not correspond to its original appearance.
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega wrote:
“In the part where the mountain has a large gentle slope and where the enemies could enter the fortress, they built three walls, one after the other, along the slope, as the mountain rises … The first wall demonstrated the power of the Inca power, and although the other two walls are no less than the first, but the first is striking in the size of the boulders of which it consists; anyone who has not seen it himself will not believe that something can be built from such stones; they inspire terror to the one who examines them carefully."
The center of the building is the "throne of the Inca", it is surrounded by 21 bastions with powerful towers, each of which was able to shelter up to a thousand soldiers. The fortress had three main towers, one of which, the round Muyuk-mark, belonged to the Inka and his court. The other two housed the soldiers. There was also an underground passage connecting the fortress with certain areas of Cusco. Every year, excavations in Sacsayhuaman bring more and more new finds, many of which only add mysteries to the history of this structure. Scientists believe that there was also an astronomical observatory and a house of reconciliation for the Incas.
The territory is large enough, but I did not go around it all due to the fact that it was difficult to move quickly, and there was no time for a slow one. We were brought to this complex on the first day of our stay in Cusco and we were just starting to get used to the altitude. And in general, bypassing such a huge territory in a short time is unrealistic. But the overall impression was quite calm, perhaps because we had not yet been to Machu Picchu and left our "10 points of impressions" on it. In addition, we have already visited the main museum of Cusco - the Temple of the Sun and saw large stone slabs, surprisingly well processed, precisely cut and fitted to each other. And here there was no such filigree precision as in Coricancha. But the huge stone blocks from which the walls of the fortress are built are impressive enough.
As we have already said, in the general plan of the city resembling Puma, Sacsayhuaman was located in the place of the teeth. The Incas nicknamed her "The Head of the Cougar." The construction began in the 15th century and was completed under the eleventh Inca, Huayne Kapaka (1493-1525), taking about 50 years in total. The labor of the Incas is compared to the construction of the ancient pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China. Researchers estimate that the construction involved about 70,000 people.
With so many workers, construction was done entirely by hand. The Inca civilization did not use wheels, so all the work fell on human shoulders. And the work was really hard, as during the construction huge stone blocks were used, reaching 350 tons. Delivery was carried out exclusively by dragging from local quarries. But it's one thing to deliver, another thing to establish. The stones of the Saxahuaman wall are tightly pressed together, there are even legends that the Incas could melt the stone.
In total, there are three parallel lines of walls, each about 360 meters long. Within the walls there are defensive bastions and gates, which were heaped with stones during the attack. There are also three towers that also serve as barracks for the defending inhabitants of Cuzco.
With the arrival of the Spaniards, the towers were destroyed. Research carried out in our time has shown that a complex system of labyrinths was located under the towers, connecting them with the secret refuge of the ruling family, where it could hide in case of danger. Intricate and labyrinthine passages also led to the palaces of Coricanche and Hurin Cuzco.
Next to the walls of Sacsayhuaman there is also the famous "Throne of the Inca" - seats carved into the rock. According to the stories, the Inca himself met the sunrise here, and on separate celebrations, the mummies of the past rulers of the empire were brought here.
Now, on the territory of the Sacsayhuaman fortress complex, the Sun Festival is held annually on June 24, attracting thousands of inhabitants of our planet.
There is a version that Sacsayhuaman is such an ancient structure that even the Incas did not have information about the real creators of the zigzag walls. In the chronicles of Garcilaso de La Vega, the authors of the construction of Sacsayhuaman are not named at all - he only retells local legends in his own words: “… these three walls were erected as if by magic, created by demons, not people - there are so many stones in them, and so they are huge … to believe that these stones were carved in the quarries, since the Indians had neither iron nor steel tools to extract and hew them."
Sacsayhuaman occupies more than three thousand hectares and includes a variety of structures, some of these structures were really created by the Incas, something - an older and more highly developed civilization.
The zigzag walls were built of huge blocks that were delivered across rugged mountainous terrain from quarries located at a distance of several tens of kilometers, and the delivery of large blocks was not single, but massive. The weight of the boulders of the lower tier is several hundred tons, the weight of the largest block, which reaches more than 8 meters in height, is estimated at about 3500 tons. Huge blocks of andesite, a very hard and difficult material to work, form a polygonal masonry with stones fitting to each other without any mortar.
Behind three tiers of powerful walls, there is a small hill on which there are ruins from several structures that can be attributed to the Inca period. The remains of these structures were discovered during archaeological excavations in the early 1930s, when the foundations of the towers described by Garcilaso de La Vega were found. Three concentric rings remain of the main tower, which historians believe were the base of its three tiers or levels. The walls of the tower were decorated with life-size images of plants and animals made of gold and silver. The original height of the tower and its purpose are unknown. According to one version, it was a water tower, according to another - a "sundial". Excavations at the top of the hill are still ongoing.
Most of all, in Sacsayhuaman, the masonry of zigzag walls is striking, especially in the lower tier, which is composed of the largest blocks. Apparently for the creators of these walls, the movement of monoliths weighing hundreds of tons and the processing of solid andesite were absolutely no problem. It is difficult to imagine with the help of what technologies and with what tool the blocks of solid andesite were processed in such a way that the ideal conjugation of the joints was achieved. Some block surfaces are even polished.
Stone processing technologies in Sacsayhuaman are similar to the traces left on the walls of granite quarries in the Egyptian Aswan. Apparently, the ancient highly technologically advanced civilization that erected Egyptian monuments of antiquity possessed the same technologies as the builders of the zigzag walls of Sacsayhuaman. Perhaps it was the same civilization, both in Egypt and in South America?
Erich von Daniken writes in his book “Messages and Signs from Space”: “Our fantasy, exhausted by the technical achievements of our time, finally falls into a stupor when we find ourselves in front of a block of about 20 thousand tons. On the way back, at a distance of several hundred meters from the fortifications of Sacsayhuaman, in a crater on the side of a mountain there is a monster: a single block of stone the size of a five-story building. It is immaculately crafted in the best traditions of artisans - it has steps and platforms, it is decorated with spirals and holes. Is it possible to refute the assertion that the processing of this unprecedented block of stone could not have been an occupation of the Incas at their leisure, but had to serve some - today still inexplicable - purpose? So that the solution of the riddle is not too easy for us, a huge block also stands on the head, that is, the steps lead from the ceiling from top to bottom;the holes point in different directions, like the places where shells hit; strange indentations, shaped like chairs, float in space. Who can imagine that this lump was hewn, transported and processed by human hands and human strength? What force overturned her? What titanic forces were at work here? And for what?"
“… It is impossible to understand how the Indians, unfamiliar with devices, engines, and tools, could cut, decorate, lift and lay large stones, rather mounds of boulders than a building of stones, and install them so precisely in their places. For this reason, and because the Indians were well acquainted with demons, the works are attributed to magic …”- Garcilaso de La Vega.
In the masonry of the lower tier of the walls of Sacsayhuaman, in the places corresponding to the "points of the teeth", the largest stones were placed. For some reason, the builders reinforced the "teeth" with huge monoliths in the central part of the wall. What for? One of the versions of alternative historians: this shape of the walls is convenient in order to reduce the impact on it, for example, of a shock wave, since a shock wave that falls on the sides of the "teeth" not "in the forehead", but at an angle, significantly reduces its impact on masonry.
What exactly the walls of Sacsayhuaman protected - some kind of observation post on the top of the hill or the city itself, is not so important. It is important that they took over the main shock wave generated by the explosion and significantly reduced its impact.
It remains a mystery - what could have generated the shock wave, and where did it come from? Researchers have proposed a version that this could be a shock wave that occurred when missiles or some other aircraft were launched, taking off from the open space opposite the walls of Sacsayhuaman, where modern Indians still hold their "cult" events.
Opposite the walls of Saixayhuaman, behind a flat empty space, is the so-called "large pool", which the Incas allegedly created for ritual purposes. According to fans of extraterrestrial civilizations, the "ritual pool" looks more like a crater from a powerful explosion that lasted over time, and the crater, which is located just opposite the central part of the zigzag walls of Sacsayhuaman.
Today it is difficult to imagine how the ancient Peruvians, using the simplest tools, were able to erect such grandiose structures from monolithic blocks weighing tens of tons. The whole range of works involved cutting blocks in quarries, delivering them over long distances, processing and, ultimately, laying. Sacsayhuaman is the most grandiose, but far from the only monument with such cyclopean buildings. Other monuments with huge megalithic structures - Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo and others - have been preserved in the so-called "royal valley", in which Cuzco is located. Some of them are located on high peaks, which are difficult to climb. And even today it is practically impossible to drag blocks weighing tens of tons along steep slopes.
One of the most famous Spanish chroniclers, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, in his History of the Inca State, describes the following incident. One of the Inca rulers decided to deliver one of the "tired stones" to the next construction site. This is how the Incas themselves called the multi-ton processed monoliths that were not in the buildings, but lay on the approaches to them. Today, such blocks can be seen at the foot of the Ollantaytambo slopes. For such an operation, the ruler equipped 20,000 Indians who dragged this stone on ropes. In one place above a cliff, a stone fell and crushed more than 3,000 people. Of course, one should not pay special attention to the specific number of participants in the operation, the ancient chroniclers often overestimated such quantitative indicators.
The fundamental question is different: according to this testimony, the Incas not only were not able to erect such cyclopean structures, they were not even able to transport such blocks. Moreover, in this episode it is clearly indicated that during the time of the Incas these buildings were already largely destroyed. But who and when managed to build such monuments? Modern science does not know earlier than the Incas and more advanced civilizations in this territory. A number of researchers, usually not associated with academic science, believe that it was made by some ancient "megalithic civilization". And the Incas, who came to the area last, only appropriated the heritage of the ancients, taking advantage of their unique building experience.
This assumption is also supported by other archaeological facts related, first of all, to the technology of processing stone rocks in antiquity. At the foot of the Cyclopean Walls of Sacsayhuaman is a vast area. In ancient times, it was all built up with numerous temple and residential buildings, later dismantled by the Spaniards. On the opposite side from the walls, the area is bounded by a rocky hill called Suchuno Hill. It is a domed outcrop of diorite (igneous rock) whose surface is shaped like a scallop shell found on any sea beach. And in this solid rock, numerous steps and niches are carved on different slopes of the hill. Moreover, the quality of the work performed is so high that it is impossible to imagine that it was done with stone or bronze tools. Likewise, there are no reasonable hypotheses regarding the purpose of such architectural details. For example, the so-called "throne of the Incas" - two rows of steps on the eastern slope of Suchuno, which has smoothly polished edges, intersecting strictly at right angles and almost not affected over the centuries (or even millennia) of its existence. And it should be emphasized that the hardness of diorite exceeds basalt and is extremely laborious to process.that the hardness of diorite exceeds basalt and is extremely laborious in processing.that the hardness of diorite exceeds basalt and is extremely laborious in processing.
During one of our visits to Sacsayhuaman, on the same eastern slope, we found strange traces of cuts in the diorite rock itself. Along the edge of the crevice, formed as a result of the chipping of a huge piece of rock, we saw the traces of cuts left by an unknown tool. The rock is incised to a depth of 1-2 centimeters, the incision is several meters long. For a modern person, such a cut is unambiguously associated with the traces of a circular (!) Saw. But it cannot be assumed that such tools were used by the ancient Peruvian builders. As well as admitting that these are "jokes" of modern restorers. Judging by the traces, the diameter of such a saw should have been at least one and a half meters!
In 2003, Spanish archaeologist Anselm Pi Ramba discovered an underground tunnel that connected Sacsayhuaman to the center of Cusco. The tunnel was laid at a depth of about one hundred meters from the surface and has a length of about 2 km. Garcilaso de la Vega wrote about a whole underground city under the Inca capital, which consisted of a whole maze of galleries, underground temples and vaults. When dismantling the buildings of the Sacsayhuamana complex, the Spaniards also dismantled the walls of underground tunnels lined with stone blocks, which they could reach. Back in the middle of the last century, there were cases of finds of various entrances to this underground city. Several enthusiasts who dared to get inside were missing. After that, all known entrances were walled up by order of the authorities. Most of the explorers went underground in search of the mythical treasures of the Incas, some of which,according to rumors dating back to the conquest era, it was hidden in the underground tunnels of Cuzco.
And this is not all the mysteries left to us by the mysterious architects of ancient Peru.