Bolivia, and especially Peru, has ancient monuments that traditional archeology, although it tries, simply cannot adequately explain. One of these impressive and mysterious monuments is the Fuerte de Samaipata complex, located on the edge of the high Amazon jungle, near the city of Santa Cruz.
The site was initially thought to have been occupied by various ethnic groups as early as 2000 BC. BC, and only in 1470 AD. e. the Incas appeared there. And when the Spanish came and plundered the area in the 1600s, there was nothing left. The low walls in the foreground (pictured above) were probably built by the Incas, but who sculpted the massive red sandstone in the back? And with what tools?
The Spanish conquistadors, in a clearly belligerent mood, assumed that this place was used for defense, hence its Spanish name "Fort". In 1832, the French naturalist Alcides D'Orbigny announced that the basins and parallel canals were used to flush gold.
In 1936, German anthropologist Leo Pucher described it as an ancient temple of the serpent and jaguar; his theory of sun and moon worship is currently most acceptable.
In the past few decades, thanks to numerous supporters of the theory of alien astronauts, the complex has come to be regarded as a likely landing site for ancient spaceships.
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The main site, which almost certainly has religious significance, is a 100 m long stone slab with various sculptural features: seats, tables, conference circle, gutters, reservoirs, pipelines, and hornezins (niches) where idols are believed to have been.
The most interesting and mysterious place in the complex is called El Cascabel - this is a circle and two straight parallel lines, exactly carved into the stone.
Some speculate that they were used as a launch pad for extraterrestrial vehicles. However, this suggests that the aliens had technology similar to a very bad sci-fi movie from the 1950s … I like the gold-flushed version in these grooves better.