In 1532, the Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived in Peru. They found there a vast, monstrously wealthy Inca empire, whose gold reserves surpassed the wildest dreams of the Spaniards. But at the same time, there was an internal struggle in the Inca empire, and this made it very vulnerable. Inca gold proved to be a terrible temptation that truly changed the course of history, leading to a long war, during which the Spaniards brutally suppressed the natives. It should be noted that the Inca empire destroyed by the Spaniards left behind no written evidence at all, and thus the entire previous history of most of South America plunged into darkness, only partially illuminated by oral tradition.
How long did the Incas rule over the Andes before the Spanish arrived? The Inca empire is generally believed to have existed from AD 1100 to 1532, but its aggressive expansion appears to have begun after 1438, under the leadership of a famous Inca leader named Pachacuti. It was believed that this Inca made a pilgrimage to a sacred cave in the mountains called Tampu-Tocco, and then returned to the capital of Cuzco and here he took the name Pachacuti - the Earth Shaker, or the One who changes it. From that moment, the Incas turned into oppressors and dictators and built their empire through the merciless enslavement of neighboring tribes.
Why was Tampu-Tocco such an important place in the Inca tradition? According to an ancient legend, the first Inca named Manco Capac was born here in Tampu-Tocco. Once he disappeared - he was allegedly carried away by the sun god. When he returned, he was wearing golden robes, and he announced that he had a divine command to start the first dynasty of kings in Cuzco. Thus, Manco Capac became the first official king of the Incas from the dynasty that reigned in Cuzco in 1100 AD.
However, according to extensive research by the Spanish historian Fernando Montesinos, in fact, the Inca king Manco Capac was named after the former Manco Capac, who laid the foundation for civilization in Cusco thousands of years before the Incas. Montesinos cites local legends that say that 62 kings ruled in Cuzco for about 2,500 years, and 28 kings changed in Tampu-Tocco in 1,000 years. Thus, according to this single chronological record of the prehistory of the Andes region, we go back to 2400 BC. At this time, the first Manco Capac came to Cusco from the sacred lake Titicaca at the behest of the god Vyrakocha, who handed him a golden rod or staff. What was that rod? According to one version of the legend. Manco Capac received the order to build a city in the place where the rod would sink into the ground,and on the other - he had to strike with a rod at the indicated stone.
Some historians believe that the Incas appropriated the ancient legend of Manco Capac to their dynasty, together with the legend of Titicaca, which they adopted after the conquest of Tiahuanaco. From this it follows that Peru at one time witnessed a long and not preserved in history conquest by other cultures that preceded the Incas. With regard to Cusco, this assumption is now supported by archaeological finds. But other scientists insist that Cuzco had astronomical functions, and this allows us to attribute its origin to 2200 BC or earlier.
In the light of the above, it would perhaps be too hasty to ascribe to the Incas the construction of all the imposing megalithic structures in Peru, and yet this has already become a common practice. It is curious that the supporters of this version are not able to explain why the Spaniards, after the conquest of Peru, did not use the skill of the Incas in stone construction to build their own buildings. After all, it is a fact that when earthquakes occurred in Cusco in 1650 and 1950, most of the Spanish houses were destroyed, while the structures supposedly built by the Incas survived. One of these structures is the megalithic wall with an amazing 12-sided stone. This stone is precisely, without any mortar, fitted to the neighboring stones so that it is impossible to insert a needle or razor blade between them. And there are many such examples in Peru. The Spanish chronicles constantly express admiration for the masonry of the megalithic walls, supposedly built by the Incas. Can one imagine that the Spaniards did not try to take advantage of this art of the Incas for their own purposes? That these Incas, master masons, disappeared into thin air, or what? Or did they not exist at all? In short, maybe this art existed even before the Incas?
How were boulders such as the 12-sided stone cut and laid with such precision? In 1996, field experiments were carried out to test whether this could be done using the "strip and lay" method. In this method, a simple wooden tool with a plumb line is used, with the help of which you can outline the configuration of an uncut stone block along the edges of a neighboring stone. Then this block is processed with small stones, used as hammers and chisels, so as to fit the planes of the stones to each other. This experiment gave more or less positive results with small blocks, but when we leave Cusco to the nearest town of Sacsayhuaman, we find stones of a completely different size.
The ruins of Sacsayhuaman are located on a hill overlooking the city of Cusco. The main feature of this place is three parallel zigzag walls. These walls, combined with a natural steep cliff on the other side, formed a fortification that was effectively used by the Incas against the Spaniards. But could the Incas build these powerful fortifications using only stone hammers and their muscular strength? The largest stones are stacked in the lower wall, which is 20 feet (almost 7 m) high. One of these stones is especially large - it weighs approximately 120 tons. These zig-zag walls, stretching for a distance of 1200 feet (400 m), have rightly been called “one of the most amazing megalithic structures of the ancient world” and invariably amaze everyone who sees them. The Spanish historian Garcilaso de la Vega describes his impressions as follows:
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“… 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 … It is impossible to believe that these stones were cut in the quarries, since the Indians had neither iron nor steel tools to extract and trim them."
Let's not talk about the colossal effort that was required to move more than a thousand stones several miles from the nearest quarry, and return to the hypothesis of the "marking and laying" method. In order to dock the surfaces of the stones in this way, it was necessary to suspend in the air a lot of stones weighing 10-12 tons and keep them there until the work on their marking and adjustment of the planes to the stones already laid below was completed. Since we are talking about such dangerous and difficult work, the question arises not about whether the Incas could have done them, but about why they needed it, why not use stones half the size? I already asked this question about Baalbek and was forced to conclude that more advanced construction equipment was used here.
The same more advanced technique, apparently, was used in Sacsayhuaman, on a rocky hill opposite zigzag walls. Here is the so-called Throne of the Incas. On the slope of the hill, it is not known for what purpose, a platform and a series of steps to it are very accurately carved. "Experts" claim that the perfectly precise corners and edges of the Inca Throne were made using small stones that served as precision instruments. However, when you see with your own eyes the precision with which these works were performed, it is simply impossible to believe that they were carried out by such primitive means. It seems that the smooth, polished surface of these steps, as well as many other mysterious niches in the vicinity of Sacsayhuaman, could only be obtained using 20th century techniques.
Let's go now to the Urubamba Valley - the so-called Sacred Valley of the Incas. This valley begins immediately north of Cusco and runs along the Urubamba River to the northwest. There are many attractions along the way, but I will highlight two places - Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu.
Ollantaytambo is located 40 miles northwest of Cusco. As in Sacsayhuaman; there are a number of terraces surrounded by giant megalithic walls. Just like in Sacsayhuaman and Tiahuanaco, here are scattered stones with niches carved into them, the corners and inner edges of which are finished with amazing precision and perfection.
The megalithic walls of Ollantaytambo are one of the great mysteries of Peru. It is interesting that the masonry of one of the lower walls was repaired, and in this place, on top of the old megalithic boulders, low-quality stones were laid. It is clear that only the Incas could have done this renovation. The same is observed in other places, for example in Pisac, and serves as further evidence of the small scale and poor quality of the construction work of the Incas - this is especially striking when compared with the buildings of the pre-Inca period.
Above the walled terraces of Ollantaytambo rises a mysterious building, romantically referred to as the Temple of the Sun. The pediment of this so-called temple is made up of six huge monoliths. The largest stone is over 13 feet (4.3 m) high. These are completely unique stones - with straight side faces and extraordinary ribs. They are in stark contrast to stones in other Peruvian megalithic walls, which usually have multi-plane joints and beveled edges. It was not possible to establish how these stones were so precisely carved - after all, they were carved from red porphyry - a stone no less hard than granite.
How were these six 50 ton stones delivered and placed where they are now? It has been established that they were taken from the Chachikata quarry, located four miles away, on the side of the mountain on the other side of the valley! Having cut these stones in a quarry, it was then necessary to lower them down a steep slope, transport them across the river, and then lift them up another steep mountain and deliver them to the place. This is truly an overwhelming task.
However, in 1996, a group of experts boldly headed to Ollantaytambo to prove what can be achieved using only human strength and traditional materials. First of all, they intended to show how with the help of ropes it is possible to lower a relatively small stone weighing one ton (about one-fifty of the weight of a real stone) from the mountain. The stone tore off and fell - fortunately, no one was killed. The second task was to transport a stone of approximately the same size across the river in a shallow place. Here, people achieved unexpected success - the stone quickly slipped along the rocky bottom of the river. In the same way, they managed to drag the stone surprisingly quickly across the site paved with cobblestones. At this, the experiment was terminated, and the experts said that they supposedly managed to showlike a stone can be dragged up the side of the mountain. Really, friends, it really was great, but, by God, I can't imagine how a 50-ton block can overcome gravity and fly up to a 50-degree slope of a mountain with lightning speed - even along a paved road and even when dragging it a thousand movers!
Proponents of such push-pull methods point out that even the remains of the embankment leading up the hill have survived and that many stones (the so-called “tired stones that have not reached the top”) lie at its foot. Unfortunately, this proof concerns only those stones that never climbed up the embankment, but tells us nothing about those stones that we see at the top of the hill. It is possible that the megalithic structures of Ollantaytambo already existed by the time of the Incas and that this mound and "tired stones" are just evidence of the Inca's attempts to reproduce what they saw. They probably did not succeed in this attempt, as did the attempt of a team of experimenters in 1996. In support of this hypothesis, Garcilaso de la Vega says that one of the Inca kings, wishing to strengthen his reputation,gathered 20 thousand people and ordered them to lift one of the "tired stones" up the mountain. The case ended in tragedy - a huge stone fell off, thousands of people were killed.
But the biggest mystery of the Ollantaytambo temple is its apparent lack of purpose. It does not form part of any building, as the area surrounded by walls is a solid rock. It is possible that it was supposed to build on this structure, since there are clear signs that construction has been suspended. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of the builders remains unclear, since the hill on which the stones lie is too narrow to be used for defense purposes. This so-called temple reminds me of the John F. Kennedy memorial in Dallas - already in that both of these structures have no specific purpose. So, maybe this is the key - maybe this structure was conceived as a memorial? It should be noted that on the fourth stone on the left there is an image of four faces of a stepped pyramid,which was often associated with the afterlife. The image of the pyramid is very common in the sacred city of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. Thus, my hypothesis about the memorial is in no way inferior to all others.
The city of Machu Picchu, 25 miles northwest of Ollantaytambo, in the Andean tradition rivals the city of Cusco itself. This ancient city sits on top of a narrow hill between two majestic peaks - the lower Machu Picchu mountain and higher - Huaynana Picchu. Situated 1,500 feet (500 m) above the valley level, the city of Machu Picchu was well sheltered and thus did not attract the attention of the Spanish conquistadors. It was "discovered" only in 1911 by researcher Hiram Bingham.
Machu Picchu is considered a lost city with no official history. It is generally believed that the city was built by the Incas in the second half of the 15th century. But one of the main attractions of the city - the Temple of Three Windows - is a unique structure; a number of researchers, including Hiram Bingham, have recognized that this is the legendary city of Tampu-Tocco - Rest at the Windows, also known as the Shelter of the Three Windows. If so, then here in Machu Picchu even before the Incas - from 100 to 1100 AD, there was a residence of 28 kings. This explains the large number of buildings in the city and the variety of styles. On the contrary, according to official history, it was all built in less than a hundred years (which looks very unlikely).
It has already been said above that the stone construction of the late Inca era cannot be compared with the megalithic structures of an earlier period, and Machu Picchu provides another clear proof of this. Among the many buildings built later, several majestic ancient structures stand out. Of course, one of the most beautiful among them is the Temple of the Three Windows. It stands on a hill and is oriented exactly to the east. Next to it is a mysterious triangular structure called the Main Temple, with many niches and ledges. This temple is built mainly of very large stone blocks - one of these stones in the adjoining wall has at least 32 corners.
Behind the Main Temple, steep steps descend to a natural observation deck - here a triangular platform has been carved into the rocky soil. On it stands an elaborately hewn stone called Intihuatana. On the other side of the Main Temple, at the same distance, there is Torreon (Temple of the Sun) - a tower with two windows and a door.
What was the purpose of these strange structures in Machu Picchu, with their unusual windows and niches? Why were they built in such a remote and inaccessible place? Everyone agrees that Machu Picchu was not a defensive or fortification structure - there is no evidence for this. Some scholars argue that Machu Picchu was used as an astronomical observatory, pointing to otherwise completely inexplicable windows, niches and pedestals as evidence. However, they still have not been able to explain why astronomers needed to create such difficulties for themselves and climb into such a wilderness.
The more widespread hypothesis is that Machu Picchu, like Cusco, were sacred sites and that religious and ritual ceremonies took place there. Anthropologist Johann Reinhard ardently defends this hypothesis, arguing that Machu Picchu “… is located in the very center of the sacred mountains and next to the sacred river, which, in turn, is associated with the movement of the sun. Thus, Machu Picchu is the cosmological, hydrological, religious and geographical center of the entire region in which it is located."
Such a religious interpretation obviously links Machu Picchu and Cusco with other places - Baalbek, Tiahuanaco and Chavin de Huantar. Pilgrims flocked to all these places, and in all of them extraordinary traces of the existence of high technology in prehistoric times are found. Perhaps it was this common factor that determined the sacred character of all these places?
From the book: Gods of the New Millennium. Alford Alan