A unique artifact of the pre-Inca civilization is the Gate of the Sun, located in modern Bolivia. When the Incas found them, they were already very ancient. Until now, scientists cannot say for sure - who and when built them. And also - where did the primitive Indian tribes get high technologies that made it possible to create this monument?
The age of the Gateway of the Sun in South America is not exactly known. Some scientists call the figure 12 thousand years old, others say that the Gate was built only in the 3rd century of this era. It is also unknown who built this grandiose structure. Some researchers believe that these were the ancestors of the modern Aymara Indians. There are those who are sure - the builders came from the Uru Chipaya tribe or from the Takana people.
Dead city, eternal city
To see this mysterious object today, you need to go to Bolivia and climb the Altiplano mountain plateau, at an altitude of almost four thousand meters above sea level. There, on a bare rocky plain, sandwiched between the snow-capped ranges of the Andes, are the ruins of the ancient city of Tiahuanaco. In the language of the Incas, this means "Dead City".
Of course, in those days when this city, with an area of more than four square kilometers, was inhabited, residents called it differently. How? According to one of the legends, he bore the name Vignaimark, that is, "The Eternal City" The same legend says that it was here that the god Viracocha created the Sun, Moon and other heavenly bodies.
The Incas found Tiahuanaco after 1290 thanks to Maya Kapak, the fourth ruler of the empire. He decided to expand his possessions and went to conquer the neighboring lands. By this time, the city had long been deserted. However, the abandoned houses, squares, statues and sanctuaries caused such amazement among the Incas that they decided that only gods could build such grandiose structures.
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One of the first detailed descriptions of the Dead City was compiled by the Peruvian historian of the 16th century Inca Garcilaso de la Vega: “… among other structures that are in that place and admire, one was a mountain or a hill made by hand … In another part of the village, remote from that hills, there were two figures of giants carved from stone in robes long to the ground and with their own ornaments on their heads, all already badly destroyed by time, which indicated their great antiquity.
A huge wall of such huge stones is also visible that the mere thought of what human forces were able to deliver them to where they were was aroused the greatest admiration, since - and this is true - there are no rocks or quarries around at a great distance from where it was possible would remove those stones.
In another part, other magnificent structures are visible, but most of all are several huge portals of stone placed in different places, many of which are monoliths of only one stone, processed from all four sides, but the miracle of these portals increases even more, for many of them set on stones, some, when measured, were thirty feet long, fifteen wide, and six high. And these such huge stones and portals were made from one piece; it is impossible to comprehend and understand with what tool or implements these works could have been performed."
The man-made hill is Akapana, which is a stepped pyramid of 15 meters in height. From it to the present day there is only a hill with a paved two-hundred-meter platform, to which steps once led. At the top there was a vast pool and several buildings. The hill was surrounded by powerful defensive walls and divided into three terraces.
The figures of the giants, about which Inca Garcilaso writes, are the largest stone statues of pre-Columbian America - Bennett's Monolith and Ponce Sanjines Monolith, named after the scientists who discovered them. The first is 7.5 meters high and is covered with complex relief images. Most researchers believe that this monolith depicts a female goddess.
On her almost rectangular head there is something like a crown, and tears seem to flow from her eyes. The arms are folded over the chest. The statue was once the main idol of a semi-underground temple explored by the American archaeologist Bennett in the 30s of the XX century.
Calendar from Venus
But the portals mentioned by the Peruvian historian are the very same Gate of the Sun, or Inti Punku. They are hewn out of a 10-ton andesite block measuring 3 by 3.75 meters. The upper part of the Gate is decorated with a rich relief, in the center of which is the figure of a man with an incredibly large head surrounded by a halo. The halo is formed by twenty-four rays, each of which ends with the head of a jaguar or cougar. Tears flow from a person's eyes. In his hands is a large rod with condor heads at the top. The retinue of 48 half-human-half-birds, pictured below, hold exactly the same wands in their hands.
Who is depicted at the Gate of the Sun? Disputes about this do not subside until now. Most scholars agree that this is the god of Kon-Tiki Viracocha. He is the main deity and creator of the world among most of the Indian peoples, including the Incas. The same god is depicted on fabrics dating back to the pre-Incan era, and on many pottery vessels found in various regions of the Andes.
However, the character on the bas-relief is not the only riddle of the Gate. How could unknown ancient builders even create such a grandiose structure? It was almost impossible to create delicate carvings around the deity with the primitive tools that were at the disposal of the Indians. What kind of technologies were used here? This gave rise to theories that the Gate of the Sun is nothing more than a place of transition from our world to another. Or into another dimension. Accordingly, technologies were used unknown in our reality.
A more realistic theory about the purpose of the Gate was put forward by the most famous researcher of the Dead City, engineer Arthur Poznansky. He believed that the bas-relief depicts a calendar. Quite strange, though! There are not 365, but 290 days in a year, 24 days in a month, 30 hours in a day. Moreover, they do not correspond to the usual ordinary hours for us. In addition, a number of signs that have been interpreted as symbols of a solar eclipse show that these eclipses occurred with an incredible frequency - 19 times every month …
One could simply decide that the theory is wrong and the symbols on the Gate have nothing to do with astronomical calculations. If they did not coincide with … the Venusian calendar. Which, naturally, led to the emergence of speculations that the inhabitants of Tiahuanaco had contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations.
Savages against aliens?
Nevertheless, the main mystery of the Gate of the Sun and all of Tiahuanaco is why this strange place was abandoned. What happened to the Tiahuanaco civilization? Archaeologists have established that it disappeared around the 12th century. It seems that the city was abandoned suddenly. For example, the decoration of the Gate of the Sun was not even finished.
It is believed that the likely cause of the fall of Tiahuanaco was a colossal earthquake. The waters of the nearby Lake Tiahuanaco overflowed and flooded the city. At the same time, the lava of the raging volcanoes fell on him. The death of the capital caused fratricidal wars that completed the collapse of the country. Having existed for more than two and a half thousand years, the culture of Tiahuanaco died out, giving way to the growing Inca state.
This version is not the only one. Another says that the Tiahuanako civilization died during the invasion of the barbarians. But who were these barbarians? Perhaps more backward tribes who lived high in the mountains. They hunted wild animals, were engaged in gathering and primitive agriculture. Excavations by Peruvian and French archaeologists in the central regions of Peru, carried out in the 70s - early 80s of the XX century, prove that these cattle-breeding tribes appeared in the Andes already in ancient times, possibly in the IV-V millennia BC.
During the Tiahuanaco era, as a result of minor climate changes, the area of mountain pastures first increased and then sharply decreased. In a favorable period, the highlanders increased the number of their herds, but then they faced the threat of mass deaths of livestock and starvation. Therefore, they left the high-altitude pastures and descended into the valleys. The highlanders fell on the cities lying in the valleys and wiped out the main cultural center - Tiahuanaco. And after a while they themselves fell under the onslaught of the Inca empire.
Marina VIKTOROVA