Mysterious Tihuanaco may be the world’s oldest city and is one of the mysteries of the Andes of Peru, considered to be wrapped in an enigma. Lying at a height of some 13,000 feet, it sets on a plateau that looks like the surface of a foreign planet. The atmospheric pressure is nearly half as low as at sea level and the oxygen content of the air is similarly small. This isolation and altitude makes the very construction of the city all the more remarkable.
There is evidence that the city was once a port, having extensive docks positioned right on the earlier shoreline of the now inland waterbed that was once at sea level. One of these wharves is big enough to accommodate hundreds of ships. The closest body of water to this seaport city is Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world covering an area of 3200 square miles, being 70 miles wide and 138 miles long, and was once believed to be at sea level before being raised up to this great height.
This inland waterway is littered with millions of fossilised seashells, and features a range of oceanic types, as opposed to freshwater marine life. Creatures brought to the surface in fishermen’s nets have included examples of seahorses. During the 19th Century Professor P. M. Duncan, studying the lake, noted the existence of siluroid, cyprinoid and other oceanic marine fishes in the lake.
According to Incan legends, Tihuanaco was built by a race of tall men whose fatherland had been destroyed in a great deluge that had lasted for two months. Many of Tihuanaco’s buildings were constructed of massive finished stones, many tons in weight, that were placed in such a manner that only a people with advanced engineering methods could have designed and transported them. The particular andesite used in much of the Tihuanaco’s construction can only be found in a quarry 50 miles away in the mountains.
Thank you for clarifying this.
ReplyDeleteSo who occupied this city in book of mormon times?
ReplyDeleteIt appears this city was built around the time of the Nephites. Is that true?
ReplyDeleteWanda and Connor. The area of Tiahuanaco, just south of Lake Titicaca, was part of the land settled by the Nephites around 570 B.C., when Nephi fled from his brothers. This area would have included present day Sacsayhuaman, which overlooks the Cuzco valley. Later, the latter area was called the city of Lehi-Nephi, to which Zeniff returned and where the evil king Noah presided. An earlier post describes the tower upon which king Noah climbed when pursued by Gideon.
ReplyDeleteI saw a drawing in National Geographic some years ago that showed a drawing of two towers up on the hill overlooking Cuzco. If I remember correctly, it was made from a modern artist, using the notes of various journals of the early spaniards into the area. Did you see that and is that the same as what you are talking about?
ReplyDeleteThe pics I've seen of Tiahuanaco is mostly devoid of any artifacts, ruins, or significant evidence of the area. No one seems to know how big this place was or whether it was important or not. Do you know?
ReplyDeleteCurly: Yes. Actually, the drawing showed three towers on the hill overlooking Cuzco, one quite tall (about 70 feet) and the other two about 1/3 as high. Unfortunately, the early Spaniards, like most early self-righteous people, attributed things they didn't understand to the workings of the devil and destroyed them---the towers were torn down, leaving only the base of the tallest tower remaining to be seen today, and it is very impressive to stand there and imagine how the tower was built up from this foundation.
ReplyDeleteBrandon: Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as flourishing as a capital of a major state power for approximately five hundred years. The site was first recorded in written history by Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León who stumbled upon the remains of the once great city in 1549. The name by which Tiwanaku was known to its inhabitants is lost to history. An archaeologically based theory asserts that around 400 AD, Tiwanaku went from being a locally dominant force to a predatory state, which tends to agree with the Book of Mormon. According to early estimates, at its maximum extent, the city covered approximately 6.5 square kilometers, and had between 15,000 - 30,000 inhabitants; however, satellite imaging was used recently to map the extent of fossilized suka kollus across the three primary valleys of Tiwanaku, arriving at population-carrying capacity estimates of anywhere between 285,000 and 1,482,000 people.
ReplyDeleteCould this possibly be the city that is referred to in the Book of Mormon at 3 Ne 8:10??
ReplyDeleteAnd the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah, that in the place of the city there became a great mountain.