The City of Nephi – The Fortress of Sacsayhuamán – Part II

Continuing from the last post on the City of Nephi based on the scriptural account and the evidences today found at Sacsahuaman in Cuzco, Peru. 
    Most of these magnificent walls are found around Cuzco and the Urubamba River Valley in the Peruvian Andes. There are a few scattered examples elsewhere in the Andes, but almost nowhere else on Earth. Mostly, the structures are beyond our modern understanding—how did they carve and dress such large stones and then set them to fit so perfectly and without the need of mortar? How were such titanic blocks of stone brought to the top of the mountain from the quarries many miles away? How were they cut and fitted? How were they raised and put in place? Now, of course, no one knows, no one can even guess. The “how, why and what” simply baffle modern engineers—modern man can neither explain nor duplicate.

Some of the numerous cuts and angles that match so perfectly, without mortar, were set in place at Cuzco that still baffle stonemasons today

There are archaeologists, scientists and scholars, in trying to attribute this work to the Inca in a politically correct world, who would have us believe that the dense, hard andesite rock was cut, surfaced and faced by means of stone or bronze tools in the hands of the Inca. Such an explanation is so utterly preposterous that it is not even worthy of serious consideration. No one has ever found anywhere any stone tool or implement that would cut or chip the andesite, and no bronze ever made will make any impression upon it.
    Mysteries like this, of course, often bring out explanations that are both inventive and ridiculous, and certainly were not done by astronauts of another world as movies and “experts” claim. However, the answer, at least in part, is found before us, even in print within the scriptural record, that explains some of the mystery.
    This architectural complex is found along the edge of the northern slope of Cusco. The southern side of the structure was enclosed by a 1300-foot wall of polished stone. The east and west sides had additional walls and terraces used for cultivation. The front of the complex, which faces north, is protected by a formidable arrangement of three cultivation terraces encompassing zigzagging walls made of huge, carved and interlocking stones that, according to El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, were constructed to demonstrate power.

Huge stones marked the bottom tier of the front entrance walls, providing an impressive and, to anyone visiting or seeing it for the first time in antiquity, a fearsome example of the power of those within the walls

First of all, there is little we know about the City of Nephi, other than Nephi and his people built it as he stated: “And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance” (2 Nephi 5:15). Now, as often as we have quoted that scripture in this blog, I wonder how many have taken the time to really understand what Nephi knew that he could teach his people that they didn’t already know.
    When we consider that Nephi, at best, was a farmer, living outside the city of Jerusalem all his days (1 Nephi 1:4) before heading into the wilderness with his family, where they would have had to have grown their own food, especially to have had “seeds of every kind” to have taken with them on the spur of the moment and head into the wilderness quickly and furtively to avoid detection by those who sought Lehi's life. Certainly they would not have gone into the city to buy huge stores of seed if they were trying to flee the area unknown—after all, Lehi was fleeing for his life (1 Nephi 2:1-2).

Lehi’s farm or residence outside the city walls of Jerusalem would have had to have been self-sustaining, where he and his sons would have known how to perform normal daily work and repairs, including farming, carpentry, metallurgy, herdsman and husbandry

As such, farmers completely on their own would have dabbled in numerous crafts to keep the residence, farmland and all its workings in good repair, such as woodworking, carpentry, working with various mediums, probably leatherwork and metallurgy, to make and repair tools needed on the farm, etc. They would have known directions, time of the equinox and solstices, and the time of the Pesach (Hag Aviv, or Spring Holiday), which marked the beginning of the barley harvest, with fifty days later the time to harvest the wheat (referred to as the “Counting of the Omer”), and the arrival of Shavuoth, along with Hag Hakatzir (Reaping Festival) and Hag Habikurim (Holiday of the First Fruits), as well as Succoth (Hag HaAsif, the Harvest Festival), which marked the final agricultural harvest which occurred in the beginning of the autumn.
    In a world where a small drought meant hunger, and a severe drought spelled famine, there was always great rejoicing during these times for good harvests and productive crops. In fact, in Lehi’s time, such planting and harvesting, where a good harvest bespoke survival for the winter, it is probably why one of the first things Nephi mentioned after reaching the Land of Promise was the planting of the seed they brought from Jerusalem, and its exceeding great harvest that provided them abundance (1 Nephi 18:24), and his repeating of this during the second harvest when they had reached the location of their final settlement (2 Nephi 5:11).
    Now we are not told much about this city they built. We know it had a magnificent temple, like Solomon’s (2 Nephi 5:16), and had a tall, costly tower next to it (Mosiah 11:12), from which one could stand on the top and look out over the Land of Shilom (Mosiah 11:12) and over the further Land of Shemlon (Mosiah 19:6) that Noah built. Obviously, this tower and temple were built up on a high hill, bluff or cliff of some type to afford it that kind of view, and the tower had to be quite tall and sturdy where a man could climb upon it and find some type of defense for himself, as when king Noah tried to flee from Gideon, who followed with sword in hand (Mosiah 19:5-6).
    Garcilaso, who grew up within the walls of the Fortress and Temple at Sacsahuaman, tells of its beauty and appointments, with “the wonderfully carved granite walls of the temple were covered with more than 700 sheets of pure gold, weighing around [4 ½ pounds] each; the spacious courtyard was filled with life-size sculptures of animals and a field of corn, all fashioned from pure gold; the floors of the temple were themselves covered in solid gold; and facing the rising sun was a massive golden image of the sun encrusted with emeralds and other precious stones.” Reports of the first Spanish who saw the temple told of “around the clock ceremonies conducted there,” and described its opulence, “fabulous beyond belief.”
    Also, when the Spanish entered the Valley of Cuzco, they saw in the distance on a collado (hill) overlooking the valley a tall tower at Sacsahuaman. That tower was eventually torn down by the conquerors, but where it stood remains the circular stone foundation complex, its size and complexity that would have supported a tower that is described in Mosiah. Situated next to the temple ruins and that of the fortress, it certainly fits the descriptions given of the tower Noah built.
    The architecturally advanced complex occupies the edge of the northern slope of the city of Cusco. The southern side of the building was enclosed by a polished wall of almost 1300-feet in length. The eastern and western borders of the temple were delimited by other walls and cultivation terraces.
(See the next post, The City of Nephi – The Fortress of Sacsayhuamán – Part III,”  for an understanding of who actually built these walls and fortress and how they managed to do so, defying known engineering techniques of today)