Continued from the previous post regarding the the
parallel of construction of Baalbek in the Old World and its striking
resemblance to the historicity of a site of Tiahuanaco in the Western
Hemisphere of Andean Peru, which has become known as the “Baalbek of the New
World.”
It
should be noted that this area of Tiahuanaco was the capital of an empire that
extended into present-day Peru and Chile, and to show how important the complex was, it is believed to be one of the most
important cities of ancient America. In fact, Andean legends claim the area around Lake
Titicaca was the cradle of the first humans on Earth. According to the myths,
Lord Viracocha, the creator God of all things, chose Tiahuanaco as the place of
creation. It is unknown how old these ruins are, but some researchers suggest
that they extend far back into B.C. times.
Even today, like Garcilaso de la
Vega in the 16thcentury, professionals wonder how such blocks were quarried with no metal
tools, how they were transported to the building site by a civilization claimed to be without
the wheel, and how they were assembled to form the piers and docks that once
existed.
The high artificial
hill, built on stone foundations to which Garcilaso refers has been determined
by modern technology to be an entirely man-made earthen mound,
faced with a mixture of large and small stone blocks. In fact,
ground-penetrating radar has revealed not only an underground pyramid at the
site, but also numerous “underground anomalies” suspected of being monoliths
and an underground tunnel.
According to Ludwing Cayo, director
of the Tiahuanaco Archeological Research Center, the site will be
undergoing further investigations and
has scheduled excavations to begin shortly and continue over a five-year period
on the pyramid at Kantatallita area of Tiahuanaco, located 44 miles west of La
Paz in Bolivia, and in its height, covered 373,000 square miles, with “a legacy of impressive stone monuments such as Kalasasaya, the
semi-underground Templete, sculptures of prominent figures, the Gate of the Sun
and ruins of palaces, along with numerous blocks of stone scattered about
weighing hundreds of tons.”
The
question plaguing scientists is how did
these huge blocks of hewn stone get scattered about in such disarray? Did some
tremendous geological cataclysm tumble these gigantic monoliths into this
horrible disorder? And if so, what catacalysmic event would that have been?
According to Alan L. Kolata in The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean
Civilization, “During the time period between 300 B.C. and 300 A.D.,
Tiwanaku is thought to have been a moral and cosmological center for the
Tiwanaku Empire, and one to which many people made pilgrimages. Researchers
believe it achieved this standing prior to Tiwanaku expanding its powerful
empire” (Wiley-Blackwell, New Jersey, 1993).
Then there is the ceremonial center with its
pyramids, temples, stone idols. The
characteristics of construction are unique and splendid, with planners
and architects having singular drawing of simple lines designed lavish temples; the engineers calculated the inclinations of the walls, and
with an excellent urbanistic technique created superficial and underground
networks of channels to eliminate the rainwater. Masons sculpted stones of
excellent design, metallurgists made plates for the iconographic bas-reliefs,
managing to cover monuments with golden metals, which sparkled under the sun;
and the priests oriented the temples astronomically with amazing precision. A multitude of men cut
the stone in distant quarries and transported it to this complex resulting in a
radiation of culture, a concentration of knowledge and location of science—the
influence of Tiahuanaco is noticed in its monuments of Peru, Ecuador, and
communities of Marajó Island at the mouth of the Amazon River. The seal of this culture is also found in ceramic or metal
objects manufactured by the communities of northern Chile, northern Argentina,
Peru, and eastern Bolivia. Its culture was considered the most important of the
pre-Columbian period in Andean territory, achieving not only great advances in
science and art, but created an exceptional technique of cultivation in ridges
for the flat lands and on platforms or terraces for the slopes. Undoubtedly, it exerted a powerful influence on other
cultures.
The various buildings in the complex are known as
the Kalasasaya ("Place of Vertical Stones"), the semi-Subterranean
Temple, a so-called "Palace," and the Akapana Pyramid. This
subterranean Temple is one of the most amazing sites yet uncovered, which is one of the most
finished architectural realizations of the era of splendor, and is more than 6
½ feet below the level of the surrounding area, almost quadrangular in shape,
and made up of walls with 57 sustaining pillars of red sandstone and ashlars of
the same material. These walls are decorated internally by 175 nailed heads,
mostly worked in limestone, each one different from the others. The drainage system in this subterranean area is made by
channels made of stone, with a perfect slope of 2% that still works today, and
flows into a collector.
Embedded in the floor of
the temple was the largest anthropomorphic piece, known as monolith Pachamama
and has been transferred to the city of La Paz to fix it in the square next to
the stadium Hernando Siles.
Today it has been returned and installed in a museum
built especially for tourists to appreciate it. This
piece has a height of 24-feet and an approximate weight of 20 ton. In
addition, the monolith known as the Templete
"Monolito Barbado" or "KonTiki Wiracocha" (Lord of the
Waters, with beards, and dressed in a long skirt) sculpted in sandstone, which
is accompanied by two other minor stelae, all excavated in the same site.
In addition, a few minor buildings are also present
in this complex, and many of the building blocks are estimated to weigh close
to 200 tons. The Akapana Pyramid is a step pyramid, and, like the Great
Pyramid, is aligned perfectly with the cardinal directions. It was originally
covered with smooth Andesite stone, only 10 percent of which is still in
sitü. The ruinous state of the pyramid is due to stone pirates who have
carried off the stones for building materials in the nearby city of La Paz.
The conventional practice of dating Tiahuanacu is
based on carbon dates of numerous examples of pottery, small statues and other
artifacts. An obvious fact ignored by orthodox archeologists is that it is
common for late arrivals to be awed by old ruins (attributing their origin to
gods or giants); who then incorporate those very images in their own pottery,
textiles, etc. It may be a colossal mistake to fuse the cultures into one,
skewing dates of the megalithic stone ruins to match those of later artifacts.
According to Alden J. Mason in The Ancient
Civilizations of Peru, “as a result of these problems, several major
archeological authorities describe the dating of the buildings and sculptures
at Tiahuanaco as "insecure" (Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1968).
The point is, like Baalbek in Lebanon, the complex
at Tiahuanaco is relatively unknown—who built it, when it was built, and what
specific purpose the region served is all unknown to modern man. The fact that
it dates to the Nephite period, and has the semblance of ancient and advanced
construction, lends credence to the story of the Book of Mormon and the Land of
Promise being in this general area of Andean Peru.
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Del, why did you post a pic of a hoax pyramid in Bosnia for this article? Using this stuff with no explanation really discredits your opinions and assertions.
ReplyDeletewonderboy, I hope you hold the MesoAmerican, and North American model folks to the same standard you demand here. When completely fraudulent claims are made in those models nobody calls them on it. Examples like the wrong compass directions, no narrow neck, no sea west on and on it goes.
DeleteDel is far closer to the truth then any I've seen.
Ira, I absolutely do. But since Del is the loudest and most influential proponent of the South American model, I call him out when I see something. I've provided lots of support for him on here and in other forums, as well. I often comment in a variety of forums on shortcomings in methodology and/or scriptural interpretation. Del shines in this regard as he's just about the only theorist who actually puts lots of time and effort into addressing objections. So Kudos to him. You needn't interpret my critical feedback to Del as existential attacks on the theory. I simply try to hold him to a high standard.
DeleteWonderboy--you are right, I should have included a comment of explanation. The point was, the hill was meant to be representative of that type of finding. The other is the actual one under discussion.
ReplyDeleteDel, what's the source of the 2nd image?
DeleteWonder Boy: The Book of Mormon should be held to the highest standard possible.
ReplyDelete