H ugh Boero Rojo's discovery of buildings beneath Lake Titicaca, though providing proof of such previously questionable beliefs, may on the other hand prove to cause more problems than it solves. If, over the past two or three thousand years Lake Titicaca has slowly receded, as all scientists agree, then the existence of stone roads, temples, walls, and stairways, still being underwater needs to be explained.
The only answer, of course, is that they were built before the lake was created. This means that we need to re-examine the massive ruins—only 10% of which has been excavated to-date.
In addition, we have to recognize that the only way dirt can cover this ancient civilization to a depth of at least 6 feet, is the accumulation of water—a very large amount of water to have inundated the entire 400-acre city. Naturally, when this water receded it left the silt covering all evidence of an advanced civilization, leaving only the largest statues and monoliths exposed.
This, then, leads us to understand that the massive city was built before the lake was created, and not as a port on its present shore.
Obviously, these sunken buildings and the ruins at Tiwanaku , were along the seacoast at one time and rose up at the time the mountains rose to great heights. Thus, Tiwanaku was a seaport at one time, though presently, the nearest body of water is Lake Titicaca. There are many theories on how this came to be, but the configuration of changes in the land during the crucifixion is not one of them. This is because scientists, especially geologists, have a pattern of development which takes millions of years to make noticeable changes—they have no grasp of the Lord doing it in three hours (3 Nephi 8:19).
Yet, on the rock cliffs near the piers and warfs of the port (Tiwanaku) area of the ruins are yellow-white calcareous deposits forming long, straight lines indicating pre-historic water levels. These ancient shorelines are strangely tilted, although once they must have been level. The surrounding area is covered with millions of fossilized sea-shells. It appears, from the tilting of the ancient shoreline striations and the abundant presence of fossilized oceanic flora and fauna, that a tremendous uplift of land has taken place sometime in the ancient past.
Oceanic creatures live to this day in abundance in the salty waters of the lake, indicating that it was once a part of the ocean, although it is now over 2 miles above sea-level. What seems to be the original seashore is much higher in one place than in another. The port of Tiwanaku, called Puma Punku or "Door of the Puma," is an area filled with enormous stone blocks scattered hither and yon like matchsticks, and weighing between 100 and 150 tons!
One block still in place weighs an estimated 440 tons! One wonders, how were these blocks quarried; also how did the builders handle such huge blocks so skillfully?
This leads to the understanding, as scientists theorize that the area of Lake Titicaca was at one time at sea level, because of the profusion of artifacts in the somewhat shallow waters off the shores and islands of the lake, and also of fossilized marine life which can be found in the region.
The area then lifted with the Andean upheaval and a basin was created which filled in to form the lake. No one has suggested the marine life might have been brought to the altiplano by sea waters which were at flood stage.
Peruvian legends clearly relate a story of world-wide flood in the distant past. There is ample physical evidence of a universal inundation, with the world-wide deluge described in more than a hundred flood-myths. Along with Noah's flood were the Babylonian Utnapischtim of the Gilgamesh epic, the Sumerian Ziusudra, the Persian Jima, the Indian Manu, the Maya Coxcox, the Colombian Bochica, the Algonkin's Nanabozu, the Crows' Coyote, the Greek Deukalion and Pyrrha, the Chinese Noah Kuen, and the Polynesian Tangaloa. It is evident there was a world-wide deluge.
Global doomsdays are conspicuous in the Hopi Indian legends, the Finnish Kalevala epic, the Mayan Chilam Balam and Popol Vuh, and in the Aztec calendar, the last of which predicts that our present civilization will be destroyed by "nahuatl Olin" or "earth movement," that is, devastation by earthquake.
Due to Aztec cyclic theory this will become the fifth doomsday after the "death of the Jaguars," "the death of the Tempests," "the death of the Great Fire" (vulcanism), and the 'Great Deluge.'
If a flourishing advanced civilization existed on the Peruvian altiplano many thousands of years ago and was reached by the flood waters, many problems would be solved, such as the existence of Twianaku’s ruins under 6 feet of earth at an elevation of 13,300 feet. Thus, the presence of stone structures still under the lake's waters and the existence of marine life at an impossible altitude would also make sense.
There are agricultural terracing on the sides and very tops of the steep peaks, which appear to be the oldest - and now unused-portions of the terracing. As one looks down the mountains more and more terraces of more recent origin are seen. As Boero Rojo stated, "The discovery of Aymara structures under the waters of Lake Titicaca could pose entirely new theses on the disappearance of an entire civilization, which, for some unknown reason, became submerged.
As Professor Schindler-Bellamy, who created the world famous Glacial-Cosmogony theory in the1930's—has worked dozens of years in the Tiwanaku area and has written books on the subject, has stated, “The Tiahuanacans could have been victims of world-wide flood, their civilization all but wiped out when their homes and structures were covered with sea water.” He went on to say: “Because of the basin-like geography of the area the flood waters that became Lake Titicaca could not run off and have only gradually evaporated over the centuries.”
However, there is another answer to this scenario, and that is the rising of the area now known as Lake Titicaca, that was driven upward from sea level when the mountains “whose height is great,” rose during the crucifixion of which Samuel the Lamanite prophesied (Helaman 14:23). During this changing of the topography, both above and beneath the earth (Helaman 14:22), the area of the present lake, then a portion of the East Sea, was raised along with the mountains on which it rested. The ocean, caught within the mountains, went upward as the mountains rose to their present height. A portion of the settlements along the shore were raised also as the trapped sea buried the buildings beneath the waters.
After all this settled, those who survived found themselves at extremely high altitudes where they eeked out a living in their new circumstances, using the knowledge they knew before and had gained as a people over hundreds and thousands of years. The most tantalizing fact of all is that the Tiwanaku culture has no roots in that area. It did not grow there from humbler beginnings, nor is any other place of origin known. It seems to have appeared practically full blown suddenly.
To understand this point, that has puzzled the scientists, is that the people arrived in the land from elsewhere who were already advanced and developed from that point. This opens the door for Lehi and his party landing in the area and bringing with them the knowledge of a thousand years of experience and growth. In addition, we find that Tiahuanaco apparently remained for only a very short period at its pinnacle of perfection and then perished suddenly, perhaps through the cataclysmic happenings connected with the breakdown of the former "moon." Or, perhaps, being annihilated by the Lamanites.
We have at present no scientific means of determining when Tiwanaku rose to supreme height, or when its culture was obliterated. As with many other sacred sites on the planet it remains an enigma allowing researchers to speculate on its origins and purpose—then paralleling their conclusions with other ancient civilizations. They struggle to conclude what tremendous forces tumbled and scattered these gigantic stones so easily about the site?
Many of the blocks, some of them weighing upwards of 200 tons, are held together by large copper clamps shaped like an I, rather than enter-locking shapes as at Sacsahuaman or at Cuzco. Others were held together by silver rivets. The system used here is reminiscent of that used in the Egyptian ruins on Elephantine Island on the Nile. Most researchers believe that the metal was actually poured into shaped-slots carved into the rock.
Some of the docks and piers in this area are so large that hundreds of ships could dock comfortably - and nothing oceanic near these docks except an ancient coastline made of chalky fossils. Lake Titicaca, languishing miles away, is nearly 100 feet lower than the ruined docks. What tremendous geological upheaval has occurred in the last thousand years that could have tumbled these huge stones while raising the entire altiplano region 2 miles into the sky? None that anyone knows about.
Too bad they have not read the Book of Mormon and the detailed occurrences in this land as outlined in 3 Nephi 8 and 9, which answers all these questions and why Lake Titicaca sits at 12,600 feet and that it once rested along the Sea East.
The timeline according to the Book of Mormon would likely be, the port/city of Tiwanaku would have been built prior to about 200BC by the Nephites. They would have occupied the land from about 570BC to 200BC. The Lamanites who occupied the land between 200BC and the crucifixion likely would not have made many significant changes to the city/port.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting history .
ReplyDeleteThe information in this article is very very interesting. I didn't know Lake Titicaca was salt water. Excellent as always!
ReplyDelete