If you are fascinated by the massive stone structures of Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, the temple ruins of Baalbeck will put you at your wits’ end. A part of these ruins next to the Litani River in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon belong to the Roman period but major portions of the ruins are believed to hail from a much older pre-historic civilization. These ruins are hailed as one of the most intriguing wonders of the world. The temples attributed to the Roman deities like Mercury, Jupiter and Venus count among the best-preserved Roman treasures. However, expert eyes can detect indigenous influences in the temple ruins as well that shows that these temples were meant for local deities like Hadad and Atargatis.

But what holds the center of mystery about these stone structures are the massive megalithic platform upon which the Roman temples sit. You could identify three such stone blocks that could weigh something close to 350 tons (772,000 lbs). It is a mystery how these blocks were extracted, shaped and carried over miles and lifted to the height of 22 feet to rest atop smaller blocks. Dating of these gigantic blocks has revealed them to be far older than the Roman age. Historical records of Balbeck show it to be only 2,000 years old when Alexander the Great had conquered Baalbeck and turned it into the pilgrim city of Heliopolis.

Moreover, the stone blocks put up by the Romans (never exceeding 70 tones) were far lighter in comparison to the massive stones. If you explore the quarry site 3 miles away from the temples, you can still find an unmoved stone block called ‘the stone of the pregnant woman’ there, which is estimated to be of 1500 tons. It is stunning how these stone blocks, dating back to prehistoric times could be cut into such accurate shapes and fitted together without a single hair-gap precision! These are undoubtedly the largest stone blocks of the earth and should set you wondering what kind of engineering went behind the fit and alignment of these massive structures.

There are 24 such blocks altogether in the temple complex, the smallest of them close to 300 tones and measuring 68 x 14 x 14 feet. A fascinating ‘trilithon’ consisting of a row of three megaliths lies at the western end of the Bal-Jupiter temple, each of which is no less than 750 tones. This raised platform called ‘tel’ was probably deemed a sacred site by both the Romans and the Canaanites though many suggest this could be the remnant of some medieval fortress as well. What will appear grossly incongruous to your eyes is the lack of architectural mastery in the setting of the Roman temple blocks. These appear rather haphazard in comparison to the neatly set monoliths belonging to the unknown culture.

That these stones are different from the Roman building becomes obvious when you find the perimeter of the Jupiter temple not covering the entire width of the underlying monolith. The temple basically stands upon three such blocks, leaving an unused tier of megaliths to jut out at the sides of the temple foundation. If you study the back wall of the temple, you can see for yourself its ill-fitting stone configuration that was probably the result of Arabs, Turks and Crusaders installing Roman temple ruins as a fort, with gaps in between as provisions for canon firing.

What is even more startling is that these huge blocks are not the foundation layer. The original edifice seems to be made up of smaller blocks upon which these giants are laid. That way, the structure seems to be strangely inverted in style, with excavations revealing 3 tiers of stones beneath, increasingly smaller in size. This brings into play an interesting evolution of stonework – with a backward development pattern.

What is even more startling is that these huge blocks are not the foundation layer. The original edifice seems to be made up of smaller blocks upon which these giants are laid. That way, the structure seems to be strangely inverted in style, with excavations revealing 3 tiers of stones beneath, increasingly smaller in size. This brings into play an interesting evolution of stonework – with a backward development pattern.

SIGNS OF THE GODS
CHAPTER THREE
A Tour of the Evidence

According to the accepted history of mankind, we should not find examples of twentieth century technology being used thousands of years ago. And yet examples of this technology can be seen at sites all around the world, defying conventional scientific explanation. The fact that physical evidence of such technology does exist is highly disturbing and lends support to the idea that an advanced race of flesh-and-blood Gods could have created us “in their own image”

This chapter covers a selection of sites which represent historical anomalies, based on my personal travels over the past few years. Many readers will already be familiar with places such as Tiwanaku and Nazca, whilst other readers will be totally unfamiliar. I will therefore attempt to strike a balance by keeping things reasonably briefly covering the essentials but also offering some fresh insights.

As those who have visited these places will appreciate, there is no substitute for being there. Indeed. I cannot count the times that I have been surprised to find things to be quite different from how I had imagined them to be. I am also including in this chapter some rather less familiar locations. Chavin de Huantar, for instance, is interesting for its original, highly advanced underground aqueduct systems, and I will be drawing a fascinating parallel between these and the waterworks of Tiwanaku.

Another little known site is that of Baalbek in Lebanon. As a result of war and terrorism, Baalbek has been a “no go” area for more than twenty years. However, in May 1995, I finally managed to visit the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, and I am delighted to be able to share my first-hand impressions of the amazing 800-ton stones which have been miraculously transported and positioned in one of its foundation walls.

The difficulties of performing these manoeuvres, even with twentieth century technology, are most enlightening! Some of the sites not covered in this chapter are dealt with elsewhere. The pyramids of Giza, for instance, warrant a whole chapter in their own right (chapter 4), whilst the ancient astronomical observatory of Stonehenge is covered in chapter 5. A full discussion of the astronomical aspects of Tiwanaku and Machu Picchu is also held over until chapter 5.

In the pages which follow, I will be aiming to demonstrate a common pattern of anomalous technology in the prehistory of mankind. In particular, I will be examining the weaknesses of the current scientific explanations for these anomalies, where such theories exist at all. In some locations, such as Nazca, we find a wide divergence of scientific opinion, which amounts to little more than a confession of ignorance. In most of the other locations, however, there is a complete void of scientific opinion, and a tendency to blatantly ignore crucial evidence. Puma Punku is a classic example of this approach, its precision-cut stones generally being excluded from the archaeologists’ reports on the associated site of Tiwanaku.

One of the most frustrating areas of ancient technology is that of construction methodology. Almost every engineer has a theory on how his ancient precursors might have carved and erected hugs precision-cut stones, but few such engineers have been brave enough to roll their sleeves up and put their theories to the test. On the few occasions where the experts had dared to venture forth into the field, the results have been dismal.

For example, one of the most prominent Egyptologists, Mark Lehner, recently led a team which attempted to erect an Egyptian obelisk using ancient tools and materials. The team had great difficulty explaining how the obelisk was transported up the Nile, since loading it onto a boat seemed to be physically impossible. The same team then had a dreadful struggle to erect an obelisk which was only one tenth the size and weight of the genuine article.

Mark Lehner belongs to a group of experts who believe that the ancient stonemasons worked granite (one of the hardest types of natural stone) by constantly pounding it with other, smaller stones. These experts typically demonstrate how the pounding technique can, after a few hours of effort, produce small indentations in the granite. They then claim this as proof that the pounding method does actually work.

Unfortunately, not one of these experts has ever carried such a job through to completion, in order to show us how the stonemasons achieved perfect edges, especially the “inner edges’ of holes which are excavated into the face of the stone. In this chapter, we will see several amazing examples of such stonework, which could not possibly have been produced by the simple stone or copper tools which the ancient people supposedly used. It is not my intention to speculate on exactly what kind of advanced technology was used to cut these stones, nor to answer the question of how they were moved over -impossible” distances and gradients. We map never know.

The question which I personally find more pertinent, and equally fascinating, is “why did they do it?”. It is at this point that conventional scientists and historians attempt to distract us from their lack of understanding by vaguely referring to primitive religious beliefs. Some of the most curious anomalies in the world are thus conveniently labelled as temples, altars and ritual baths, when in fact their original purpose and function are totally obscure.

Unless we can understand the significance of an object, the question of “why was it made’!” will get us nowhere. For instance, asking why someone built a Stonehenge temple is a very different question from asking why someone built a Stonehenge Astronomical observatory. It is therefore essential for us to cast off the religious interpretations and examine ancient objects with an open mind.

Nevertheless, the significance of some objects is sufficiently clear to frame the relevant questions. Among the questions which I will be asking are: why were 800-ton stones used in a wall at Baalbek when smaller stones would have been quite adequate: why were sophisticated waterworks so important to the original designers of Tiwanaku and Chavin? And why were the figures at Nazca designed only for viewing from the air?

Inevitably, I cannot avoid dropping a few immediate hints towards my answers to the above questions. However, readers must appreciate that a complete solution requires a fundamentally different frame of reference, which will be gradually introduced in the chapters which follow. In due course, and at the appropriate time, I will revisit nearly all of the sites in this chapter, to confirm their chronologies and to offer my explanations of their functions or meaning. In the meantime, I invite you to share my preliminary thoughts on our mysterious past.

The imposing ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon are situated in the fertile Bekaa valley at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon mountains. 53 miles north-east of Beirut. Baalbek was once one of the world’s most sacred sites, and its temples one of the wonders of the ancient world. In modern times, however, Baalbek lies forgotten - wiped off the map by more than twenty years of warfare and terrorism. The site has become so neglected that some archaeology books omit any mention of it.

What a contrast from two thousand years ago, when Roman emperors would journey 1,500 miles to this remote location, to make offerings to their Gods and receive oracles on the destiny of their empire. Indeed, it was here that the Romans built their grandest ever temples, crowned by the magnificent temple to their chief God, Jupiter.

Only six pillars from that temple have survived the series of earthquakes which have laid the site to ruins, but these pillars, shown in Plate 1, still form a spectacular sight today, rising to a commanding height of 66 feet. The size of this temple literally dwarfs the Parthenon of Athens. However. as magnificent as the Temple of Jupiter certainly is, it stands on a pre-Roman terrace of colossal stones which is even more impressive.

At the bottom of Plate 1 can be seen a row of nine blocks in the south-east wall of the terrace, each measuring approximately 33 by 14 by 10 feet, and thus weighing more than 300 tons apiece. At the same level in the adjoining south-western wall, we find six further 300-ton stones, above which are situated three enormous megalithic blocks, referred to as “the Trilithon or the “Marvel of the Three Stones”.

Plate 2 shows the three granite blocks of the Trilithon (the light coloured course), forming the sixth visible layer of the wall. Each of these stones measures an amazing 64 feet in length (on average). with a height of 14 feet 6 inches and a thickness of 12 feet.?

They are estimated to weigh a staggering 800 tons each.

Michel Alouf, the former curator of the ruins, notes that:

“... in spite of their immense site, they [the Trilithon stones] are so accurately placed in position and so carefully joined. that it is almost impossible to insert a needle between them. No description will give an exact idea of the bewildering and stupefying effect of these tremendous blocks on the spectator.”

The angle of the photograph in Plate 2 (hampered by the perimeter fence) hardly does justice to the immense size of the Trilithon. Fortunately, however, its dimensions can be judged by a slightly larger block, known as the “Stone of the South”, which lies in a nearby hillside quarry, ten minutes walk to the south-west.

Plate 3 demonstrates the huge scale of this stone slab, which measures 69 feet long by 16 feet wide by 13 feet 10 inches high. This block is estimated to weigh around 1,000 tons, the equivalent of three Boeing 747 aircraft. How were the 500-ton stones of the Trilithon moved from the quarry to the acropolis? The distance is not huge, no more than a third of a mile. Nor is the elevation very different between the two points.

And yet, when one considers the size and weight of these stones and the fact that the route from the quarry to the acropolis is not entirely flat, transportation via any conventional means presents a seemingly impossible dilemma. Furthermore, an even greater mystery surrounds the manner in which the Trilithon stones were then fitted more than 20 feet high into the wall, without mortar and with perfect precision.

Some experts would have us believe that the Romans constructed this vast stone terrace at Baalbek as a foundation for their temples. However, it is a fact that no Roman emperor ever claimed to have accomplished this fantastic achievement, and as one authority has noted, there is a huge contrast in scale between the Roman temples and the size of the terrace on which they stand.

In addition, we have no evidence of any Roman technology that could have moved stones weighing 800 tons. In fact, there is no evidence of any known civilization having the technology to erect the colossal stones which we see in the terrace at Baalbek! Who could have built these huge stone foundations and why? It is a mystery that has inspired the imaginations of men for thousands of years. The Arabs believed that Baalbek belonged to the legendary Nimrod, who once ruled this area of Lebanon.

According to an Arabic manuscript found at Baalbek, Nimrod sent giants to rebuild Baalbek after the Flood, whilst another tale relates that Nimrod rebelled against his God and built the Tower of Babel at Baalbek. Other legends associate Baalbek with the Biblical figure of Cain, the son of Adam, claiming that he built it as a refuge after his God Yahweh had cursed him.

According to Estfan Doweihi, the Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon:

Tradition states that the fortress of Baalbek... is the most ancient building in the world. Cain, the son of Adam, built it in the year 133 of the creation, during a fit of raving madness. He gave it the name of his son Enoch and peopled it with giants who were punished for their iniquities by the flood. The local Muslims also believed that it was beyond the capability of humans to move the enormous stones of Baalbek. Instead of giants, however, they credited the work to demons or djinn. The English traveller, David Urquhart, in a similar vein, suggested that the builders used mastodons huge extinct elephant-like mammals - as mobile cranes to help them move the stones!

It is sometimes claimed that modern cranes cannot lift stones as heavy as Baalbek’s 800-ton monoliths. This is actually incorrect. I posed the problem of the Baalbek stones to Baldwins Industrial Services, one of the leading British crane hire companies. I asked them how they might attempt to move the 1,000-ton Stone of the South and place it at the same height as the Trilithon.

Bob MacCrain, the Technical Director of Baldwins, confirmed that there were several mobile cranes currently available that could lift and place the 1,000-ton stone on a support structure 20 feet high. Baldwins themselves operate a 1,200 ton capacity Gottwald AK912 strut jib crane, whilst other companies operate cranes capable of lifting 2,000 tons. Unfortunately, these cranes do not have the capability to move whilst carrying such heavy loads. How then might we transport the Stone of the South to the acropolis?

Baldwins suggested two possibilities. The first would use a 1,000-ton capacity crane fitted with crawler tracks. The disadvantage of this method would be the need for massive ground preparation works in order to provide a solid, level roadway for the crane to move. The alternative to a crane would be a series of modular hydraulic trailers, combined to create a massive load carrying platform.

These trailers raise and lower their loads using hydraulic cylinders built into their suspension. The initial lift at the quarry would be achieved by the use of a cut-out section beneath the stone, which the trailer would drive into. The final positioning in the wall, at a height of 20 feet, would be achieved by using an earth ramp. There is, of course, one slight problem with Baldwins’ solution. None of this twentieth century technology was supposedly available when Baalbek was built! What happens if we fall back on non-technological methods?

The usual suggestion is that megalithic stones were moved using a system of wooden rollers. However, modern experiments have shown such rollers being crushed by much lighter weights than 800 tons. Even if such a system was possible, it has been estimated that it would take the combined efforts of 40,000 men to move the Stone of the South. It remains completely unproven that an 800-ton stone could have been moved using such primitive methods.

Another major weakness of the conventional explanation is why the builders should have struggled with such a large weight, when it would have been far easier to split the giant monolith into several smaller blocks. According to my engineer friends, it would actually have been very risky to use large blocks in the Trilithon. This is because any vertical defects running length-wise through the stone would have led to a severe structural weakness. In contrast, a similar fault in a smaller block would not have affected the overall construction.

It therefore makes no sense at all to imagine tens of thousands of men attempting to move and lift three 800-ton stones. How can we resolve this apparent dilemma and what can we deduce concerning the motivations of the Baalbek designers? On the one hand, it seems as if they were supremely confident their material had no defects. They might thus have favoured large stones for a specific structural reason, namely to provide a more stable platform which could withstand enormous vertical forces. An intriguing idea. On the other hand, it is possible that the builders were simply in a hurry, and it was therefore expeditious to cut and move one large stone rather than two small ones. This does of course presuppose a high level of construction technology being available.

Although the first of the above alternatives is the more enticing, in my opinion it is the latter alternative which provides the more likely explanation. My impression of the Baalbek platform, shared by others, is that it is incomplete. The Trilithon layer for instance, rises above any of the other megalithic stones and does not form part of a level terrace.

It thus appears to form part of an unfinished defensive wall. This theory is reinforced by the Stone of the South, which is still attached at one point to the rocky floor of the quarry. The physical evidence indicates a sudden abandonment of the construction project. However, if the Trilithon layer represents a later addition, erected using high technology at an unknown time, then the layers below it must take us even further back into prehistory.

These lower layers in the south-western wall, have been carefully constructed of smaller stones, topped by a layer of 300-ton stones which have been shaped with an outward taper (Plate 2). If we now move to the same level in the adjoining south-eastern wall (Plate 1), we see a layer of megaliths, which although of similar size, are ill-matched: some are tapered, others are not, and the cut of the tapering does not match, even on adjacent blocks. The unavoidable conclusion is that this upper layer of the original platform has been reconstructed having once sustained serious damage.

Let us now return to the sacred importance of Baalbek. Michel Alouf comments that “nowhere is it clearly stated to what cause the religious importance of this town ought to be attributed”. However, the Romans did leave us a clue with their temples to the Gods Jupiter Mercury and Venus. Why did the Romans, and indeed earlier civilizations of the Near East, worship this triad of Gods?

A major clue comes from the Greeks who called Baalbek “Heliopolis” - the city of Hellos. According to ancient legend, Hellos was a Sun God who could traverse the skies in his “chariot”, and Baalbek was the alleged resting place of that chariot.

Could this legend explain the need for such massive foundations in the original platform at Baalbek?

Back to Baalbek - A Colossal Enigma

On the other side of the globe, the ruins of Tiwanaku in Bolivia have been described as the “Baalbek of the New World”.’” The site of Tiwanaku lies in a broad plain in the Rio Tiwanaku valley, one of several that cut back from the southern edge of Lake Titicaca into the huge plateau of the Bolivian altiplano.

Its colossal stone blocks may not equal those of Baalbek in size, but they lie at an altitude of 13.000 feet. Here, the air is so thin that tourists struggle to catch their breath, and the high level of ultraviolet solar radiation poses a constant danger to human eyes and skin.

Thousands of years ago, the lichen-encrusted ruins of Tiwanaku were home to the highest urban settlement of the ancient world. Around AD 200, for reasons which are not entirely clear, Tiwanaku emerged as a sacred ceremonial centre. By AD 5001 it was the capital of an expanding empire - the first empire of the ancient Americas.

This empire, however, was not achieved by military conquest, but via economic power derived largely from huge agricultural surpluses. It was the collapse of the agricultural system, brought about by climatic change, that precipitated the end of the Tiwanakan era after 500 years of supremacy. The fact that Tiwanaku achieved agricultural surpluses at all is quite astonishing. Today, few farmers are brave enough to eke out an existence on the Bolivian altiplano, since hostile agricultural conditions bring total crop disaster every five years on average.

However, in ancient times this barren, windswept landscape had been transformed into a veritable oasis via a highly advanced agricultural technology. Archaeologists have found the remains of so-called “raised fields” which protected crops from frost damage and allowed miraculous yields to be achieved.

Experimental tests have shown this ancient technology to be far superior to modern methods using fertilizers. At its peak, the sacred city of Tiwanaku covered 2 square miles. Its ceremonial core was surrounded by a moat, and the earth and clay which had been excavated from the moat had been used to construct a huge mound, known as the Akapana.

The Tiwanakans also built a number of semi-subterranean temples alongside a much larger temple known as the Kalasasaya. Nearby, an equally huge temple, known as Puma Punku, was built to a quite different design. (Figure 6) shows the layout of all these principal structures.

Let us now take a closer look at these supposedly Tiwanakan temples, beginning with the most imposing structure, the Akapana. This artificial mound measures around 600 by 600 feet at its base, with a height of 50 feet. Although sometimes described as a truncated pyramid, it is in fact an irregular shape, with seven terraces and a large central depression. Inside the Akapana, archaeologists have found an amazing network of zigzagging stone water conduits.

Writing in 1993, anthropologist Alan Kolata, who had spent many years excavating at Tiwanaku stated:

“Our recent excavations at Akapana revealed an unexpected, sophisticated and monumental system of inter-linked surface and subterranean drains.”

It is assumed that this “drainage” system was designed to collect rainwater in the Akapana’s central sunken court and feed it down to underground tunnels via the various terraces. The first component of this system was a major trunk line that led around the sides of the Akapana. Alan Kolata described this stone conduit as “finely crafted” and “precisely fitted”, with the capacity to handle an “enormous flow”.

This trunk line fed the water to the next lower terrace, where it flowed for around 10 feet in an exterior stone drain, before once again entering the Akapana. The alternating internal/external route continued until the water eventually exited ten feet underground via “beautifully constructed tunnels” - (Figure 7). From here, the water drained into the Rio Tiwanaku and ultimately into Lake Titicaca.?

Similarly sophisticated waterworks systems have been found at the nearby site of Puma Punku and at Lukurmata (near Lake Titicaca), even though these “temples” were otherwise quite different in design. Once again the water flowed into canals which led to Lake Titicaca. Were these elaborate waterwork systems simply designed for drainage?

Alan Kolata acknowledged that the Akapana system was not a structural necessity:

“A much simpler and smaller set of canals would have accomplished the basic function of draining accumulated rain water from the summit. In fact, the system as installed by the architects of Akapana, although superbly functional, is completely over-engineered, a piece of technical stone-cutting and joinery that can only be called pure virtuosity?”

Did the Tiwanakans really build these waterworks systems, as the archaeologists would have us believe, or did they inherit them from a much earlier, more advanced but unrecorded culture? The evidence suggests the latter. One clue, which has mystified the archaeologists, is that the water systems of the Akapana had ceased to function at some time before AD 600, when the Tiwanakan empire was at its peak.

This was proved by the discovery of undisturbed human and animal remains, buried at key points in the structure, where they would have been affected if the waters had still been flowing. Another clue exists in the dating of human occupation at Tiwanaku to 1580 BC and 2134 BC using radiocarbon and obsidian dating respectively.

Both dates tend to suggest that the Akapana was important prior to the Tiwanakan emergence in AD 200. The anomalies continue if we move to the nearby site of Puma Punku, almost a mile to the south-west of the main ruins. Here we find the largest stones of Tiwanaku, some weighing over one hundred tons, representing the shattered remains of a partially excavated structure which is still not properly understood.

Plate 4 shows the scale of one of these huge red sandstone blocks, measuring approximately 26 by 16 by 2 feet and estimated to weigh 120 tons. Although badly eroded, the perfect lines of this and surrounding blocks can still be seen. They have amazed countless travellers such as the Spanish chronicler Pedro Cieza de Leon who observed that:

“... some of these stones are very worn and wasted, and there are others so large that one wonders how human hands could have brought them to where they now stand... When one considers the work, I cannot understand or fathom what kind of instruments or tools were used to work them, for it is evident that before these huge stones were dressed and brought to perfection, they must have been much larger to have been left as we see them... I would say that I consider this the oldest antiquity in all of Peru”

Other stones at Puma Punku contain inexplicable grooves and niches, whilst some such as of metal clamps which were used of these clamps have actually been whereabouts are now uncertain. metal that is not associated with cultures at this time. One of the Punku is shown in Plate 5.

This a precision-cut groove wide. Inside the groove, all of the seen equal distant drilled holes. grooves and holes have been made Figure 8 bear the indentations to fix the stones together. Some found, although their They were made of bronze - a any of the South American most impressive stones at Puma block, several feet high, contains approximately 6 millimeters way from top to bottom, can be. The question is, how could tiny using crude stone hammers or soft copper hand tools? On the contrary, to cut and drill stone with this accuracy would require twentieth century technology.

Returning to the main site of Tiwanaku, we find one of the most famous sculptures of the ancient world situated inside the Kalasasaya temple. The “Gateway of the Sun” is much smaller than one imagines, standing approximately 9 feet high. It is nevertheless, a most impressive monument, being carved from a single piece of gray andesite weighing around 15 tons. This stone is, like granite, one of the hardest and most difficult stones to work.

On one side, the Gateway features a carving of the deity Viracocha and his winged attendants, but I would like to focus on the reverse side. Plate s shows the Gateway’s series of enigmatic niches, which include recesses for two hinges in the lower parts. These niches have been cut into the stone with great precision, forming perfect inside edges that could not possibly have been chiselled out using crude and primitive tools.

My final example of the precision workmanship at Tiwanaku lies to the east of the Kalasasaya in a semi-subterranean temple known as the Kantatayita. Plate 9 shows some of the precision-cut stones at this location, once again with perfectly cut inside edges.

In the background of Plate 9, there lies a most unusual piece of curved architecture, once again made of the very hard gray andesite stone. its front is elaborately carved and surrounded by nail holes, but its rear is stunning. It is difficult to find the superlatives to describe the perfect symmetry shown in Plates 6 and 7.

Perfect edges are combined with a curved design which flares downwards and inwards simultaneously. Try carving that one with stone tools! I have mentioned here only a few of the many incredible stones that lie strewn across the site of Tiwanaku, and it is worth emphasizing that many more still lie buried in the ground under layers of sediment from thousands of years of human occupation and periodic flooding from Lake Titicaca.

How old might the site of Tiwanaku actually be? Unfortunately, no written records have survived (assuming they ever existed) to help us date the earliest phases. However, based on the astronomical alignments of the Kalasasaya, it has been suggested that that temple, and hence the site as a whole, was built at either 4050 BC or 10050 BC although there have been no scientific appraisals of the age of the Kalasasaya’s stone pillars, the weathering of these stones has led many to agree with the earlier of the two dates.

My own impression was that the 12-feet high standing pillars of the Kalasasaya looked older than those of Stonehenge (dated to 2700-2300 BC) but not by an additional 7,500 years. On the other hand, the huge blocks at Puma Punku may well be a lot older than the Kalasasaya pillars, since they have spent much of their life covered in mud and protected from the elements.

The little history that we do have of Tiwanaku has been filtered through numerous later cultures, including the Incas and the Spanish conquistador’s who subjugated them in the sixteenth century. Cieza de Leon, mentioned earlier, was intrigued by Tiwanaku, and recorded the myths that were handed down by the local inhabitants:

“It is believed that before the Incas reigned, long before, certain of these buildings existed... I asked the natives if these buildings had been built in the time of the Incas, and they laughed at the question, repeating what I have said, that they were built before they reigned, but that they could not state or affirm who built them. However, they had heard from their forefathers that all that are there appeared overnight.”

Similar legends claimed that Tiwanaku was built in a single night, after the Flood, by a mysterious race of giants - an explanation reminiscent of Baalbek. Other myths described Lake Titicaca as the sacred spot where the God Viracocha created the world. Another legend, echoing the Bible, claimed Titicaca to be the home of a patriarchal couple who had survived a great Flood and propagated the Andean peoples. All of these tales are commonly cited to explain the religious mystique which allowed Tiwanaku to expand in later times.

In contrast to the legends, scientists are unable to explain why Tiwanaku suddenly emerged as a sacred centre. They are unable to explain how huge stones were transported over tens of miles from the nearest quarries. They cannot explain the significance of the canals which surround the site, nor the sophisticated waterworks systems inside the Akapana and elsewhere. And they cannot explain the existence of stones which have been cut and drilled using modern technology!

Chavin de Huantar
The ruins of Chavin de Huantar are located at an altitude of 10,500 feet in the Peruvian Andes, sandwiched between two ranges of rugged mountains, one cutting it off from the coast, the other separating it from the Amazonian jungle. It is difficult to find a more remote and better hidden location than Chavin de Huantar. And yet, 2,500 years ago, Chavin emerged as one of the most sacred cities in South America, exerting a profound influence on the distant coastal regions of Peru between 500-200 BC.

The main export from Chavin was religion, centered on the cult of a fanged jaguar. As a result of this strange cult, the remote city of Chavin developed into a most unlikely hub of regional trade, which carried the distinctive Chavin art-style throughoutancient Peru. At its peak, Chavin de Huantar covered 105 acres and its population numbered around 3,000 - small by today’s standards, but an unusually large size for Peru at that time.

The main ceremonial area at Chavin de Huantar covered 12 acres. Although referred to by the locals as “El Castillo” (the Castle), the Chavin were never an aggressive people. The ruined mounds of Chavin de Huantar have also been fancifully described as pyramids, which they were not. On the contrary, archaeological reconstruction’s of the site show a series of flat-topped temples, surrounding three sides of a square, sunken plaza. These unique “temples” rank among the oddest buildings of the ancient world.

The principal temple, also known as the “Old Temple”, is designed in a U-shape, facing due east towards the sunrise. It contains a labyrinth of narrow subterranean passages, many of which inexplicably lead to dead-ends. One narrow passageway, however, allows access to an unusual vault in the form of a cross. At this juncture of passages, in the sacred heart of the temple, stands a stone in the shape of a knife or lance projecting from the ceiling into the floor. This carved stone, shown in Figure 9a, is known as El Lanzon - “the Lance”.

The El Lanzon monolith, carved from one piece of granite 15 feet high, is assumed to be the main deity of the Chavin religion. Figure 9b shows an exploded view of the carving, clearly showing the fangs and claws of this God. Although its fangs seem to be linked to the Chavin jaguar cult, the carving as a whole resembles a mixture of human and bull features, with serpents flowing from the head.

The God has his right arm raised and left arm lowered, as if to convey some kind of message. Some commentators have noted the lack of a life line in the raised hand, suggesting that the God signifies death. Others see the image as benign and refer to it as “the smiling God of Chavin”. Whilst the precise meaning of El Lanzon is uncertain, it is clear that the carved statue was of great importance.

The fact that its narrow, tapered upper section fits accurately through a tailor-made hole in the roof indicates that the temple must have been designed around the statue. It therefore seems as if this sacred relic was deliberately hidden away in the depths of the temple, in such a way that it could not be removed. Why did the priests go to such lengths to hide and protect their divine idol?

A clue may exist in the irregular shape of the granite (especially at the front) which suggests that the stone was damaged before the carving was made. If that was the case, the stone may have already been sacred. It is possible that the Chavin priests carved El Lanzon and hid it to protect it from further damage.

The outside walls of the Old Temple were once adorned with more than two hundred frightening stone heads, some animal but mostly human. Only one of these gruesome heads remains in its original position (Plate 10). The fangs and large nose are typical of the Chavin heads, as is the strange knob-shaped protrusion on the top. The meaning of these features is a mystery. It seems particularly strange that such unwelcoming stone faces would have greeted the pilgrims who made the gruelling journey to Chavin.

Why did Chavin de Huantar suddenly emerge as a religious centre? Why did pilgrims trek through almost a hundred miles of extremely difficult mountain terrain to reach it?

Clearly there was something very special about this place something that is not readily apparent from the sprawling ruins of the temples which have been dated to around 500 BC. Does Chavin have a secret, earlier past?

Archaeologists have indeed found evidence of earlier occupation at Chavin de Huantar, radiocarbon dated to 1400 BC, suggesting that the importance of the site preceded the building of the temples by at least 800 years. What was going on at this remote mountainous location? The answer perhaps lies in the earliest phase of construction - a subterranean network of finely constructed stone channels, which drew water from a nearby river and carried it underneath the site via an amazing hydraulic system.

In her book Chavin de Huantar - A Short Eternity, archaeologist Nancy Abanto de Hoogendoorn described:

“... the large and complicated system of hydraulic channels in and around the temple. One of these takes in water directly from the Wacheqsa river.., the water leaving the temple by another subterranean channel to the river Mosna.”

(Figure 10) shows the flow of water from the Wacheqsa intake, a short distance to the west, underneath the site to the Mosna river immediately to the east. Several hydraulic channels brought the waters together in a subterranean gallery and fed it underneath a square sunken plaza.

On one side of the plaza stood a large rectangular building known as the Northern Platform. Hoogendoorn has described the interior of the Platform as “a large passage, completely made of sculpted stones and a quite profound hydraulic system”. It is thought that the heavily damaged Southern Platform on the opposite side of the plaza had a similar function to its northern counterpart.

The two platforms can be seen in Plate 11, either side of the sunken plaza. Finally, all of the flowing waters converged underground at a point just beyond the plaza, where they were then drained by a single channel to the Mosna river.

Why would anyone begin the construction of a settlement with such an advanced underground hydraulic system? The obvious answer is drinking water and sewerage, but if this was the case, then it was over-engineered on a massive scale, and would be quite without precedent in the ancient world. Another theory suggests that the builders designed the hydraulic system to counter the risk of flooding, supposedly by regulating the flow of the Wacheqsa river. It is difficult to see how this idea would have worked in practice, and if the risk of flooding was known in advance, why would anyone set down their roots in such a vulnerable position? There are plenty of other, safer locations in the vicinity.

On the contrary, it has been suggested that one of the few advantages of the Chavin location is its very proximity to these two water sources. This logical line of thought leads us to wonder whether the builders of Chavin deliberately chose this site specifically to make use of the flowing waters. It is difficult to believe that they were regulating the flow of waters between the two rivers for no apparent reason, so what might they have been doing?

It is a fact that water is absolutely essential for most industrial processes. Few clues remain at the site to establish exactly what these processes might have been, but one authority has recently suggested the panning of gold as a possibility. An old Incan legend indeed speaks of gold, silver and precious stones hidden somewhere beneath the temples. Unfortunately, the first proper excavations of Chavin de Huantar, begun in 1919 by Julio Tello, were never completed, because in January 1945 an enormous flood buried the site under ten feet of mud and stones. Since then, archaeological efforts have concentrated on restoring the site to its previous condition.

Crucially, excavations stopped at the level of the sunken plaza which is located at the heart of the Chavin waterworks. This plaza is dated to a later phase of Chavin, around 400-300 BC, and one wonders what earlier constructions might lie beneath it. Could Chavin have once been an industrial centre and could the key to its sacred importance lie in its secret past?

It may be no coincidence that the over-engineering of the Chavin waterworks is mirrored by a similar level of unnecessary complexity in the Akapana waterworks at Tiwanaku...