As stone is not organic in nature, it cannot be dated using a technique such as radiocarbon testing, yet some new techniques like cosmogenic testing are being developed which may allow accurate dating in the future. The fact that the original works only go about a meter or so above the ground could either indicate that it was partially deconstructed, or perhaps the victim of ancient catastrophic damage.
Following the trail that the Inca would have taken in order to find or establish Cusco as their new homeland, which again closely follows the Vilcanota River, takes a strange left turn about 50 kilometers before the city itself. The river continues on its natural course into the Sacred Valley of Peru, and then continues in a continued northerly direction past Machu Pic’chu, eventually joining the Ucayali River in the Peruvian jungle and then the Amazon. Instead, the trail leads straight through another megalithic work, called the Inti Punku or sun gate.
Inti Punku showing obvious megalithic elements
This structure again has two distinct building styles - two massive walls of tight fitting basalt blocks, and then mud clay built with local stone. It would appear that here, like at the temple of Viracocha, the Inca discovered a very ancient megalithic work and constructed on top and around it. The original stone works are so weathered that there are no apparent tool marks, on the surface at least, and cracks in the blocks would seem to show evidence of a catastrophic disaster having hit it, rather than simply time and gravity.
As the trail continues, and is in fact now the main highway from the south entering modern Cusco, it takes us right to the core of ancient Inca Cusco itself. It is here that the author believes that rather than finding virgin ground in which to establish their new home, the Inca found the ruins of an abandoned and destroyed megalithic city. The evidence, which most archaeologists and other academics refuse to accept or in fact do not even see, is obvious to even the most slightly aware observer.
Starting at the center of the Inca world, the Coricancha (courtyard of gold), which was converted into a Catholic church as soon as the Spanish arrived in 1533, we see ample evidence of very advanced stone construction techniques well beyond the capacity of the Inca. The majority of the ancient stone work of the Coricancha, which could very well be the finest stone-on-stone mortar free construction in all of the Americas, are basalt, gleaned from a quarry 50 kilometers from the Coricancha.
Astonishing original stonework of the Coricancha (on the right)
In most cases the walls are one meter thick and the stone-on-stone contact is flawless from the outside to the inside, a feat that bewilders modern engineers and stone masons alike.
That the Inca could not have made it with bronze tools is obvious, and the first ever topographical map of Cusco, made soon after the Spanish entered and claimed the city, shows that the Inca constructions are indicated by thin lines, while the megalithic ones are thicker lines. This drawing shows us that the Inca in fact repaired the Coricancha, especially the southern wall.
Original colonial map of Cusco showing megalithic walls
To the author, this again indicates that the Inca did not find the Coricancha in pristine condition, but a damaged structure that must have been hit by at least one massive cataclysm.
A few blocks to the northeast is what is commonly called the Inca Roca wall, named after the high Sapa Inca, number 6 of 12 in line of succession that had his palace inside a court made of green granitic stone. This is one of the classic examples of ‘Inca’ polygonal masonry, and the source of all of the green stone that once made up this courtyard came from a nearby neighborhood called San Blas. Unfortunately, building of houses during Spanish colonial and perhaps even Inca times has obscured the quarry, as the buildings are now right on top of it.
A very early photo of the southern wall of the complex shows that a more standard Inca wall of smaller local andesite stones along with clay mortar once covered the entire earlier wall, thus indicating that the green megalithic work is older.
Inca Roca wall with amazing tight joinery
Why the Inca decided to cover over the earlier work is unknown, but it could be that because the ancient wall had been badly damaged by one or more cataclysmic attacks, the Inca filled in gaps and wanted a more homogenous look. In the 1950s, archaeologists removed the Inca ‘cover’ wall to expose all of the earlier megalithic works. What is also quite curious is that some of the surface on the north wall appear to have been heat scorched, and this could lead credence to Dr. Robert Schoch’s idea that plasma from the sun struck certain parts of the Earth, especially high elevations like the city of Cusco.
What is also apparent is repair work having been done by perhaps the Inca, or perhaps a more advanced culture, on the northeast corner of the courtyard. In the photos, you can clearly see that smaller basalt blocks have been inserted into the polygonal wall at the top, glaringly different in color to the green granitic stone, which makes up most of the courtyard.
Inca Roca wall section showing possible plasma damage
Inca Roca was the 6th of the great Inca of 12. Curiously, we can see in the constructions of Cusco that the first six Inca each had their own courtyard, which was megalithic in nature. After the ancient aspects of pre-Inca Cusco were used up, then the heirs had to build their own courtyards of smaller local stones, recycled megalithic pieces, and clay mud used as mortar.
Inca Roca wall showing inferior repairs above
The reason why each ruler had to have his own courtyard was because Inca inheritance did not include the father’s palace. A ruling Inca had what was called his Panaca, or ruling family, who would live inside the confines of his courtyard. Once the ruler died his Panaca, which included his high queen, or Qoya, younger children, and other family members, was replaced by the next high Inca who would choose his own people to be in his Panaca – essentially his government. This new Panaca would have to have its own palace inside a courtyard. This is especially emphasized by perhaps most famous of the Sapa Inca, called Pachacutec (‘he who transforms or turns over the world’).
Inca wall with inserted megalithic basalt recycled stones
It is known that he was born in his father’s palace, and the photos show no megalithic elements to its construction - all is Inca work of smallish stones and clay mortar.
Since parts of the wall are deconstructed, likely by the Spanish in order to build their own constructions during colonial times, we can see how the Inca masons ‘cheated.’ They made the fronts of the stones fit together nicely, perhaps in order to make the look blend in with the more ancient works, but in behind the joints taper back, showing a pie-shaped gap.
Inca stone work with pie slice-shaped gap
From here we head to the first established Sapa Inca’s palace of Manco Capac (or Mallku Capac) located on a hill just north of the main square of Cusco. The majority of his palace was destroyed by the Spanish in order to build colonial Cusco, and perhaps as a way to demoralize the Inca descendants as well. What we find here are some of the most beautiful of true Inca wall construction; andesite stones shaped with stone and meteorite hammers, which the Inca did possess. The lintels above each trapezoid niche are basalt, again from the quarry 50 kilometers to the south, each finely hewn.
In behind the wall are the remains of an amazingly built wall section, now in ruins, that again looks like it suffered catastrophic damage rather than Spanish desecration. What seems apparent to the author is that Manco Capac, upon his entrance into Cusco some 1000 years ago, chose this site for his palace so that he would have a perfect view of the city.
Manco Capac wall section with basalt lintel
There is also evidence that tunnels exist under this location, connecting the massive megalithic location called Sacsayhuaman above, with the Coricancha below. This tunnel or system of tunnels were certainly not made by the Inca, and could be part of the more ancient megalithic works, or perhaps enhanced natural phenomena.
Sacsayhuaman is a truly megalithic site in that its main wall contains stones as large a
s 125 tons. The limestone quarry from which the rock was extracted is believed to only be 3 kilometers, but the rolling landscape
Possible entrance to the ancient tunnel system of Cusco
itself would make it difficult even in modern times to move such massive things. The author visited the quarry in 2015 with local experts, but could not find any evidence of tool marks on the stone surfaces. This would lead one to conclude that either all of the stones were found in situ, or that the site is so old that clearly it was not a creation of the Inca. Curiously, the surfaces of the stones do not bear any tool marks whatsoever, except bruise marks that were the result of some Inca period reshaping, or reconstruction by archaeologists in the 20th century.
The probable limestone quarry for the Sacsayhuaman stones
The vast majority of academics are completely convinced that Sacsayhuaman, in total was a creation of the Inca, but cannot explain how the Inca could have cut the stones from the bedrock, moved them, and then finally put them together with almost surgical precision. Their evidence, such as it is, is that all of Cusco and surrounding area constructions were the work of the Inca, as much more primitive cultures pre-existed them. They also depend on accounts written down by the Spanish conquistadors, which are accounts (or more likely tortured confessions) from the Inca people themselves. What is more likely is that the Inca claimed that they built at Sacsayhuaman, not that they constructed the entire complex.
Oral tradition accounts that the author was able to glean from living local experts are that the Spanish, upon first seeing the great wall of Sacsayhuaman in 1533, and shocked at its scale, asked the local Inca if their ancestors had built it.
The author and guests at Sachsayhuaman
The answer was a simple, “No,” that the wall was there when the Inca arrived about 500 years prior. Sacsayhuaman is a huge and complex site, and it is clear that varying techniques were used in its construction. We can see many remains of actual Inca construction techniques, using the local andesite stone, as well as reconstructions that the Inca had done using, in some cases, a mix of andesite and basalt blocks from the Rumicolca quarry some 50 kilometers away. Then of course there are the huge limestone pieces from the quarry 3 kilometers in the distance.
Megalithic work and smaller Inca repairs at Sachsayhuaman
There is no practical reason why such huge blocks were required at Sacsayhuaman, and they are in fact the largest ever employed in the Americas. The common belief that it was a fortress of some kind constructed by the Inca is an idea that the Spanish came up with. For the Inca, it was in fact one of the most sacred of holy places.
Moving farther afield, Pisaq was a major Inca complex located on top of a mountain near the southern end of the Sacred Valley in Peru, near Cusco. It, like Sacsayhuaman is a very large complex, and once had a spiritual sector, royal quarters, army barracks, administrative center, and vast Andene terraces with housing for the farmers. Most academics believe it was the precursor to the more famous Machu Pic’chu, constructed possibly in the 14th century. However, like the other places we have looked at so, Pisaq has megalithic elements which the Inca would have been very hard pressed to have achieved.
What first catches one’s eye is a damaged megalithic wall at the base of the administrative area. The stones here are very tight fitting with no mortar, show no tool marks, and the stone appears to be basalt. If this is the case then the stone likely came from the Rumicolca quarry, which is about 30 kilometers away.
Basalt megalithic wall at Pisaq
At the spiritual center there are many damaged constructions seemingly made of basalt, right next to much poorer works of andesite and clay mud. One could very well infer that the Inca found a much earlier site of mainly basalt construction, and then added their own buildings - a common trait of many places in the area.
Traveling north in the Sacred Valley we do encounter many Inca sites that are pure Inca in design and execution.
Pisaq spiritual center - note the walls on the right
Of note is the winter palace of the brother of Huayna Capac, who was the 10th high Inca, living in the late 15th and early 16th centuries AD. As the photos show, it is of adobe clay construction with a core of field and river stone, cemented together with more adobe. As he was the high ruler of the Inca civilization, he would have at his disposal the finest stone masons in the land. Thus, the fact that his own palace was made of adobe and field/river stone adds more fuel to the idea that the fine megalithic works were not achieved by the Inca people.
Royal Inca work of the late 15th century
It is also possible that this work dates back to Pachacutec Inka Yupanqui, who was the ninth Sapa Inca (ruling from 1438 to 1471/1472) of the Kingdom of Cusco. which he supposedly transformed into a much expanded federation of states. In total, it is believed that there were 12 Inca high leaders in succession, and thus he would have lived when the technical prowess of the Inca people was close to its zenith.
Most of the high Inca rulers had a winter palace in the Sacred Valley, as the land there is about 700 meters below Cusco, and also a year-round spring/summer climate. None that the author has visited have any megalithic elements, and thus were created 100 percent by the Inca. It is when we get to Ollantaytambo, at the northern end of the Sacred Valley, that we see extreme examples of differences between Inca works and those of the much older megalithic builders.
Ollantaytambo is another vast ancient site, and has some examples of the finest of Inca period Andene terraces, some being at least four meters high or more. The method of construction is typical Inca: field stone adhered with clay mud as mortar. Even the structure dedicated to the Virgins of the Sun, who were the female priests responsible for making the royal Inca family’s clothing, and preparers of their food, is an adobe and rough stone construction.
Megalithic works in back and above; Inca terraces on the right
Clearly, if the Inca stonemasons had the capability to make the megalithic works, then the Virgins of the Sun’s temple would have been made that way.
The staircases that lead up to the higher levels at Ollantaytambo were honestly quite poorly constructed, with uneven heights. In some cases, the steps were made of a solid piece of reddish/purple granite, while other
Adobe and rough stone construction at Ollantaytambo
steps were of multiple pieces of stone, some local and others not. And yet when you reach the proposed Sun Temple, you find six massive slabs of the red granite that fit tightly together to this very day. The local stone is a type of fractious slate, and that is what the entire hillside is composed of. Much of the Inca terracing system was constructed using this, clay mortar, and broken pieces of the red granite.
The granite, astonishingly, comes from the top face of a mountain on the other side of
Six of the massive slabs of granite at Ollantaytambo - he quarry is the mountain to the left
the Sacred Valley. At least one of the six massive slabs is estimated to weigh 67 tons, and obviously would have originally weighed much more when it was cut from the mountainside. The question is, how was it and the others cut and transported? There is a road that leads to the quarry from the valley floor, but the upper third is not wide enough to handle these massive slabs. There is also another shorter wall to the south of the large slab one.
Most academics believe that the Inca were constructing the Temple of the Sun and then mysteriously abandoned the project, no reason given. It seems far more likely to the author that the so-called temple was a much earlier construction that was destroyed not by the Spanish, nor the Inca, but an ancient cataclysm. All of the other sites in Peru that we have explored so far show the same level of damage. It is possible that at one time the now ruined granite temple was intact.
Clear evidence that the Inca made additions to a damaged megalithic wall
The great cataclysm could have been so immense that it caused the sides to fall down to the valley floor below, breaking once great megalithic blocks into pieces. Thi
s would explain why some of the stairs were made of a solid piece - the Inca simply recycled the remains where they could.
Since the front and back walls are still partially intact and were built into the mountainside, it is possible that the cataclysm spared them due to the reinforcement aspects that were part of the original construction. As well, there is a so-called ramp that leads from the side of the temple down to the valley floor. Most academics believe that this was made by the Inca as a way to move the massive granite slabs up to the temple site. However, there is an Inca period wall that goes right across it. So, when did the Inca abandon the construction of the temple? I am sure you can answer that. Next we explore Machu Pic’chu, which definitely has some aspects that academics cannot - or will not -answer.
It is generally believed that Machu Pic’chu was constructed by the high Sapa Inca Pachacutec in the mid-15th century as a place of rest for himself and the royal Inca family. Most estimates are that the entire complex took from 30 to 50 years to build, using at least 5000 workers to accomplish the task. The finest stone masons would likely have been brought in from Cusco, some 75 or more kilometers away, as well as most of the rest of the construction crew. The problem with this idea is, where would such a crew have lived? Who would have fed them? And what?
Hiram Bingham III, the American explorer who was backed by The National Geographic and Yale University, and was the first foreigner to make Machu Pic’chu famous in an entire issue dedicated to the site in April 1913, felt that Machu Pic’chu must have taken hundreds or thousands of years to construct.
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