Another amazing femur high as a man, was found nell'800 in Mesopotamia, today's Iraq, in 1577 to Weillisau in Switzerland was found a human skeleton top 5.80 m, today exposed in a rebuiling of the local museum. Then again in 1870 the Indians found a burial Omaha, eight giants whose skulls measured 60 cm. The Omaha knew their origin through the traditions and they called them Mu-A-Luska, saying that they were from the Pacific probably were just originating in the lost continent of Mu that was in that ocean. In 1925 a Glozel in France were found bones of giants dating a1 7000 BCE, accompanied by handicrafts also giants. In 1924 in Texas were even found cave paintings that showed a tyrannosaurus, while in the same state were even human footsteps of giants with those of dinosaurs; these were considered reliable by scientists. In 1943 in the Aleutian Islands soldiers found some bones of giants really huge, about 7 m. Even in Italy can be observed human bones stored in huge nuragic necropolis in Sardinia and yet many others are still around the world. According to a scientist named Horbiger, in the past the Earth would have had more moons influencing the Earth's magnetic field and grow a disproportionate living beings. Then after one of these moons came into collision with our planet causing a huge cataclysm that dramatically changed and sunk lands and continents, and with them these beings. Perhaps some of them still live today, maybe fled, testified as some Amazzonic Indians at the beginning of the twentieth century, the legendary underground Kingdom of Agharti.

(Sopra) Gigantic femur exposed at Mount Blanco Fossil Museum in the United States.

These indigenous people said to be entered in these caves and coming into contact with their high population of three to five meters, as we have already discussed in this article. As both ended really do not know yet, but one thing is certain: the existence of these Giants is a reality and perhaps today, thanks to these findings there is a bit clearer history and origin of our megalithic monuments.

Traces of Giants. From here on the left clockwise: the skeleton of a man found high 3.6 m in Mammouth Cave in Kentucky, a man was found in his garden a femur of 1.5 m; ancient Patagonians (here depicted in a print d 'age) were more than 3 m high; human skull in comparison with that of a gigantopitecus; picture of a man of a Peruvian Andean race originally found by Pizarro; nineteenth century's photos of the discovery of a Giant skeleton.

The Baalbek Megalith in Lebanon
Hajar-el-Hibla ("stone of the pregnant woman"). Located in the Beqaa Valley, 85 kilometers from Beirut, this phenomenal stone is estimated to weigh nearly 1200 tons. The dimensions of the stone are approximately 68'x14'x14'

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.

CHAPTER THREE
SIGNS OF THE GODS

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...

Lost Secrets of the Incas
In AD 1532, the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru, under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro. The Incan empire which they found was huge and enormously wealthy, with gold reserves beyond the Spaniards’ wildest dreams of avarice. However, it was also an empire plagued by internal strife, which made it extremely vulnerable.

The Incan gold proved to be a temptation that truly changed the course of history, leading to a long war in which the Spaniards brutally subjugated the native people. Remarkably, the Incan empire which they destroyed was totally devoid of writing, plunging the prior history of much of South America into an obscurity that can only be partially enlightened by oral traditions.

How long had the Incas been ruling the Andes before the Spaniards arrived? The Incan empire is commonly dated to the period AD 1100-1532, but its aggressive expansion is thought to have occurred after 1438 under the leadership of the famous Inca who came to be known as Pachacuti, It is believed that this Inca made a pilgrimage to a legendary mountain cave known as Tampu-Tocco, as a result of which he returned to the capital of Cuzco and adopted the name Pachacuti “the Shaker or Changer of the Earth”. From that point, it would seem, the Incas became oppressive dictators, building their empire by the ruthless enslavement of the surrounding tribes.

Why was the location of Tampu-Tocco so significant in Incan tradition? According to legend, the first Inca, named Manco Capac, had been born at Tampu-Tocco, where he disappeared one day, allegedly carried aloft by the Sun God. When he returned, he was wearing garments of gold and claimed a divine mandate to begin a new line of kings at Cuzco. Manco Capac thus became the first official Inca of the dynasty established at Cuzco in AD 1100.

However, according to an exhaustive analysis carried out by the Spanish historian Fernando Montesinos, the mean Manco Capac was in fact named after an earlier Manco Capac, who had started civilization at Cuzco thousands of years before the Incas. Montesinos recorded the local beliefs that 62 kings had reigned at Cuzco for approximately 2,500 years and that 28 kings had then ruled at Tampu-Tocco for around 1,000 years.

This, the only chronological record of Andean prehistory, takes us back to a date of 2400 BC. At that time, the original Manco Capac had come to Cuzco from the sacred Lake Titicaca on the orders of the God Viracocha, who had given him a golden wand or staff. What exactly might this wand have been?

According to one version of the legend, Manco Capac’s instructions were to build a city where the wand sank into the ground, whilst in another version he had to use the wand to strike a particular stone. Some historians believe that the later Incas appropriated the earlier tale of Pvlanco Capac to their own dynasty, along with the creation legend of Titicaca which they had adopted from their conquest of Tiwanaku.

The implication is that Peru once witnessed a long and unrecorded occupation by pre-Incan cultures. In the case of Cuzco, such a suggestion has now been confirmed by archaeology, whilst other scholars have argued strongly that Cuzco had astronomical functions, which allow its origin to be dated to the era of 2200 BC or earlier.” In the light of the above, it seems rather hasty to credit all of the impressive megalithic structures in Peru to the Incas, but nevertheless this has become the conventional wisdom.

Curiously, advocates of this theory cannot explain why the Spaniards did not use the Incas’ expert stonemasons to construct their own buildings following the conquest. It is a fact that, when earthquakes hit Cuzco in 1650 and 1950, most of the Spanish structures collapsed, whilst the supposedly Incan structures stood firm. One of these structures was a megalithic wall featuring an amazing stone with 12 angles (Plate 12).

Its perfect, mortarless fit with the surrounding stones is typical of many examples all over Peru where it is impossible to fit the thinnest needle or razor blade between the stones. The chronicles of the Spaniards repeatedly stressed their admiration for the megalithic walls of the “Incan” fortifications. Is it therefore conceivable that the Spaniards would not have harnessed for themselves the skills of the Incas? Did these Inca stonemasons disappear into thin air.., or did they never exist?

In short, was the expertise pre-Inca? How were stone blocks such as the stone of 12 angles cut and assembled with such accuracy? In 1996, field experiments were carried out to test a theory that “scribing and coping” might have been used. This technique utilizes a simple wooden device with a string plumb-line, which enables the profile of a pre-cut stone block to be traced against an adjacent uncut stone.

The adjacent block can then be carved with a matching surface, using smaller stones as hammers and chisels. The field experiment managed to produce reasonable results with small blocks of stone, but if we move from Cuzco to the nearby site of Sacsayhuaman, we find stones of a completely different magnitude.

The ruins of Sacsayhuaman (pronounced as “sexy woman”) occupy a ridge overlooking the city of Cuzco. The main feature of the site is a set of three parallel, zigzagging walls, as shown in Plate 13. These walls, when combined with the natural sheer drop on the opposite side, created a completely fortified area, that was used to good effect by the Incas against the Spaniards. But could the Incas really have built these massive fortifications using only stone hammers and muscle power?

The largest stones at Sacsayhuaman occur in the lowest wall, a magnificent 20 feet in height. where one stone in particular - Plate 13 - is estimated to weigh 130 tons. These zigzagging walls, more than 1,200 feet long, have rightly been called “one of the most astounding megalithic structures of the ancient world and have repeatedly amazed all that have seen them.

The Spanish historian, Garcilaso de la Vega, recorded his impressions that the walls were:

“... erected by magic, by demons and not by men, because of the number and size of the stones placed in the three walls.., which it is impossible to believe were cut out of quarries, since the Indians had neither iron nor steel wherewith to extract and shape them.”

Leaving aside the enormous efforts which would have been involved in dragging more than a thousand stones several miles from the nearest quarry, let us return to the theory of “scribing and coping” In order to match the joints of the Sacsayhuaman stones in this way, many stones weighing 10-20 tons would have had to be propped up in mid-air while the scribing and coping was performed against the stone positioned below.

Faced with such a dangerous and painstaking operation, the question which arises is not whether the Incas could have done it, but why did they bother? Why did they not use stones half the size? I asked the same question earlier of Baalbek and was forced to conclude that an advanced construction technology must have been available.

A similarly advanced technology seems to have been used on a rocky knell at Sacsayhuaman, opposite the zigzag walls. Here, we find the so-called “Inca’s Throne” - Plate 15 - where, for no apparent reason, a platform and series of steps have been carved with great precision into the hillside. The “experts” claim that the perfect angles and edges of the Inca’s Throne were finished off using small stones as precision tools. However, when one sees the accuracy of this work first-hand, it seems ludicrous to suggest that such primitive methods were actually used. The smooth, polished faces of these steps, together with numerous other enigmatic niches around Sacsayhuaman, appear instead to have been machined using twentieth century technology.

Let us now move into the Urubamba Valley, the so-called “Sacred Valley” of the Incas. This valley begins just north of Cuzco and follows the Urubamba River north-west. Among the numerous curiosities along this route, I would like to focus in particular on just two - Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu. Ollantaytambo is situated 40 miles north-west of Cuzco.

Like Sacsayhuaman, it consists of a series of terraced levels, defended by huge megalithic walls. Like Sacsayhuaman and Tiwanaku, the site is littered with stone blocks in which mysterious niches have been cut with precise angles and perfect inside edges. Plate 19 shows an example of one amazing stone which stands at the bottom of these ruins Some of the megalithic walls at Ollantaytambo - Plates 18 and 20 - are among the finest in all of Peru.

Curiously, one of the lower walls here has been repaired with inferior quality stones, which stand on top of their superior megalithic cousins. No-one but the Incas could have carried out these repairs. It is a feature repeated at other sites such as Pisac, and provides a further clue to the limited scope and quality of Inca constructions, contrasting their achievements to those from the pre-Inca period.

Above the fortified terracing at Ollantaytambo, there lies a mysterious building romantically known as the “Temple of the Sun”. This “temple” is fronted by six enormous monoliths, as shown in Plate 16, the largest stone measuring over 13 feet in height. These stones are unique, their straight sides and unusual spacers being in total contrast to the multi-faced joints and bevelled edges of other megalithic walls in Peru.

Exactly how the stones were so perfectly shaped is unknown, since they were carved out of red porphyry, a stone as hard as granite. The great mystery of Ollantaytambo is how these six 50-ton stones were moved to their present location, since the quarry from which they came has been definitively identified at Chachicata four miles away across the valley on the opposite mountainside!” Having first quarried the stones, it would be necessary to take them down a steep mountain slope, across a river, and then up another steep mountain slope to the construction site. It seems to be an impossible task.

Nevertheless, in 1996, one group of experts boldly travelled to Ollantaytambo to demonstrate what was possible using human muscle power and traditional materials. Their first task was to demonstrate how a relatively small one-ton stone (one fiftieth of the size of the genuine article) could be lowered down the mountain using ropes. The stone cascaded out of control, and it was fortunate that no-one was killed.

The second task was to pull a stone of similar size across the river at a shallow point. Here, the team had a surprising success, the stone moving quickly across the gravelly river bed. In a similar manner, the stone was moved across a pre-prepared cobbled surface at a surprisingly rapid speed. At this point the project was abandoned, with the claim that the experts had illustrated how the stone could be pulled up the mountainside. Well, sorry chaps, it was a grand effort, but I fail to see how a 50-ton stone will overcome the power of gravity and shoot up a 50degree mountain slope like greased lightning - even with a cobbled path and several thousand weightlifters!

Advocates of such push-and-shove methods point out that the remains of a ramp do exist, leading up the hillside at Ollantaytambo, and that, furthermore, numerous stones (the so-called “tired stones” which never made it to the top) can be seen lying at the foot of the ramp.

Unfortunately, this evidence only explains the stones that did not get up the ramp. It tells us nothing about the stones which we see at the top of the hill. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the megalithic structures at Ollantaytambo already existed in Inca times, and that the ramp and tired stones represent the efforts of the Incas to emulate what they saw.

It would appear that they failed, just as the 1996 team did. In support of this interpretation, Garcilaso de la Vega reported that one of the Incas had indeed attempted to enhance his reputation by ordering 20,000 men to pull a tired stone up a mountainside. The event ended in tragedy, with thousands of people being killed when they lost control of the huge stone.

The greatest mystery of the Ollantaytambo “temple”, however, is its apparent lack of purpose. It does not seem to form part of a building, since the area enclosed by the walls consists of an outcrop of solid rock. It may be the case that a superstructure was intended, for there are clear signs that the building was abandoned in mid-course.

However, the ultimate goal of the builders is quite obscure, for the ridge on which the stones stand is too narrow to have been of much strategic use. The so-called “temple” reminded me of the J. F. Kennedy Memorial in Dallas, USA (Plate 17), simply because neither structure has any apparent purpose. Could this be the solution - was the structure intended as a memorial? It is noteworthy that the fourth stone from the left has been decorated niches and pegs. However, they have so far failed to explain why it was necessary for these astronomers to go to so much trouble in such a remote location.

The more widely accepted view is that Machu Picchu, along with Cuzco, were sacred sites for religious and ceremonial purposes.

Anthropologist Johan Reinhard is one of the strongest advocates of this theory, stating that Machu Picchu:

“.. is situated in the centre of sacred mountains and in association with a sacred river which is in turn linked with the Sun’s passage, thereby forming a cosmological, hydrological and sacred geographical centre for the region in which it is situated.”

This religious interpretation noticeably links Machu Picchu and Cuzco to the other sites mentioned earlier in this chapter - Baalbek, Tiwanaku and Chavin de Huantar. All have become places of pilgrimage, and all exhibit unusual signs of high technology in prehistoric times. Is there a common factor that caused all of these places to become so sacred? We will now travel to Nazca to find another important clue.

In the 1930s archaeologists studying the 2,000-year old Nazca civilization in southern Peru came across some very strange ruts in the ground. As they examined these ruts, they found to their astonishment that the brown crust-like surface of the desert had been deliberately removed to create furrows 4-6 inches deep.

The lighter coloured subsoil which had been exposed formed distinct lines which ran across the desert plain. In due course, it became apparent that the archaeologists had stumbled across a much wider phenomenon - the so-called “Nazca Lines” which cover a 30-mile long strip in the foothills of the Andes mountains. More than sixty years later, not one single theory has been put forward to explain all of the Nazca markings. A prominent scientist has called it “one of the most baffling enigmas of archaeology”.

Why have the Nazca Lines proved such an insoluble mystery? The reason lies in the sheer variety of designs, which include around 300 pictures, commonly referred to as “geoglyphs”. Some of the better known of these figures are shown to scale in Figure 11. The relative sizes of the spider, monkey, condor and lizard (among others) can be judged against the largest figure - a stylized heron with a zigzag neck, approximately 900 feet long.

However, as diverse as these geoglyphs are, others are different again, consisting of totally abstract shapes. And even among the abstract designs, there is diversity. Whilst one design in particular contains no less than 365 angles, others, in the form of spirals, contain no angles at all.

Although the recognizable animal geoglyphs draw most of the attention at Nazca, they are in fact dwarfed by the huge trapezoidal (wedge-like) designs such as the one shown in Plate 12. Some of these wedges have sides more than 2,500 feet long! The wedges, in turn, are outdone by the lines themselves, which run perfectly straight for up to 5 miles.

What could have been the purpose of all these diverse lines and geoglyphs? Seen as a whole, the Nazca Lines appear to be a jumbled mess, scattered seemingly at random over the desolate plain, crossing and intersecting for no apparent reason. In some places, carefully drawn geoglyphs have been partly obliterated by the huge wedges.

Furthermore, there is a great contrast between some drawings which have been perfectly executed, and others which have been sloppily drawn. More puzzling still, many of the images are so big that they can only be viewed from the air at a height of 1,000 feet!’” By whom were the lines and figures intended to be seen?

In 1969, Erich von Daniken floated the idea that airborne extraterrestrials might have laid out the lines as runways for their aircraft. However, his imaginative theory ran into a number of problems. First. it is claimed that the soil is not hard enough to sustain repeated landings of heavy aerial craft. Secondly, why did the alleged extraterrestrials not design something far more sophisticated? Thirdly, many lines are only 3 feet wide - too narrow for aircraft. In addition, von Daniken has failed to explain the meaning or purpose of the animal geoglyphs.

The foremost expert on the Nazca Lines is undoubtedly Maria Reiche, a German mathematician who has devoted more than fifty years of her life to the study and protection of the Lines. Reiche has led a determined effort to discredit the von Daniken theory of extraterrestrials.

The strategy of this attack has been to argue that the Nazca Indians constructed the Lines relatively recently - some time between 300 BC and AD 800. In support of this possibility, some scientists have put forward ingenious ideas on how the geoglyphs could theoretically have been designed from the ground.

The more important evidence, however, is that which attempts to link the Lines definitively to the Nazcan culture. Here, neither of the two key pieces of evidence survive close scrutiny. The first piece of evidence is a series of radiocarbon dates, based on ceramic and wood remains which were left at the Lines by the Nazcan people. It is claimed that this proves that the Nazcans constructed the Lines.

On the contrary, the dating of these materials tells us only that the Nazcans lived in the area of the Lines. Since the Lines themselves cannot be radiocarbon dated, the possibility remains that they already existed when the Nazcan culture emerged. The second piece of evidence is the alleged resemblance of the Nazca geoglyphs to certain features found on Nazcan pottery. This is an important issue because it potentially offers proof that the Nazcans had either designed the images or at least viewed them from the air.

Figure 12 shows four examples of Nazcan pottery exhibited by the museum in the nearby city of Ica. The first supposedly matches the lizard in Figure 11 the second supposedly matches the spider; the third supposedly matches the hummingbird (top left of Figure 11); and the fourth supposedly matches the whale (bottom right of Figure 11).

In all cases the similarities are tenuous and key points of detail from the highly stylized geoglyphs are different or missing on the pottery. Five other examples (not shown below) are equally tenuous. In their eagerness to disprove the von Daniken theory, the experts seem to have forgotten that it is quite normal for ancient artists to reproduce figures of birds, insects, reptiles and sea creatures.

If the judgment of these experts had not been so clouded, they might have wondered why the Nazcans did not decorate their pottery with the more unusual designs of the Nazca plain - the wedge shapes, the intersecting lines and the abstract shapes. How does Maria Reiche explain the purpose of the Nazca Lines?

Although Reiche claims not to have reached a definite conclusion, she leans heavily towards the theory that they represent an astronomical calendar. She claims that the Nazcans used the lines and figures to measure the key points of the solar year to assist with agricultural planning. However, Reiche’s theory, like von Daniken’s, has collapsed under the overwhelming weight of logical argument stacked against it.

In 1968, a study by the National Geographic Society determined that, whilst some of the Nazca lines did point to the positions of the Sun, Moon and certain stars two thousand years ago, it was no more than could be expected by mere chance.” In 1973, Dr Gerald Hawkins studied 186 lines with a computer programme and found that only 20 per cent had any astronomical orientation again no more than by pure chance.

In 1982, Anthony Aveni obtained similar results,” whilst in 1980, Georg Petersen pointed out that Reiche’s theory did not explain the different lengths and widths of the lines. More recently, Johan Reinhard has noted that the surrounding mountains provided a ready-made and much more effective mechanism for the Nazcans to use as a solar calendar; the lines would thus have been quite superfluous to them. In addition to this avalanche of scientific opinion, we should also note that Reiche, like von Daniken, has failed to explain the significance of the animal geoglyphs.

How else might we explain the Nazca Lines?

They were certainly not Inca roads, since many lines begin and end in mid-desert, and they were certainly not irrigation canals, since most of them do not lead to sources of water. With all possible practical purposes exhausted, many writers have begun to focus on the symbolism of the lines and figures. All manner of religious cults have now been suggested - ancestor cults, water cults, fertility cults and mountain cults.

The leading proponent of the cult theory is Johan Reinhard, who has identified many lines leading to religious shrines, water sources or mountains. Reinhard has argued convincingly that the Nazcans worshipped the mountains, but why would they worship inanimate objects? Reinhard noted a widespread belief amongst ancient Andean cultures that various Gods - whom they revered as their ancestors resided in the mountains. These Gods controlled the weather and hence the water supply which determined the fertility of crops and livestock. Reinhard added that the chief God Viracocha (mentioned earlier re: Tiwanaku) was closely associated with both mountains and water.

How does the worship of mountain Gods explain the Nazca Lines? Johan Reinhard has detailed various ancient traditions, according to which the mountain Gods took to the skies in the form of eagles or condors. As Reinhard explains, this cult theory explains the single most significant aspect of the Nazca Lines:

“That the figures can be best seen only from the air is explainable as being due to the ability of the mountain deities to oversee the area, such as appearing as birds or in the form of the flying feline.”

Could this be a vital clue towards solving the mystery? The anthropologists attribute the belief in mountain Gods to a sound ecological basis, since mountains are the source of rivers and rain clouds. But what if these mountain Gods were not the product of human imagination? What if they were flesh-and-blood Gods who sometimes flew in aircraft?

It would be premature to reveal my unique proposal for solving the Nazca mystery at this point, but it is necessary for me to make two things quite clear first, I am not saying that the Nazca Lines represented an airfield; secondly, I am saying that they do strongly indicate that aircraft technology was needed to observe them. This might seem a fanciful idea if it were not for the level of high technology seen earlier at Baalbek, Tiwanaku and the various pre-Incan sites of Peru.

A very strong pattern has emerged in this chapter. All of the sites we have studied indicate the existence of two distinctly different levels of culture a prehistoric culture with advanced technology. and a later culture which gazed in awe at the miraculous stonework which the advanced culture had left behind. Were all of these sites adopted as sacred centers by later cultures, who created or preserved the legends of the Gods?

The evidence cited earlier suggests that the Tiwanakans did not build the Akapana, but adopted it. They did not understand its purpose, but they made it their most hallowed spot. Nazca represents a parallel situation. It may be no coincidence that the Nazcan capital of Cahuachi functioned primarily as a ceremonial centre and is dated to c. AD 200, exactly the same time that Tiwanaku emerged as a sacred centre.

As at Tiwanaku, the Nazcans may have adopted the Lines, nor understanding their origin or purpose, but worshipping them as sacred signs of the Gods. As Johan Reinhard has noted, they built simple religious shrines at the end of many lines and worshipped mountain Gods as their ancestors.

If we take these Gods to be the same flesh-and-blood beings that designed the waterworks of Tiwanaku and Chavin, the fortress of Sacsayhuaman and the platform at Baalbek, then the Nazca Lines signify another very important technology - they tell us that the Gods could fly...

Chapter Three Conclusions

• Physical evidence suggests the existence of a very old, unrecorded culture, using advanced technology at Baalbek, Tiwanaku and various sites in Peru. Later cultures saw this technology as the handiwork of “Gods” and made these places sacred.

• The Nazca Lines indicate that one of the technologies possessed by these “Gods” was aeronautics. The existence of a huge prehistoric platform at Baalbek, along with the associated legend of the Sun God’s “chariot”, supports this conclusion.