To measure this movement they built the temple itself as a giant
clock to tell them how the progression of the sun was proceeding. We can use
those same astronomical alignments to date the site.
On the first day of spring the sun rose exactly through the center of the
archway of the temple. Based on the layout of the temple he deduced that on the
first day of winter and the first day of summer the sun should rise over each of
the huge cornerstones. But this is not the case. The position of the sun was,
for some reason slightly outside the corner markers. The solstice markers are
not misaligned.
By measuring the angle of the cornerstones and comparing that angle to
today's sunrise position Broznansky was able to calculate that the city was
built 17,000 years ago. Steede feels that the construction is around 12,000.
While restoring the city a huge stables were found between the stones. The
ancients would carve a groove in the edge and would pour in a molton liquids
which hardened forming this staple. This is way to determine a timeline before
recorded history.
The Temple of the Sun was once the most important temple of the Incas. When
the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire, they used the fine Inca stonework to form
the base of the Church of Santo Domingo. Inside the church area are some
of the buildings built by the Incas that were used by the conquerors for their
private quarters.
The temple also served as a tomb for several Incas, or kings. During Inca
rule, the Coricancha, or Golden Courtyard, was covered with gold and silver
sculptures representing llamas, corn, babies, and the sun.
When the Spaniards conquered Cuzco, the Inca capital, they set about
stripping the gold from the temples and melting them down. Legend has it
that it took three months to cart all of the gold from the Sun Temple.
Sacsayhuaman
On the peak of a hill overlooking the city of Cusco lies the ancient fortress
of Sacsayhuaman (pronounced like sexy woman). Once the domain of Inca warriors,
nobles and engineers it now stands in ruins but many visitors explore its maze
of intricately constructed walls, stairways and structures. After the conquest
of Cusco in 1536 most of the inner structures of Sacsayhuaman were dismantled
and used to construct Spanish Cusco.
The carved stone walls fit so perfectly that no blade of grass or steel can
slide between them. There is no mortar. They often join in complex and irregular
surfaces that would appear to be a nightmare for the stonemason. There is
usually neither adornment nor inscription. It reminds me of the stones of the Great Pyramid. That too has no
inscriptions. One has to wonder wh created these great stone edifices with such
precission in that timeline with such limited tools. Could they have been
created by the same God? aliens?
Most of these walls are found around Cuzco and the Urubamba River Valley in
the Peruvian Andes. There are a few scattered examples elsewhere in the Andes,
but almost nowhere else on Earth.
Sacsahuaman was supposedly completed around 1508. It took approximately a
crew of 20,000 to 30,000 men working for 60 years to complete it.
The chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega was born around 1530, and raised in the
shadow of these walls. And yet he seems not to have had a clue as to how
Sacsahuaman was built.
He wrote:
This fortress surpasses the constructions known as the seven
wonders of the world. For in the case of a long broad wall like that of
Babylon, or the colossus of Rhodes, or the pyramids of Egypt, or the other
monuments, one can see clearly how they were executed...how, by summoning an
immense body of workers and accumulating more and more material day by day and
year by year, they overcame all difficulties by employing human effort over a
long period. But it is indeed beyond the power of imagination to understand
now these Indians, unacquainted with devices, engines, and implements, could
have cut, dressed, raised, and lowered great rocks, more like lumps of hills
than building stones, and set them so exactly in their places. For this
reason, and because the Indians were so familiar with demons, the work is
attributed to enchantmet.
It would appear the timeline for the creation of the fortress is wrong.
Archaeologists tell us that the walls of Sacsahuaman rose ten feet higher
than their remnants. That additional ten feet of stones supplied the building
materials for the cathedrals and casas of the conquistadors. It is generally
conceded that these stones were much smaller than those lithic monsters that
remain. Perhaps the upper part of the walls, constructed of small,
regularly-shaped stones was the only part of Sacsahuaman that was built by the
Incas and "finished in 1508." This could explain why no one at the time of the
conquest seemed to know how those mighty walls were built.
Strange Stone Carvings
Steps that go nowhere - seats that are hard to get to - are to be found in
astonishing abundance in the area around Cusco. They are carved so precisely,
with their outside and inside corners so sharp and fine. Who carved them and
why?
Ollantaytambo is rare if not unique in Peru. The gigantic monoliths you see
here are part of what was to be a shrine or temple. At some time unknown, and
for reasons unknown, work mysteriously stopped on this huge project. There are
many other projets that were never completed, perhaps due to the Spanish
invasion.
Not far from Cusco there is a hill they call the Temple of the Moon. The hill
has several caves and many rock carvings. Some of the carvings here show extreme
weathering. This most likely was used for ceremonial purposes.
