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by Richard Nisbet
© 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet. All rights reserved. Except where indicated, all photos and text
by Richard Nisbet. Reprinted with author's permission.
Machu Picchu is one of the few places left unscathed by the conquering Spaniards. Searching for more gold, Pizarro marched his men up the Urubamba River and around the horseshoe bend at the base of the mountain.
Serenely perched 1500 feet above the thundering waters, Machu Picchu escaped the fate of most of the Inca empire.
At some point, for reasons that elude us, life in the city ended and the forest took dominion. It was rediscovered in 1911 by a young American named Hiram Bingham.
Machu Picchu © 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet
Machu Picchu © 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet
It is now generally thought that at the time of the conquest, knowledge of Machu Picchu had been lost by the Incas themselves. This hasn't stopped modern historians from somehow attributing its construction to Pachacutec, the 9th Inca who reigned in the mid 15th century, and gets credit for much of the achievements of that civilization.
Machu Picchu © 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet
Hiram Bingham was told of a plant whose juices softened rock so that the surfaces would join perfectly. There are reports of such a plant, including this one by one of the early Spanish Chroniclers: While encamped by a rocky river, he watched a bird with a leaf in its beak light on a rock, lay down the leaf and peck at it. The next day the bird returned. By then there was a concavity where the leaf had been. By this method the bird created a drinking cup to catch the splashing waters of the river. Considering the fact that lichen softens stone to attach its roots, and considering the ongoing extinction of plant species, perhaps this isn't really such a far-fetched notion.
Eric Von Daniken, in his series of books beginning with Chariots of the Gods theorized that the Andean stoneworks were built by Alien/Gods who visited the earth long ago, bringing civilization to primative man. The scientific community simply snickered.
Whatever one thinks of his theories, he brought to the public an awareness of the many ancient monuments on earth that seem to defy rational explanation.
Machu Picchu © 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet
In his novel "Slapstick" Kurt Vonnegut quips:
"...there must have been days of light gravity in old times, when people could play tiddley winks with huge chunks of stone."
Pedro de Cieza de Leon wrote of an old Inca legend about the creator-god, Viracocha. Once to show his power he caused a huge fire, then extinguished it. As a result of having been burnt so, the stones were so light that even a large one could be picked up as though it were made of cork.
Machu Picchu © 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet
Because Machu Picchu was never discovered and ransacked by the Spanish Conquistadors, it is something of a time capsule. The stoneworks here show astonishing differences in quality of craftsmanship. In many places there are walls in the lower levels of the fine quality that is the hallmark of ancient Andean stoneworks. Then as the walls rise, the quality of work diminishes. The lower layers are always finer, always more precise, than those above. One gets the feeling that these are remnants of old walls that were discovered and built upon by later hands.
Machu Picchu © 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet
The structures at Machu Picchu are not as gigantic as those at Sacsahuaman, but some are surely finer. In a few cases, as in the "Temple of Three Windows" these walls stand among the most inspired structures created by man.
Temple of Three Windows. Machu Picchu © 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet
Where else are stoneworks like these found?
It may be that the only other place on earth is Easter Island. The most remote inhabited place in the world, this barren speck of land boasts over 500 gigantic, long-eared stone statues called Moai. There are curious connections between the Andes and Easter Island. For as long as we know, Easter Island has had the potato and the totora reed, both of Andean origin. In the oldest legends, Easter Island was called "The Navel of the World." Cuzco was called the same.
Thor Heyerdahl explored the island in an ongoing effort to prove his theory that people came to Easter Island from the East, sailing the prevailing currents. He believed that the walls there of the Andean style were not built by those who carved the Moai, but by an earlier civilization.
A study of underwater topography and plate tectonics suggests to some a startling possibility.
Look at a map of the Pacific ocean floor just off the western coast of South America. There is an underwater ridge that connects to the coast of Peru at the fabled Nazca Plain. From there it extends out in a jagged line to Easter Island. These two locations are at the opposite edges of the Nazca Plate.
From the NOAA map Measured and Estimated Seafloor Topography.
The Nazca Ridge is on the Nazca tectonic plate. This plate is sliding under the South American Plate. As this happens the edge of the Nazca plate pushes under the South American plate, lifting it's edge. This is usually a smooth and steady subduction, but a global catastrophe of Noachean magnitude would call off all bets.
From a USGS map
The most-accepted current scientific model for earth change today is uniformitarianism. According to this model, geological changes are now and always have been a gradual process. This theory is being challenged by the proponents of catastrophism, which posits that sometimes sudden and dramatic changes occur on our Terra-not-so-firma. (The pummeling that comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 gave Jupiter in 1994 gave Catastrophism a good boost.)
There is ample evidence that Lake Titicaca, now at an elevation of 12,500 feet above sea-level, was once at sea-level. I am suggesting that the Nazca ridge, or part of it, might once have been above sea-level. This would have provided a partial landbridge between Easter Island and South America.
The Nazca Plain, which is directly inland from the juncture of the Nazca ridge and South America, is as strange as Easter Island. It is covered with a jumble of lines and drawings so huge that they can only be comprehended from the air. Many theories have been proposed to explain these markings, but none of them that I know of have taken underwater topography into account. Both the markings of the Nazca Plain and the statues of Easter Island seem the work of peoples possessed. Could it be that these extraordinary efforts are the reaching-out of those whose ancestors' connection had been severed?
The Catastrophe
What may have been the cause is a matter of debate, but it is widely agreed that something earth-shaking occurred around 9,600 B.C. It was then that large numbers of flora and fauna species (among them the Mammoth and the Mastodon) disappeared. It has also been theorized by respected scientists that the axis of the earth shifted at that time. There are flood legends recounting world-wide catastrophe in almost every society on earth.
If such a world-wide jolt occurred, it is quite possible that the Nazca Plate could slip suddenly under the South America plate, drastically lowering the one and raising the other.
© 2003-2004 by Richard Nisbet.All rights reserved
