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Mysterious Puma Punku

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30 facts you didn’t know about Puma Punku

by Ivan

This temple complex located near Tiwanaku, Bolivia is one of the most incredible ancient ruins you will find in South America. At a distance of around 45 miles west of La Paz Bolivia we find one of the most magnificent ancient sites on the surface of our planet.

The sheer number of megalithic stones found at Puma Punku are amongst the largest found on the planet. Puma Punku shatters all traditional views on ancient cultures. The incredibly precise stones, precision cuts, and polished surfaces have defied explanation for centuries. The andesite stones used in the construction process of this megalithic site were cut with such precision that they fit together perfectly, and are interlocked with each other without the use of mortar.

This ancient site continues to defy the countless theories put forth by mainstream scholars, historians, and scientists. This ancient site—together with other sites like Teotihuacan in modern day Mexico, the Giza plateau in Egypt, Ollantaytambo, and Sacsayhuaman, among others—is what I like to call an ancient Wikipedia site since it offers us countless details about our ancestors, their lives, ability, knowledge, and skills.

In this article, we bring you 30 mind-bending facts about Puma Punku that you probably have never read about before.

Image Credit °° OJOS DE AGUA °°

This fascinating ancient ‘alien’ complex is located just 45 miles west of La Paz, high in the Andean mountains.

Puma Punku is located at an altitude of 12,800 feet—this makes it even harder to explain how the ancient quarried, transported and put into position the massive rocks as Puma Punku is located ABOVE the natural tree line, which in turn means NO trees grew in that area which means that no trees were cut down in order to use wooden rollers.

Furthermore, there is no evidence of the wheel in Tiwanakan culture.

Puma Punku is believed to date to around 536AD. However, many authors argue that the site is much older and could predate the Inca themselves.

Puma Punku was never complete. Experts argue that the site was abandoned before it was completely finished.

It is important to note Inca themselves denied building the Tiahuanaco complex which means that the Tiahuanaco culture existed INDEPENDENTLY of the Inca, predating them as well.

The ancient site of Puma Punku is part of an even larger complex that once belonged to the ancient Tiahuanaco culture, which predates the ancient Inca by millennia.

The sheer number of megalithic stones found at Puma Punku are amongst the largest found on the planet. The incredibly precise stones, precision cuts, and polished surfaces have defied explanation for centuries.

According to oral legends, the first inhabitants of Puma Punku were unlike ordinary humans and supernatural powers which allowed them to ‘carry’ megalithic stones through the air with the use of SOUND.

Among the largest stone blocks found at Puma Punku we can find one with the following characteristics: 7.81 meters long, 5.17 meters wide, averages 1.07 meters thick, and is estimated to weigh about 131 metric tons.

The second largest stone block found within the Puma Punku is 7.90 meters long, 2.50 meters wide, and averages 1.86 meters thick. Its weight has been estimated to be 85.21 metric tons.

The most famous features of Puma Punku are its so-called H-Blocks.

The H blocks at Puma Punku have approximately 80 faces each. The H blocks match each other with such an extreme precision that the architects most likely used a system of preferred measurements and proportions.

Archaeologists argue that the transport of these stones was accomplished by the large labor force of ancient Tiwanaku.

Several theories have been proposed as to how this labor force transported the stones, although these theories remain speculative. Two of the more common proposals involve the use of llama skin ropes and the use of ramps and inclined planes.

In addition to somehow transporting massive blocks of stone across great distances, the ancient engineers that built Puma Punku and Tiahuanaco  were also adept at developing a civic infrastructure at this complex, constructing functional irrigation systems, hydraulic mechanisms, and waterproof sewage lines.

Furthermore, the blocks present at Puma Punku were so precisely cut as to suggest the possibility of prefabrication and mass production, technologies far in advance of the Tiwanaku’s Inca successors hundreds of years later.

Researchers believe that these two blocks of stone were quarried near Lake Titicaca approx. 10 km from Puma Punku.

Other stone blocks found at Puma Punku have been quarried near the Copacabana Peninsula about 90 km away from and across Lake Titicaca. So perhaps this is one of the biggest mysteries at Puma Punku.

Each stone at Puma Punku was finely cut to interlock with the surrounding stones and the blocks fit together like a puzzle, forming load-bearing joints without the use of mortar. The precision challenges today’s engineering abilities.

A common engineering technique is to cut the top of the lower stone at a certain angle and placing another stone on top of it which was cut at the same angle. What baffles scientists, engineers and archaeologists is the precision with which this was achieved. The precision with which these angles have been utilized to create flush joints is indicative of a highly sophisticated knowledge of stone-cutting and a thorough understanding of descriptive geometry.

Some of the joins we find at Puma Punku are so well placed, and so precisely locked into place that you wouldn’t be able to fit a paper in between them. The level of masonry we find at Puma Punku is just amazing.

In Aymara—an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes—Puma Punku’s name means “The Door of the Puma”.

At Puma Punku you will find incredible stones with perfect right angles, almost smooth as glass, this makes Puma Punku unique. Only few places on earth display this type of stone work.

Tiahuanaco is located near Puma Punku, in fact, it’s less than a quarter mile northeast of Puma Punku. Scientists believe Tiahuanaco was once the center of a civilization with more than 40,000 inhabitants. Puma Punku and Tiahuanaco are part of a large temple complex or monument group.

At its peak, Pumapunku is thought to have been “unimaginably wondrous,” adorned with polished metal plaques, brightly colored ceramic and fabric ornamentation, and visited by costumed citizens, elaborately dressed priests, and elites decked in exotic jewelry.

The Puma Punku complex, as well as its surrounding temples, the Akapana pyramid, Kalasasaya, Putuni, and Kerikala, functioned as spiritual and ritual centers for the Tiwanaku.

Tiahuanaco is probably the greatest Native American civilization that many people haven’t heard of.

The Tiwanaku civilization—which Puma Punku belonged to—appears to some to have peaked from 700 AD to 1000 AD, by which point the temples and surrounding area may have been home to some 400,000 people.

Curiously, as many other advanced civilizations across the Americas, this culture seems to have dissolved rather abruptly sometime around 1000 AD, and researchers are still seeking answers as to why.

Reference:

The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 146-167

Young-Sánchez, Margaret (2004). Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca. Denver, CO: Denver Art Museum.

Vranich, A., 1999, Interpreting the Meaning of Ritual Spaces: The Temple Complex of Pumapunku, Tiwanaku, Bolivia.

from:    https://www.ancient-code.com/30-facts-you-didnt-know-about-puma-punku/

Ancient Mysteries Still Confound Scientists

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10 Insane Ancient Achievements that Science Can’t Explain

July 21, 2012

 

10 Insane Ancient Achievements that Science Can’t Explain

Out-of-place artifact (OOPArt) is a term coined by American naturalist and cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson for an object of historical, archaeological, or paleontological interest found in a very unusual or seemingly impossible context that could challenge conventional historical chronology. The term “out-of-place artifact” is rarely used by mainstream historians or scientists. Its use is largely confined to cryptozoologists, proponents of ancient astronaut theories, and paranormal enthusiasts….

In this article we present our selection of Top 10 OOPArts. There are many more (you can find them by exploring our website).

1. Tiwanacu and Puma Punku

Tiwanaku (Spanish: Tiahuanaco and Tiahuanacu) is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Pumapunku also called “Puma Pumku” or “Puma Puncu”, is part of a large temple complex or monument group that is part of the Tiwanaku.   Tiahuanaco is an example of engineering so monumental that it dwarfs even the work of the Aztecs. Stone blocks on the site weigh many tons. They bear no chisel marks, so the means by which they were shaped remains a mystery. The stone itself came from two different quarries. One supplied sandstone and was situated 10 miles away. It shows signs of having produced blocks weighing up to 400 tons. The other supplied andesite and was located 50 miles away, raising the question of how the enormous blocks were transported in an age before the horse was domesticated in South America. Close examination of the structures shows an unusual technique behind their building. The stone blocks were notched, then fitted together so that they interlocked in three dimensions. The result was buildings strong enough to withstand earthquakes.

Gateway of the Sun, Tiahuanaco, Bolivia

Puma Punku  site has many finely cut stones –  some weighing over 100 tonnes. The processes and technologies involved in the creation of these temples are still not fully understood by modern scholars. Raad More >>

Monolithic stone blocks with precisely cut elements. Puma Punku, Bolivia

2. Nazca Lines

The high desert of Peru holds one of the most mystifying monuments of the known world—the massive-scale geoglyphs known as the Nazca Lines.  The “lines” are ranging from geometric patterns to “drawings” of different animals and stylized human-like forms.

The ancient lines can only be truly taken in, their forms discerned, from high in the air, leaving generations mystified as to how these precise works could’ve been completed long before the documented invention of human flight. Who built them and what was their purpose? Are the lines signs left by an alien race? Ancient “crop circles”?  Landing strips for alien gods/astronauts?  Relics of a ancient people far more advanced—capable of human flight—then previously imagined? Or perhaps a giant astronomical calendar?  Read More >>

3. Sacsayhuaman

Sacsayhuamán (also known as Sacsahuaman) is a walled complex near the old city of Cusco, at an altitude of 3,701 m. or 12,000 feet. The site is part of the City of Cuzco, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.

Giant walls of Sacsayhuaman

They are three parallel walls built in different levels with lime-stones of enormous sizes.  Zigzagging walls are made of boulders used for the first or lower levels are the biggest; there is one that is 8.5 m high (28 ft.) and weights about 140 metric tons. Those boulders classify the walls as being of cyclopean or megalithic architecture.  There are no other walls like these. They are different from Stonehenge, different from the Pyramids of the Egyptians and the Maya, different from any of the other ancient monolithic stone-works.  Scientists are not certain how these huge stones were transported and processed to fit so perfectly that no blade of grass or steel can slide between them. There is no mortar.  The stones often join in complex and irregular surfaces that would appear to be a nightmare for the stonemason.   Read more >>
[subject related:  Evidence of Vitrified Stonework in the Inca Vestiges of Peru ]

4. Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a megalithic monument on the Salisbury Plain in Southern England, composed mainly of thirty upright stones (sarsens, each over ten feet tall and weighing 26 tons), aligned in a circle, with thirty lintels (6 tons each) perched horizontally atop the sarsens in a continuous circle. There is also an inner circle composed of similar stones, also constructed in post-and-lintel fashion.

Stonehenge is angled such that on the equinoxes and the solstices, the sun rising over the horizon appears to be perfectly placed between gaps in the megaliths. This is doubtless not an accident, and probably contributed to the stories of its mysterious origins.

Gerald Hawkins, a Professor of Astronomy, concluded that Stonehenge was a sophisticated astronomical observatory designed to predict eclipses (Stonehenge Decoded). The positioning of the stones provides a wealth of information, as does the choice of the site itself. If you can see the alignment, general relationship, and the use of these stones then you will know the reason for the construction. The author, and other astronomers, discovered the 56-year cycle of eclipses by decoding Stonehenge!  The movement of stones once each year from an initial fixed position allows to predict accurately every important lunar event for hundreds of years. This computer would need resetting about once every 300 years by advancing the stones by one space. Mankind generally used the cycle of the moon as a unit of timekeeping.

Read more:

5. Costa Rica Stone Spheres

One of the strangest mysteries in archaeology was discovered in the Diquis Delta of Costa Rica. Since the 1930s, hundreds of stone balls have been documented, ranging in size from a few centimetres to over two meters in diameter. Some weigh 16 tons. Almost all of them are made of granodiorite, a hard, igneous stone. These objects are monolithic sculptures made by human hands.  Read More >>

Balls in the Courtyard of National Museum, San José, Costa Rica. Photo courtesy of John W. Hoopes. Copyright ©2001 John W. Hoopes. All rights reserved.

6. Trilithon at Baalbeck

The mysterious ruins of Baalbek. One of the great Power Places of the ancient world. For thousands of years its secrets have been shrouded in darkness, or bathed in an artificial light by those who would offer us a simplistic solution to its mysteries.

The Temple of Jupiter is one of the most impressive Temples in Baalbeck. It measures 88×48 meters and stands on a podium 13 meters above the surrounding terrain and 7 meters above the courtyard. It is reached by a monumental stairway. One of the most amazing engineering achievements is the Podium which was built with some of the largest stone blocks ever hewn. On the west side of the podium is the “Trilithon”, a celebrated group of three enormous stones weighing about 800 tons each.

Some archaeologists might well wish that Baalbek had been buried forever. For it is here that we find the largest dressed stone block in the world – the infamous Stone of the South, lying in its quarry just ten minutes walk from the temple acropolis. This huge stone weighs approximately 1,000 tons – almost as heavy as three Boeing 747 aircraft.

The large stone at Baalbek, known as the Stone of the Pregnant Woman. Copyright by Ralph Ellis (source: Wikipedia)

Read More:

7. Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza (also called the Khufu’s Pyramid, Pyramid of Khufu, and Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now Cairo, Egypt, and is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that survives substantially intact. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian King Khufu (Cheops in Greek) and constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.

Originally the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface, and what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories regarding the Great Pyramid’s construction techniques. Most accepted construction theories are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

Read More:

8. Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin is reputedly Christ’s burial cloth. It has been a religious relic since the Middle Ages. To believers it was divine proof the Christ was resurrected from the grave, to doubters it was evidence of human gullibility and one of the greatest hoaxes in the history of art. No one has been able to prove that it is the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, but its haunting image of a man’s wounded body is proof enough for true believers.

The Shroud of Turin, as seen by the naked eye, is a negative image of a man with his hands folded. The linen is 14 feet, 3 inches long and 3 feet, 7 inches wide. The shroud bears the image of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Jesus.

One theory is simply that the Shroud is a painting . It has been proposed that it was painted using iron oxide in an animal protein binder. The STURP scientists have concluded from their studies that no paints, pigments, dyes or stains have been found to make up the visible image. Could the image have been produced by a burst of radiation (heat or light) acting over short period of time which would have scorched the cloth? Scientists have not been able to duplicate the characteristics of the Shroud using this method just like the painting hypothesis. Also the color and ultraviolet characteristics of the Shroud body image and a scorch are different. The shroud body image does not fluoresce under UV light but scorches like the burns from 1532 do fluoresce under UV light. Thus many scientists rule out the radiation theory.  Read More >>

9. Star Child Skull

In the 1930?s, in a small rural village 100 miles southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico, at the back of a mine tunnel, two mysterious remains were found: a complete human skeleton and a smaller, malformed skeleton. In late February of 1999, Lloyd Pye was first shown the Starchild skull by its owners. Nameless then, it was a highly anomalous skull.

Front view of the Starchild skull (on the left) and the human skull (on the right). Compare striking differences between depth of eye sockets and shape of temporal area just behind outer edges of eyes.

The long-standing Star Being legends of Central and South America provide a plausible mechanism for how a highly abnormal skull (relative to humans) might have been biologically created rather than genetically or congenitally malformed, or physically manipulated by deliberate deformation (binding).
Such immense deformation across the entire occipital (rear) and parietal (upper side) areas of the skull could not result from binding without deformation being visible in the frontal area, which is not evident.
Birth defects across the entire occipital and parietal areas, while not impossible, seem highly unlikely because of the remarkable symmetry exhibited in all areas of the skull, including those effected by the deformations.
The terrain of the bone in the eye sockets contains incredibly subtle indentations and ridges that are perfectly symmetrical in both sockets, which simply have to have been formed by genetic directions rather than by deformations.

Read More:

10. The Antikythera Mechanism

The device, made of bronze and encased in wood, was found by divers off the Mediterranean island Antikythera in 1900.

“This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind,” says Mike Edmunds  (Cardiff University, Wales) one of  the scientists  investigating this amazing artefact. “The design is beautiful. The astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop.”

Image Copyright © 2001-2012, Anthony Ayiomamitis

Nothing like this instrument is preserved elsewhere. Nothing comparable to it is known. from any ancient scientific text or literary allusion. On the contrary, from all that we know of science and technology in the Hellenistic Age we should have felt that such a device could not exist. Some historians have suggested that the Greeks were not interested in experiment because of a contempt-perhaps induced by the existence of the institution of slavery-for manual labor. On the other hand it has long been recognized that in abstract mathematics and in mathematical astronomy they were no beginners but rather “fellows of another college” who reached great heights of sophistication. Many of the Greek scientific devices known to us from written descriptions show much mathematical ingenuity, but in all cases the purely mechanical part of the design seems relatively crude. Gearing was clearly known to the Greeks, but it was used only in relatively simple applications. They employed pairs of gears to change angular speed or mechanical ad- vantage, or to apply power through a right angle, as in the water-driven mill.  Read More >>

for more, go to the source:    http://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/10-insane-ancient-achievements-that-science-cant-explain/

 

 

PumaPunku Ruins in Bolivia

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Pumapunku, also called “Puma Pumku” or “Puma Puncu”, is part of a large temple complex or monument group that is part of the Tiwanaku Site near Tiwanaku, Bolivia. In Aymara, its name means, “The Door of the Cougar”. The processes and technologies involved in the creation of these temples are still not fully understood by modern scholars. Our current ideas of the Tiwanaku culture hold that they had no writing system and also that the invention of the wheel was most likely unknown to them. The architectural achievements seen at Pumapunku are striking in light of the presumed level of technological capability available during its construction. Due to the monumental proportions of the stones, the method by which they were transported to Pumapunku has been a topic of interest since the temple’s discovery.

Puma Punku, truly startles the imagination. It seems to be the remains of a great wharf (for Lake Titicaca long ago lapped upon the shores of Tiahuanaco) and a massive, four-part, now collapsed building. One of the construction blocks from which the pier was fashioned weighs an estimated 440 tons (equal to nearly 600 full-size cars) and several other blocks laying about are between 100 and 150 tons.

Puma Punku ruins, Tiahuanaco, Bolivia
(courtesy of www.sacredsites.com and Martin Gray)

The quarry for these giant blocks was on the western shore of Titicaca, some ten miles away. There is no known technology in all the ancient world that could have transported stones of such massive weight and size. The Andean people of 500 AD, with their simple reed boats, could certainly not have moved them. Even today, with all the modern advances in engineering and mathematics, we could not fashion such a structure.

Just out of the aerial picture (below) to the bottom left is the site of the Puma Punku. This is another ‘temple area’ with many finely cut stones some weighing over 100 tonnes. Its position to the south of the Akapana may have been important because it gave a good view to a sacred mountain far to the east.

Of course there is no certainty that this was the reason as the ancient builders left no written records.
All the legends have been handed down through the generations.

Puma Punku ruins, Tiahuanaco, Bolivia
(courtesy of www.sacredsites.com and Martin Gray)

How were these monstrous stones moved and what was their purpose?
Posnansky suggested an answer, based upon his studies of the astronomical alignments of Tiahuanaco, but that answer is considered so controversial, even impossible, that it has been ignored and censured by the scientific community for fifty years.

Carved stone block at Puma Punku. This precision-made 6 mm wide
groove contains equidistant, drilled holes. It seems impossible that this
cuts were made with use of stone or copper tools.

The so-called Gate of the Sun seen at the back side.
Made of one piece of hard rock. Possibly it was a part of a large wall.
By the courtesy of www.inkatour.com, nr. 3696

Puma Punku doesn’t look impressive: a hill as remains of an old pyramid and a large number of megalithic block of stone on the ground, evidently smashed by a devastating earthquake. However, closer inspection shows that these stone blocks have been fabricated with a very advanced technology. Even more surprising is the technical design of these blocks shown in the drawing below. All blocks fit together like interlocking building blocks.

Source: Jean-Pierre Protzen & Stella E.Nair, “On Reconstructing Tiwanaku Architecture”, Jpurnal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 59, Nr.3, 2000, pp. 358-371


Artistic interpretation © World-Mysteries.com


Artistic interpretation © World-Mysteries.com

A wall of the Akapana, the pyramid of Tiahuanacu, shows similar modular design.
Blocks that are piled one on top of the other but the underside of the upper stone is cut at an angle. The top of the standing stone is cut at the same angle, as shown on the figure below.

Source: Jean-Pierre Protzen & Stella E.Nair, “On Reconstructing Tiwanaku Architecture”, Jpurnal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 59, Nr.3, 2000, pp. 358-371

This stone technology plainly contradicts what official archaeology suggests about the general state of development of the ancient peoples of South-America.


Source:
“Die Ruinenstätte von Tiahuanaco im Hochlande des alten Peru”
(The Ruins of Tiahuanaco in the Highlands of Ancient Peru)
1892 book about Tiahanaco written by two German
discoverers and engineers Alphons Stübel and Max Uhle

The architectural achievements seen at Pumapunku are striking in light of the presumed level of technological capability available during its construction. Due to the monumental proportions of the stones, the method by which they were transported to Pumapunku has been a topic of interest since the temple’s discovery.  The largest of these stone blocks is 7.81 meters long, 5.17 meters wide, averages 1.07 meters thick, and is estimated to weigh about 131 metric tons. The second largest stone block found within the Pumapunka is 7.90 meters long, 2.50 meters wide, and averages 1.86 meters thick. Its weight has been estimated to be 85.21 metric tons. Both of these stone blocks are part of the Plataforma Lítica and composed of red sandstone. Based upon detailed petrographic and chemical analyses of samples from both individual stones and known quarry sites, archaeologists concluded that these and other red sandstone blocks were transported up a steep incline from a quarry near Lake Titicaca roughly 10 km away. Smaller andesite blocks that were used for stone facing and carvings came from quarries within the Copacabana Peninsula about 90 km away from and across Lake Titicaca from the Pumapunka and the rest of the Tiwanaku Site.

to read more, go to:    http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_PumaPunku.htm