Lake Titicaca

The Silent Stones of Tiahuanaco

"On a bleak plateau, nearly 13,000 ft. high, in the Andes are the remnants of a brilliant long-forgotten civilization. The city of Tiahuanaco, devastated by earthquakes and partly demolished, stands in the midst of a windswept desolation near the Bolivian shore of  Lake Titicaca.  Its stones bear witness to a colossal style of building, square and rigid, which expresses itself in mathematically ordered and forbidding walls.  Imposing stone steps lead up to monumental gateways, each cut from a single block of stone.  They are gateways cut from a single block of stone.  They are gateways which today open on to emptiness.   Huge statues stare vacantly out from crumbled terraces and look as though they are holding up the sky.  The temples and palaces are sadly deserted.  The priests how once officiated there are forgotten."

So begins the story of a deserted city, one which easily could have been left behind by the Nephites when they fled for their lives--when every last Nephite was murdered by their "cousins", the Lamanites, in the 400 A.D., and their sacred record buried by the last prophet, Moroni.  From dust to dust, their testimony cries from the ground as Isaiah saw--the book, the record, gold plates on which was written their story as they died, to come forth more than a millennium later.  And the knowledge that there was a record on metal plates somewhere hidden, lingered on through the generations.

The report of it goes:

"For centuries giant statues have stood guard over the ceremonial terraces of long-dead Tiahuanaco.  The great stone known as The Friar is carved with indecipherable symbols and is thought to represent a god or a high priest.  It is a silent witness to an unknown civilization established some 2,200 years ago, whose disappearance baffles archaeologists.

A city is buried
in Lake Titicaca

At an altitude of more than 12,5000 ft, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world.  The largest of its scattered islands is the Island of the Sun (left), whose hills are stepped by ancient crop-growing terraces.  Tales of ancient palaces being seen in the lake led scientists to explore its depths. They found high walls and paved paths beneath its waters. . . .

"Unlike some of the other vanished pre-Columbian cultures, the people of Tiahuanaco seem to have left no written records.  Grooves on the statues could be some form of picture writing, but as yet no one knows how to decipher them.  Indian legends refer to "sacred tablets" in gold, copper or silver engraved with symbolic signs which are supposed to be hidden on one of Lake Titicaca's sacred islands. . . . 

In the 16th century, adventurers owing allegiance to Charles I of Spain, who had set out in search of a fabulous treasure, reached the already-abandoned city.  All they found were the last echoes of a past about to sink into oblivion.

From the Indians who lived in the area -- and brought sacrifices to the feet of the giant, geometric stone statues -- they learned that the Incas had been there a hundred years or more before them and had found the mysterious city already destroyed and apparently deserted from a very long time beforehand.

When asked about the origins of the city, the Indians could only reply by telling of a tradition that

'Tiahuanaco was built in a single night, after the flood, by unknown giants.  But they disregarded a prophecy of the coming of the sun and were annihilated by its rays, and their palaces were reduced to ashes . . .'

Numerous theories have been put forward on the subject of Tiahuanaco and its origins.   Some people have credited the city with a fabulously ancient history.  It has even been called the cradle of American man.  Serious authors have described it as the capital of an empire which may have equaled that of the Incas.  Others have seen it as the capital of Atlantis, or as a city of Venus. . ."

A City Under Water? The theory that Atlantis lay somewhere in the Atlantic was given a powerful boost in 1968 when the discovery of these colossal underwater stone walls, off the island of North Bimini in the Bahamas. (Reader's Digest, The World's Last Mysteries,  p. 16)

In 1903 a French scientific expedition excavated a small temple, built half underground, with walls of which were dotted with heads carved in blood-red sandstone, each held in place by a stone spike.  "In 1932 an archaeological team under the American Wendell C. Bennett found within the temple ruins Tiahuanaco's largest idol -- a giant nearly 24 ft. high, which was buried 10 ft. below the surface. Another idol, only 8 ft. tall and also carved or red sandstone but in a completely different style, was lying beside it, resting against its side.

The archaic, almost smiling face of the second statue contrasts with the austerity of Tiahuanaco's great geometric statues, which are thought to be of later date.  This statue could possibly be connected with one of the most curious legends heard and handed down by the first Spaniards in the area.  This is the story of Viracocha, the bearded white god who created the Andean world.  He is said to have appeared in Tiahuanaco after a flood which was supposed to have lasted 60 nights and engulfed cities in its path.

Viracocha, Jesus Christ? The Indians say that this stone face depicts Viracocha, the legendary god who arose from the sacred lake of Titicaca.

This smaller idol has saucer-shaped eyes beneath the thick dash of his eyebrows, which are joined together so that they lend a T-shape to the nose.  He has a kind of thick moustache which encircles a thick-lipped mouth to join a sharply pointed beard. The original natives of America were almost beardless, so it is easy to see why scholars have been perplexed by this image. . . . The mystery of the "white " god still remains to be solved.

---

Human Sacrifice in ancient America

A stone head resembling those still attached to the inner walls of the small temple was also found buried on the terrace at the foot of the second statue.   These stone heads call to mind the bloody cult of head-hunting  another indication of the cult comes in the head-shaped ritual vases excavated at Tiahuanaco.   Actual human heads have been found -- in a curiously shrunken condition -- attached by a small plait of human hair to the belts of mummies in ancient Peruvian   tombs.

It is also apparent that there were cruel sacrifices in the temple.   Severed human skulls polished like ivory were found there.  They appear to have been used as cups for the sour brew made from fermented corn, which is believed to have been the favorite libation to the gods and the drink of their servants."

Mormon, the prophet who abridged the entire account of these ancient people, spoke of this carnage.  Whether or not these ruins at Tiahuanaco are those literally spoken of by Mormon, nonetheless, he verifies that human sacrifice was taking place among those ancients.  Mormon writes of the carnage taking place in the destruction of those people.  In the 366th year from the coming of Jesus to America, the destruction of the people was on grand scale.  He wrote:

"It is impossible for the tongue to describe or for man to write a perfect description of the horrible scene of the blood and carnage which was among the people, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites; and every heart was hardened so that they delighted in the shedding of blood continually.

They [Lamanites] also marched forward against the city Teancum, and drove the inhabitants out of her, and took many prisoners of both women and chidden, and offered them up as sacrifices to their idol gods. . . When they had come the second time, the Nephites were driven and slaughtered with an exceedingly great slaughter; and their women and their children were again sacrificed to idols." (Mormon 2:13-16, 23

---

Grand Scale Excavations on Tiahuanaco

Grand scale excavations began in 1958 to learn more about this dead city near Lake Titicaca called Tiahuanaco.  500 shafts were sunk into the ground, cutting through many archaeological layers, and aerial photographs were taken.  The conclusions were that this was a place where five cities had overlapped each other for some reason.  The Bolivian archaeologist, Carlos Ponce   Sangines suggested the periods of this civilization to be a 1,400 year chronology lasting from about 200 B.c. to A.D. 1200.

"A study of the various archaeological strata has indeed revealed traces of five   cities, one often overlapping the other.  Very little is known about the five different cities, except that they lie buried in tangled confusion and that the architects who designed and built them were men of genius."  The people were believed to be very skilled as sculptures and stoneworking.  "Majestic -looking monuments of colossal dimensions were built, as stone workers became increasingly proficient.  the art of monumental statuary reached a peak of perfection as sculptors covered the great stone figures with strange tight symbols in the manner of a tapestry. . . .

In search for the true meaning of the remains of Tiahuanaco, the most prudent archaeologists took careful account of local tradition, relating it to their scientific, research. For often the golden thread of legend leads to completely unexpected findings.

Such a discovery, based on legend, was confirmed in 1967 by a scientific expedition authorized by the Bolivian government.  Scholars had been intrigued by the account of a flood which the Indians related to chroniclers of the Spanish conquest, and by the Indians' lively instance that the legend was true.  Moreover, it seemed to tie in with stories, recounted with equal obstinacy by the fishermen of Lake Titicaca, which told of sunken palaces whose roofs they could touch when the lake waters were low during the long dry spells that come to the Andean plateau.

However, for a long time scientists were skeptical about tales told by Indian divers who claimed to have seen ruins on the floor of the lake.  Speculation persisted until frogmen, braving the dangers of a plunge at high altitude, descended into the depths of the lake, laden with heavy equipment and oxygen apparatus.  They discovered high walls, coated in mud and slime and eaten away by the brackish waters.

During this expedition the frogmen made a second discovery, which was seven more remarkable and posed an entirely new puzzle.  Not far from the shore, they made out a number of embankments and paved paths, and a sort of giant puzzle composed of blocks cut finely and set with great precision in the lake bed.  They counted about 30 of these parallel formations, connected by a crescent-shaped base." 

Questions asked by the writer of the article above (which is only excerpts), can be simply answered when reading the Book of Mormon.  He wonders:

  Will we ever discover who these people, lost in the mists of age-old oblivion, really were?
  Will it ever be known when and why this city, with some of its buildings apparently unfinished, was abandoned forever?
  Was it as a result of murderous wars fought for possession of the rare productive areas of land, leading to the destruction of the city and the flight of the people to more hospitable lands? 
  Was it a war of religion between rival castes, which could be just as lethal? 
  Did some appalling geological upheaval wreck the city? 
  Did some drastic change of climate create a hostile environment for agriculture? 
  Did famine or an epidemic annihilate the population?

The giant gods that keep constant watch over the city have lost their voice.  Will the archaeologists eventually be able to speak in their place?" (Reader's Digest, The World's Last Mysteries, pp. 131-139)

---

Where There Were Valleys, There Became Mountains Excerpts from The Book of Mormon Evidences Joseph Smith a Prophet, by Roy Weldon

"The Book of Mormon claims that where there were valleys there became mountains 'whose height is great,'   Heleman 5:79.  There are numerous ruins of ancient America on the tops of mountain ranges such as Monte Alban, (twenty-four square miles) Giengola and Machu Pucchu.  However, it is the top of the Andes ruins at Tiahuanaco, Bolivia that brings this claim to a climax.  The city was wrecked by some prehistoric upheaval and never rebuilt.  The violence of the upheaval is attested to by the immense blocks of stone broken in two and tossed about. The Book of Mormon account says of the Nephite cities: "Many were shook till the buildings thereof had fallen to the earth . . . and the places were left desolate."   III Nephi 4:11.

Explorer Brian Fawcett said:

'In my opinion, Tiahuanaco . . . much of it . . . still buried below the present level of Titicaca, and the remains scattered and tumbled over the surface of the ground . . . it was destroyed by the frightful seismic upheavals which are so evident all over the continent.  The lake was bodily lifted thousands of feet with the Andes . . . Tithuanaco was undoubtedly submerged for a long time.  The level of the present lake was once considerably higher, for on the surrounding hills can be plainly distinguished the old high water mark.' (Lost Trails, Lost Cities, p. 33, 1953).

In view of the fact that during the great upheaval preceding the appearance of Jesus Christ, the Nephite records says that valleys were lifted up to become 'mountains whose height thereof is great.'  Helaman 5:79

The following statement about the virgin, white God of Andean Peru is significant.  Dr. Adolph Bandelier sums up traditions of Viracocha, the counterpart of Quetzalcoatl in Peru, who descends out of the sky.  He even made high places level; plains were broken up and made into great heights; springs burst forth and rocks were rent.  In fact, the whole topography of the land was changed.  (See American Anthropologist, Vol. VI, No. 1, p. 203, 1904; also see Saint' Herald, Nov. 14, 1942)

Ora Pate Stweart said, "Corn stubble has now been found 2000 feet higher in the Andes Mountains than corn will grow which suggests that the Andes Mountains have been elevated."  (Treasures Unearthed, p. 29)

 

---