Puma Punku

Picture of Mystery Real X-File ID: 553

Report Date: 07/18/2016

Country: Bolivia

Place: Tiawanacu, Bolivia

Fingerprints: Traces of ancient advanced engineering-skills, Traces of ancient advanced technology

Existing Facts Sources: Scientific whitepaper, Internet article, Book

Summary Report: 

Pumapunku or Puma Punku (Aymara and Quechua which literally means “Gate of the Puma”) is a 6th-century T-shaped and strategically aligned man-made terraced platform mound with a sunken court and monumental structure on top that is part of the Pumapunku complex, at the Tiwanaku Site near Tiwanacu, in western Bolivia. The Pumapunku complex is an alignment of plazas and ramps centered on the Pumapunku platform mound. Today the monumental complex on top of the platform mound lies in ruins (see pictures in the gallery). Current understanding of this complex is limited due to its age, the lack of a written record, and the current deteriorated state of the structures due to treasure hunting, looting, stone mining for building stone and railroad ballast, and natural weathering. But it s imporant to mention that when the Spanish arrived at Tiwanaku there was still standing architecture at Pumapunku. Bernabe Cobo reports that one Gateway and one “window” was still standing on one of the platforms.

Scientists and researchers are still baffled how the pre-Inca culture could do this precise stone cutting and carving. In the June 1997 issue of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH), Jean-Pierre and Stella Nair who conducted the first professional field study on the stones of Tiwanaku/Pumapunku conclude: “… to obtain the smooth finishes, the perfectly planar faces and exact interior and exterior right angles on the finely dressed stones, they resorted to techniques unknown to the Incas and to us at this time… The sharp and precise 90 degree interior angles observed on various decorative motifs most likely were not made with hammerstones. No matter how fine the hammerstones point, it could never produce the crisp right interior angles seen on Tiahuanaco stonework. Comparable cuts in Inca masonry all have rounded interior angles typical of the pounding technique… The construction tools of the Tiahuanacans, with perhaps the possible exception of hammerstones, remain essentially unknown and have yet to be discovered…”.

In his Book “Reise nach Kiribati”, Erich von Däniken cites from the Books “Historia General del Peru, Segunda Parte” that was written by “Garcilaso de la Vega” and published in 1722: “… Indian lore has it that Puma-Punku was “built in one long night by the gods,” that no humans were involved, and that the gods, who could fly, destroyed their own structure after they lifted it into the air, turned it over, and dropped it…”.

In Puma Punku the same questions arise, that can be asked in relation to the other mysterious places around the world, in particular: “How was Puma Punku built and what was it s originaly intended purpose? What techniques and/or technology was used by the people of this ancient culture to build Puma Punku? How (and possibly from whom) did they get the elaborate knowledge in planing and stone-cutting?


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Links: 

Facts Source Details:
Details of Scientific Whitepaper:  Who thaught the Inca stonemasons their skills, Jean Pierre and Stella Protzen and Nair, 06/01/1997
Details of Internet Article:  Jean Pierre and Stella Protzen and Nair,06/01/1997,https://drmsh.com/PaleoBabble/Who%20Taught%20the%20Inca%20Stonemasons%20Their%20Skills%20A%20Comparison%20of%20Tiahuanaco%20and%20Inca%20Cut-Stone%20Masonry.pdf
Details of Book:  Reise nach Kiribati, Unmögliche Wahrheiten,Erich von Däniken,Kopp Verlag, Kopp Verlag,05/01/2012, 11/01/2013


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