The Nephite Nazca Lines – Part III - A Lesson from the Cahuachi Pyramids

The site of the pyramids of Cahuachi is situated in the middle of the desert, a couple of miles from Nazca's city center. The site has been partly excavated, but a large part of the pyramids remain unexplored and hidden beneath the sand today because of a lack of funding from the Peruvian government to explore it. The site has been spared from massive tourism, as the majority of the tourists settle for a flight over the famous Nazca lines. And yet, Cahuachi is one of the crown jewels of Nazca. 

Massive Cahuachi pyramid was a major ceremonial center of the Nazca culture, from the last part of the last century B.C. to abut 400-500 A.D.,along the coastal area and central Andes of southern Peru, overlooking some of the famous Nazca lines

    Situated in the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley, the Nazca were heavily influenced by the preceding Paracas culture, which was known for extremely complex textiles, producing an array of crafts and technologies such as ceramics, textiles, and geoglyphs. They also built an impressive system of underground aqueducts, known as puquios, that still function today. The Nazca are considered to  have flourished from about 100 B.C. to about 450 A.D., with some culture remnant overlapping to about 550 A.D., and later cultures that followed to 800 A.D.
    The early development in B.C. times was known for the people modifying the natural huacas (hills) into pyramid mounds for ceremonial and religious purposes, and also the geoglyphs, which are a series of geometric shapes, miles of lines, and large drawings of animal figures (some as large as a football field) constructed on the desert floor in the Nazca region.
    Excavations at Cahuachi have given archaeologists key insights into the culture. The material remains found at the site included large amounts of polychrome (“many colors”) pottery, plain and fancy textiles, trace amounts of gold and spondylus (“spiny oysters”) shell, and an array of ritual paraphernalia. 

Polychrome Pottery

    The remains of pottery found at Cahuachi led archaeologists to believe that the site was specifically non-urban and ceremonial in nature. The ratio of plain, utilitarian pottery to fine, polychrome pottery was 30% to 70% (Helen Silverman, "Cahuachi: Non-Urban Cultural Complexity on the South Coast of Peru,” Journal of Field Archaeology, Volume 15, No. 4, 1988, pp403–430). If it was an urban center, the amount of utilitarian ceramics would have probably been higher. Among the foodstuffs found were the so-called “three sisters”: maize, squash, and beans; as well as peanuts and some fish.
    It was also noted that around 450 A.D., construction at Cahuachi ceased, and the site was abandoned. Although there are other possible reasons for the collapse of Cahuachi, most scholars believe that the cessation of ceremonial use of the site is associated with the pan-Andean drought (Lidio M. Valdez, "Cahuachi: New Evidence for an Early Nasca Ceremonial Role,” Current Anthropology 35, no. 5, December 1994, pp675–679). 
    Later, the occupiers seemed to be structured in a similar fashion as it had been before, but less of an emphasis was made in constructing large architectural complexes like those at Cahuach. Whether this was a different people with no massive building capability is not known.
    Other reasons given for abandonment are overcrowding, and wide-spread flooding from El Niño, and other climate problems that left irrigation systems high and dry. Where scholars once thought the site was the capital of the Nazca state, they have since determined that the permanent population was quite small. They believe that it was a pilgrimage center, whose population increased greatly in relation to major ceremonial events. New research has suggested that 40 of the mounds were natural hills modified to appear as artificial constructions. Support for the pilgrimage theory comes from archaeological evidence of sparse population at Cahuachi, the spatial patterning of the site, and ethnographic evidence from the Virgin of Yauca pilgrimage in the nearby Ica Valley.

There are many lines pointing form the Nazca Lines area toward Cahuachi, which make archaeologists believe that the Nazca people used them as sacred roads to reach the Naazca desert (where the ifigures are located)
Most of the burial sites surrounding Cahuachi were not known until recently and during the last decade several scientists explored and documented the place and tried to discover the function of the pyramid and the reason for the disappearance of the culture that built it. However, the majority of the official hypotheses the historians advance appear to be way off point.
    Part of the problem we face is the nature of scholars and professional on-the-ground researchers. First of all, it is essential to understand that what they call "scientifically proven" actually refers in the majority of cases to a certain version of the facts, a hypothesis, that is generally or largely accepted--though not proven--by the majority of the scientific community. Unfortunately, many of these hypotheses are light years away from what actually happened in that place.
    Secondly, the problem with a lot of scientists is not that they have bad intentions or that they are not intelligent, but that they are disconnected from themselves and so they are not capable of establishing a connection with their subjects either, nor put themselves at their place. Their version of the facts will always be based upon theories that other people before them came up with, because they are unable to detach from what they learned and to broaden their vision. Part of this is what is called “selective exposure,” which is a theory in psychology, often used in any type of research, that historically refers to individuals' tendency to favor information which reinforces their pre-existing views while avoiding contradictory information. Selective exposure has also been known and defined as "congeniality bias" or “confirmation bias” in various research projects throughout the years.
    Another part of the problem is that researchers, scholars and professional people often lack imagination and they are unable to look beyond what they already know—there are, of course, exceptions, and open-minded historians do exist—however, people, especially professional people, often tend to be distracted by their training. 

The long hours in classrooms, lectures from “professionals,” and those who have been there, done that, and sound knowledgeable but, who themselves, are also driven by their own earlier training. It is a circular problem that has always existed and always will exist.
    Generally speaking, scientific theories are just ideas that sprung from the mind of one person, generally in the past, and that were picked up by other people afterwards, some of which built the principle into a huge, complex set of ideas. On the other hand, each generation should be encouraged to search for the truth like a true free-thinker and to stop blindly accepting what other people tell them. Everything needed to discover the true history of humankind and to separate true from false, is one's connection to themself. Everyone is capable of connecting to a place and feel, know and see what happened in this place-relying on someone's views eliminates one's own understanding of the events they are uncovering and their input into the past. Let's use our common sense and question what is generally accepted as truth today. 

Take, as an example, the archaeological periods: Stone (Paleolithic to Epipaleolithic), Neolithic, Archaic, Formative, Formative Stage, Early Horizon, Horizon, Late Horizon, Pre-Classic, Classic, Post-Classic, Bronze, Iron, Industrial, Modern, etc. (not all periods relate to all areas). Someone, somewhere, first came up with a sequence of periods, which has been expanded upon over the years until now, archaeologists and anthropologists, don’t even speak in normal dating, but in periods, and when digging at a site, or studying artifacts, they place their results into those periods as though there are no exceptions to such hard and fast rules.
    Take as another example how this affected the “discovery” and “evaluation” of Cahuachi— officially, Cahuachi was considered to be a necropolis and ceremonial center and not as a town. Archeologists found the remains of very rich and elaborate pottery and textiles, which to them proved that this was strictly a ceremonial place, because the pottery was "obviously" used as sacrifices to the gods and the textiles to make the preachers' dresses. As odd as that sounds, it is a method of predetermination on the part of the researcher who, himself, may be completely unaware of his thinking along such lines.
    This is seen in almost every encounter with past cultures. A predetermined belief system guides the researcher along a set pattern—there is no thinking outside the box, for the box has already been set through pre-thinking on the part of those who created it in times past and it is now the “method” of understanding the past.

 We can also take the common person who visits a site. Do they go alone and try to ponder and figure out what they see and feel? No, they go with a tour and a guide, who tells them what they are seeing and what it means and what it meant in the past. The guide walks the tourist through the site in predetermined steps, spouting predetermined information that he, himself, learned from others before him. Thus, both the researcher and the following visitors to the site follow a single, predetermined belief system fostered by people over the years until it has become a “proven fact.”
    Then along comes someone with the truth of the matter, and no one will listen because they already have their minds made up as to what is the “truth.”
    The lesson we learn from Cahuachi, or actually almost any site, is that we, today, have no idea what went on in that place, that city, that pyramid, or location. We do not allow the Spirit to tell us anything, or our own knowledge, experience, or feelings to adjust our thinking and open our minds. We simply fall into a pattern of accepting the “experts” and continuing their hypothesis, i.e., “guess,” “assumptions,” and “speculation.”
    The fact of the matter is, we do not know anything about the Nazca people, or most of the other early cultures in any land where their histories have not continued down through the ages, but been speculated upon, formulated by “memory” and passed on, and eventually written down by someone we don’t know and have no idea of what their motivation or personal agenda on the matter might have been. One very glaring example of closed-mindedness is the fact that not a single archaeologist or anthropologist has even considered the possibility that the Nazca people were driven out of Cahuachi by an invading force from the south who, themselves (like the Lamanites of old) were not interested in settlement, but in conquest, yet the dates, events, and circumstances match such a scenario.

The Nephite Nazca Lines – Part II

Continuing from the previous post on the Nazca Lines and their possible purpose to the Nephites.

In all, there are no fewer than 75 groups of geoglyphs in the Palpa area to the earlier Paracas culture. These Paracas geoglyphs, which often depict stylized humanlike figures, in turn share distinct visual motifs with even earlier images carved in stone, known as petroglyphs. During a recent foot survey of a suspected Paracas site high in the Palpa River Valley, Johny Isla, Peruvian archaeologist and spatial engineer—the latter the most recent additions to the engineering family, who use new and developing technologies such as GPS, satellite imagery, laser mapping and fast computing to create complex layers of interconnected geographic information—came across a petroglyph of a monkey—a surprising, earlier incarnation of the famous Nazca geoglyph seen on the pampa below the plane.
    The geoglyphs are viewed by removing the dark rocks from the surface and revealing almost white foundation rock below. In fact, the pebbles or small stones which cover the surface of the desert contain ferrous oxide, and exposure of centuries has given them a dark patina. When the gravel is removed, they contrast with the color underneath, and in this way the lines were drawn as furrows of a lighter color, even though in some cases they became prints. In other cases, the stones defining the lines and drawings form small lateral humps of different sizes. Some drawings, especially the early ones, were made by removing the stones and gravel from their contours and in this way the figures stood out in high relief. The concentration and juxtaposition of the lines and drawings leave no doubt that they required intensive long-term labor as is demonstrated by the stylistic continuity of the designs, which clearly correspond to the different stages of cultural changes.
    At first, the motifs were only created on the rock cliffs, mostly on places that were easily visible from the valley.

Then it was discovered that one could also etch the same motifs into the surface of the desert floor. The early geoglyphs were, therefore, similar to the petroglyphs before them, placed on the valley slopes where they were easily visible to the people living in the valley. Then larger glyphs came into existence that became more and more abstract and took on geometric shapes. Finally, the large lines and cleared fields/campos barridos were constructed on the extensive mesas where people could no longer easily observe them.
    The lines themselves are many miles long and crisscross sectors of the pampas in all directions. Many of the lines form geometric figures: angles, triangles, bunches, spirals, rectangles, wavy lines, concentric circles.
    It was also pointed out that from an original, highly cultural significantly visible and integrated function in Nazca society of the Palpa Valley, the geoglyphs lost their meaning and became mere works of abstract land art, therefore being physically removed from the settlements of their human makers.
    Given the amount of coordinated effort that went into ascending to these and removing the surface rock with such precision, as well as the fact that the geoglyphs had symbolic content we think we must continue to insist on their meaning and purpose to their makers, despite Marcus Reindel, a German archaeologist, and Isla-Cuadrado, proposed evolution from figural to geometric shapes.
    According to Helaine Silverman (Ancient Nazca Settlement and Society, University of Iowa Press, 2002, p141), it should be noted that the long trapezoids that extend atop the flat mesas of the mountain ridge mostly in a northeasterly to southwesterly direction have almost all the corners pointing to the original location of the river, therefore it can be assume that there exists a connection between the river and the geoglyphs.
    As part of a long-term project to investigate the cultural history of the Nasca region in southern Peru, the famous Nasca lines, or geoglyphs, have been documented since 1997 in a joint effort by archaeologists and geomatic engineers who have determined that the lines date from the Late Paracas to Nazca times (400 BC. To 600 A.D.) Those associated with Nazca culture are located on desertical ridges and plateaus (pampas) framing rivers that originate in the Andean highands (Lambers, Sauerbier and Gruen, “Photogrammetric Recording, Modeling, and Visualization of the Nasca Lines at Palpa, Peru: An Overview,” Budapest, Archeolinguo, 2010, p381).

These new findings make an important point about the Nasca lines: They were not made at one time, in one place, for one purpose. Many have been superimposed on older ones, with erasures and over-writings complicating their interpretation; archaeologist Helaine Silverman once likened them to the scribbling on a blackboard at the end of a busy day at school. The popular notion that they can be seen only from the air is a modern myth. The early Paracas-era geoglyphs were placed on hillsides where they could be seen from the pampa. By early Nasca times the images—less anthropomorphic, more naturalistic—had migrated from the nearby slopes to the floor of the pampa. Almost all of these iconic animal figures, such as the spider and the hummingbird, were single-line drawings; a person could step into them at one point and exit at another without ever crossing a line, suggesting to archaeologists that at some point in early Nasca times the lines evolved from mere images to pathways for ceremonial processions.
    Later, possibly in response to explosive population growth documented by the German-Peruvian team, more people may have participated in these rituals, and the geoglyphs took on open, geometrical patterns, with some trapezoids stretching more than 2,000 feet. "Our idea is that they weren't meant as images to be seen anymore,” Reindel says, “but stages to be walked upon, to be used for religious ceremonies."

Yellow Arrow: Palpa; Green Arrow: Nazca; a digital terrain model of the study area with Palpa lying at the confluence of the Rio Grande, Rio Palpa and the Rio Viscas Rivers (Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg)

    Those ancient acts of worship have left their traces in the ground itself. Between 2003 and 2007 Tomasz Gorka and Jörg Fassbinder, geophysicists at the Bavarian State Department of Monuments and Sites, took measurements of the Earth's magnetic field on a trapezoid near Yunama, a village outside Palpa, which is situated on the south coast of Peru and is part of the Atacama desert, one of the driest regions of the world, as well as on other lines nearby. Subtle perturbations in the magnetic signal indicated that the soil had been compacted by human activity, especially around the platforms. Karsten Lambers, another member of the Nasca-Palpa Project, had meanwhile collected positional data and precise measurements of sight lines across hundreds of geoglyphs. The data showed that the trapezoids and other geometric shapes were constructed where they would be visible from a number of vantage points. The team concluded that they were places where "social groups acted and interacted, and spectators in the valleys and on other geoglyph sites were able to watch and observe."

Cerro Blanco, among the tallest sand dunes in the world, rises pale and stark out of the surrounding bowl of sere Andean foothills, dominating the physical and spiritual landscape of the southern Nasca valleys. For  centuries the Andean people have worshipped deities embodied in mountains such as Cerro Blanco. According to Johan Rein­hard, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, the mountains have traditionally been associated—mythologically, if not geologically—with water sources. The Nas­ca potsherds littering the path to the summit of Cerro Blanco would suggest the connection runs deep into the past.
    In 1986 Reinhard reported finding ruins of a ceremonial stone circle at the summit of Illakata, at over 14,000 feet one of the tallest mountains feeding runoff to the Nazca drainage system. Along with other traces of ritual activity at the top of Nasca watersheds, the discovery led him to propose that one of the main purposes of the Nasca lines was related to the worship of mountain deities, including Cerro Blanco, because of their connection to water.
    Recent research has bolstered the hypothesis. In the highlands farther north, where wild vicunas wander near the headwaters of the Palpa River, Isla joined Reindel and his team on a scramble to the top of a sacred mountain known locally as Apu Llamoca. (In the indigenous language, apu is the word for "deity.") At the summit of this dark volcanic dike, Reindel discovered a worship circle with ceramic potsherds and nearby, a semicircular structure almost exactly like the one Reinhard had reported finding on Illakata.
(See the next post, “The Nephite Nazca Lines – Part III,” for more information on these early Nephites and their purpose of drawing on the ground)

The Nephite Nazca Lines – Part I

We have been asked several times regarding the purpose of the Nazca lines and figures, so are setting down information regarding them: 

These lines are found in the coastal region of southern Peru and among a series of valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley. This area is one of the most arid regions in the world with an average annual precipitation of 4 millimeters. Nazca's weather is controlled by Humboldt's Current, which carries water from Antarctica up the west coast of South America, and cools the air and limiting the accumulation of moisture within clouds, which results in very little rain, though clouds and fog are prevalent. The area has been settled at least since 100 B.C., and possibly before by the archaeology culture of the Nazca (Nasca), which had been heavily influenced by the preceding Paracas culture.
    In the small, protected basin where the Nasca culture arose, ten rivers descend from the Andes, to the east, most of them dry at least part of the year. These ten fragile ribbons of green, surrounded by a thousand shades of brown, offered a fertile hot spot for the emergence of an early civilization, much as the Nile Delta in Egypt, or the rivers of Mesopotamia did. "It was the perfect place for human settlement, because it had water," claims geographer Bernhard Eitel, a member of the Nasca-Palpa Project. "But it was a high-risk environment—a very high-risk environment."
    Best known for the geoglyphs (commonly called the Nazca Lines), the people also built an impressive system of subterranean aqueducts, known as puquios, which still function today though they have yet to be mapped and excavated, and their origination is hotly debated, though many claim they were built by a pre-Columbian civilization. There are even those who believe the Nazca Lines depict maps and pointers to the subterranean aquifers that feed the puquios system—an irrigation system that was probably taught the Nazca by the preceding Paracas, themselves extensively knowledgeable of irrigation and water management.

Planes flying over the Nazca valleys and a ground-level image shot showing the scoured ground that makes the image stand out from the air

    According to Professor Bernhard Eitel and his University of Heidelberg colleague Bertil Mächtle, the micro­climate in the Nazca region has oscillated dramatically over the past 5,000 years based on the regions Limnology. When a high-pressure system over central South America called the Bolivian High, which moves to the north, and the accompanying “Nordeste low” that moves to the east, more rain falls on the western slopes of the Andes. According to Dr. John D. Lenters at the Center of Limnology, University of Wisconsin, this results from the linear model that indicate these two features are generated in response to precipitation over the Amazon basin, central Andes, and South Atlantic convergence zone, with African precipitation also playing a crucial role in the formation of the Nordeste low. When the high shifts southward, precipitation decreases, and the rivers in the Nazca valleys run dry.
    Despite the risky conditions, the Nazca flourished for eight centuries. Around 200 B.C., the Nazca people emerged out of a previous culture known as the Paracas, settling along the river valleys and cultivating crops such as cotton, beans, tubers, lucuma (a fruit), and a short-eared form of corn. Renowned for their distinctive pottery, they invented a new technique of mixing about a dozen different mineral pigments in a thin wash of clay so that colors could be baked into the pottery.

A famous ceramic tableau known as the Tello plaque (above)—showing several Nazca strolling while blowing their panpipes, surrounded by dancing dogs—has been viewed as an iconic snapshot of a peaceful people whose rituals embraced music, dance, and sacred walks.
    Assuming these were the inventors of the geoglyphs, one still has to try to figure out what the lines were created for and that seems to baffle everyone, though there are theories covering just about every possibility. At this point in time, it appears as though this is one that may never be solved unless we can get out hands on the Large Plates of Nephi.
    The theocratic capital of early Nazca times was a sand-swept mecca called Cahuachi. The site, first excavated in the 1950s by Columbia University archaeologist William Duncan Strong, is a vast, 370-acre complex featuring an imposing adobe pyramid, several large temples, broad plazas and platforms, and an intricate network of connecting staircases and corridors. In their 2003 book on Nazca irrigation systems, archaeologist Katharina Schreiber of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Josué Lancho Rojas, a local schoolmaster and historian, point out that the Nazca River, which goes underground about nine miles to the east, resurfaces like a spring on the doorstep of Cahuachi. "The emergence of water at this point," they write, "was almost certainly regarded as sacred in prehistoric times."
    "Cahuachi was a ceremonial center," says Giuseppe Orefici, an Italian archaeologist who has led the excavation for many years. "People came here from the mountains and from the coast, bringing offerings."
    Elsewhere in the Nazca realm, people moved east or west along the river valleys as rainfall patterns shifted. The Peru-German archaeological initiative has explored the region from the Pacific coast to altitudes of nearly 15,000 feet in the Andean highlands. Almost everywhere they have looked they have found evidence of Nasca villages—"like pearls in the valley margins," says Reindel. "And near every settlement we find geoglyphs."
    The parched desert and hillsides made an inviting canvas: By simply removing a layer of dark stones cluttering the ground, exposing the lighter sand beneath, the Nasca created markings that have endured for centuries in the dry climate. Archaeologists believe both the construction and maintenance of the lines were communal activities—"like building a cathedral," says Reindel.

A system of horizontal wells scattered across the Nazca valleys

    In the hyperarid southern valleys, early Nasca engineers may have also devised a more practical way of coping with the scarcity of water. An ingenious system of horizontal wells, tapping into the sloping water table as it descends from the Andean foothills, allowed settlements to bring subterranean water to the surface. Known as puquios, these irrigation systems still water the southern valleys.
    Perhaps because of the adversity they faced, the Nasca people seem to have been remarkably "green." The creation of the puquios displayed a sophisticated sense of water conservation, since the underground aqueducts minimized evaporation. The farmers planted seeds by making a single hole in the ground rather than plowing, thus preserving the substructure of the soil. During a visit to a Nasca site called La Muña, Isla pointed out layers of vegetative matter in the walls of buildings and terraces that marked the rocky hillside settlement. The Nasca, he said, recycled their garbage as building material. "It's a society that managed its resources very well," he said. "This is what Nasca is all about."
    To most people today, Nasca is all about the lines. But although the Nasca were certainly the most prolific makers of geoglyphs, they were not the first. On a hillside abutting a plateau south of Palpa sprawl three stylized human figures, with buggy eyes and bizarre rays of hair, that date to at least 2,400 years ago—earlier than almost any textbook date for the start of the Nazca civilization.
(See the next post, “The Nephite Nazca Lines – Part II,” for more information on these early Nephites and their purpose of drawing on the ground)

The Purpose of the Peruvian Temple Tunnels – Part II

Continuing from the previous post regarding the tunnels found beneath the city of Jerusalem that were used for purifying pilgrims to the city who came to ascend to the Temple Mount. As stated in the previous post, these tunnels led to numerous underground mitveh, a ritual bath, in order to accomplish the purifying requirements for those entering the city. 

Tunnels beneath the Jerusalem Temple site date back to the construction of the Second Temple in 521 B.C.

 

    The interesting thing about this ancient tunnel series beneath the Jerusalem temple is that there is a parallel found in Andean Peru, in the area considered to be where Nephi settled and built a Temple “like unto Solomon’s.” At this site has been found a series of galleries, chambers, fountains and ancient mausoleums located under the ancient city of Cuzco. A tunnel measuring 1.25 miles in length, linking the Koricancha Sun Temple with the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, was discovered by Spanish archaeologist and scholar, Anselm Pi Rambla, in the ancient capital, as part of the Wiracocha Project, initiated in August 2000.
    Sacsayhuaman is located on the outskirts of the ancient Peruvian capital of Cuzco, resting on an artificially levelled mountaintop, and consists of three outer lines of gargantuan walls, 1,500 feet long and 54 feet wide. They surround a paved area containing a circular stone structure believed to be a solar calendar. The ruins also include a 500,000 gallon water reservoir, storage cisterns, ramps, citadels and underground chambers.

Some stones at Sacsayhuaman are huge, weighing in excess of 300 to 400 tons. Upper left stone is 28 feet high

    The largest stone blocks at Sacsayhuaman (some of which are over 28ft high), are regularly estimated to weigh over 120 tons, though more enthusiastic estimates place the largest stones at 300 tons and as high as 440 tons. So precise was the masonry that one block on the outer walls, for example, has faces cut to fit perfectly with 12 other blocks. Still other blocks were cut with as many as 36 sides. All the blocks were fitted together so precisely that a thickness gauge could not be inserted between them.
    It is also interesting that beneath the city of Jerusalem, in the tunnels dug there in 521 B.C., there is a huge stone block 40 feet long, 12 feet high and 14 feet deep, that has been cut precisely to fit on the stone bases beneath it without mortar, creating the same kind of perfect fit as found in the stones at Sacsayhuaman.

In the tunnel beneath the Jerusalem temple is large 600-ton stone that is so cut as to not need mortar and (yellow arrow) fits perfectly on its base stones

    In the Peruvian tunnels, it is claimed that they form part of a series of galleries, chambers, fountains and ancient mausoleums under the city, according to the Wiracocha Project, initiated in 2000. The group stated before the Peruvian Congress’s Cultural Commission that they had discovered the subterranean passageway, which may change perspectives on Peruvian history. According to radar images, the tunnel links directly to the Temple of the Sun or Korikancha, with the Convent of Santa Catalina, or with the Cathedral or Temple of Inca Wiracocha, with the palace of Huascar, the Temple of Manco Capac or perhaps Colcampata and Huamanmarca.

Peruvian tunnels beneath the city of Cuzo and connecting in many cases to Sacsayhuaman

    All of these buildings are in a perfect astronomical alignment, confirming that ancient Peruvians also guided their constructions by the location of the Sun, the Moon and the constellations. Access to a tunnel at the Sacsayhuaman Fortress was already known, but it was condemned in 1923 to avoid the disappearances of curiosity seekers who entered it, since its trajectory was unknown.
    The Sacsayhuaman fortress was a House of the Sun, and those of other nations were not able to enter it because it was a house of the sun. The largest and most magnificent work, the fortress above the city, has a magnitude that is incredible to those who have seen it.
    The early Spanish who conquered the region were so taken with the edifice, that they believed its greatness was made by way of enchantment and built by devils and not men, because the multitude of so many stones of such great size, such as those placed on the three terraces, caused vast speculation. The massive stones, many of which weigh many tons, were cut from quarries and moved and fitted so that the joint hardly shows. To think how they could fit stones so immense and so well, where one cannot even insert the blade of a knife in between is remarkable.
    Archaeologist claim that this fortress is a “Pre-Inca citadel,” built and belonging to a culture that has yet to be identified. “We calculate that the tunnels would be some 300 feet under Cuzco,” stated Anselm Pi Rambla, “the great question is ascertaining what age it belonged to.” Excavation work aimed at confirming the location of the subterranean galleries confirm the stories of ancient Spanish chroniclers like Garcilaso de la Vega and Cieza de León regarding an underground citadel in Cuzco.
    Another area where tunnels have been built under a temple is found at Chavin de Huantar, which is officially dated to approximately 800 B.C., if not earlier. The complex is divided into two clear phases; The 'Old' and the 'New,' with the 'Old' phase dated at around 900 B.C., and the 'New' temples, built over the old are dated at around 500 B.C.
    Chavin is a complex of steeply walled platforms, honeycombed with stone-lined passages and surrounding a sunken plaza. It is unique among Pre-Columbian temple groups. The principle edifice, called 'The Castillo' is faced with cut-stone blocks in courses of varying widths. The walls rose 56-feet above a pedestal of cyclopean blocks. Inside the core are at least three irregular stories of stone-lined galleries, chambers and ventilating shafts.
    The complex was laid out according to a pre-conceived plan; an area of 300,000 square feet, was flattened and terraced in preparation, and the whole site was aligned to the cardinal points.
    A number of engraved obelisks, cyclopean masonry (such as a 30 foot long lintel), and a network of cut-rock tunnels that highlight the unusual quality of the complex. Networks of subterranean tunnels cut from natural rock have been found at the site.

One of the many subterranean tunnels at Chavin

    Isn’t it interesting that there is such a connection between Israel and Peru, dating back to around 500 B.C. where both areas built complex temples of stone and decorated them both with extensive gold paneling and other precious materials, both had extensive subterranean tunnels beneath the temples, and both used huge stones that fit perfectly without mortar? For many years Sacsayhuaman’s builders were singled out as having extreme capabilities of cutting, dressing and fitting very large stones into a complex manner without mortar that have withstood as much as 2500 years without losing their perfect fit. But now, with Israel digging along the tunnels beneath Jerusalem and the Temple site, they have uncovered a similar design feature of huge stones that have been perfectly cut and fit without mortar in forming seams that can hardly be seen. This is not a common feature of ancient construction and notably such has been found in both Israel and Peru.
    It should be noted that no such construction achievements have been found in North America, Baja California, the Malay Peninsula, or even in Mesoamerica. One would think that such would have a bearing on those who are seriously looking for an area where they can place the Land of Promise and have it match the descriptions of the Book of Mormon.

The Purpose of the Peruvian Temple Tunnels – Part I

In Jerusalem, the entire length of the Western Wall, sometimes called the Wailing Wall, is 1500 feet. Today, we see only about one hundred and eighty feet of this wall.

The Western Wall in Jerusalem as seen today

  

    In 70 B.C., when Rome destroyed the Second Temple, only one outer wall remained standing. The Romans probably would have destroyed that wall as well, but it must have seemed too insignificant to them; it was not even part of the Temple itself, just an outer wall surrounding the Temple Mount. For the Jews, however, this remnant of what was the most sacred building in the Jewish world quickly became the holiest spot in Jewish life.
   Throughout the centuries Jews from around the world made the difficult pilgrimage to Palestine, and immediately headed for the Kotel ha-Ma'aravi (the Western Wall) to thank God. The prayers offered at the Kotel were so heartfelt that gentiles began calling the site the “Wailing Wall.” This undignified name never won a wide following among traditional Jews; the term “Wailing Wall” is not used at all in Hebrew.

Inserting messages and praying at the Western Wall 

    Over centuries a tradition was developed, placing notes between the holy stones, asking for divine support, expressing wishes and prayers. The tradition has been adopted by members of many faiths around the world, and is so widespread that some American-Jewish newspapers carry advertisements for services that insert such prayers on behalf of sick Jews. The mystical qualities associated with the Kotel are underscored in a popular Israeli song, a refrain of which runs: “There are people with hearts of stone, and stones with hearts of people.” A rabbi in Jerusalem once told me that the Hebrew expression “The walls have ears” was originally said about the Western Wall.

 Most of the wall is unseen except through special tours in the tunnels below the city 

    However, the more than 1200-feet of the wall today is unknown to most visitors to Jerusalem and is completely hidden and covered by the houses of the Muslim Quarter.
    Anciently, anyone coming to Jerusalem and ascending to the temple mount had to purify himself by bathing in a ritual bath, called a mitveh, which was accessible through a series of tunnels. Even Jesus himself bathed in a mitveh.
    The word mitveh (also, mikvah, mikva, miqve) means “collection” and refers to a collection of water that was used by the Jews for ceremonial washing. They are ritual baths in which the Jews would purify themselves before several activities or after certain events that made them unclean. Conversion to Judaism requires submersion into a mitveh.

A metveh beneath the city accessable by tunnel for Pilgrims to purify themselves as they ascended to the Temple Mount

    The area around the Temple Mount, especially to the south, were filled with mitveh. Many of them were most likely used on the Day of Pentecost to baptize the converted Jews in Jesus’ name. It signified a major change in their understanding of who Jesus was and was a sign of their new faith and allegiance. A mitveh had to have a source of running water, such as a spring, or fresh water, such as rain, and large enough to allow an average sized person to immerse his whole body. Stairs would be used to descend into and ascend out of the mitveh. Often there was a wall separating the clean side from the unclean side.
    In fact, tens of thousands of pilgrims came to the city and were lodged in houses during the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Succot—but for hundreds of years after the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews were forbidden from residing in Jerusalem, and the city’s non-Jewish inhabitants utilized the abandoned baths for their own purposes as water cisterns, storage spaces and quarries.
    Beneath the Western Wall and beneath the city of Jerusalem is a series of tunnels that run along the actual mountain bedrock, which was chiseled to look like the Western Wall in order to create an optical illusion of continuity

Tunnels beneath the city of Jerusalem leading to ritual bath mitvehs entered by pilgrims wanting to ascend to the Temple Mount 

    Along the Western Wall that is now reachable only via one of the underground tunnels, and seen only on specially designed tours of the site, is the base of the Western Wall. This interesting tour is one of the most popular tourist sites in Jerusalem and follows the underground tunnels  that connect the western wall prayer area to the north-west side of the temple mount, passing along the side of the temple mount and under the present day houses in the Old City. Along its path are remains from the second temple period, as well as structures from later periods. Here, a large stone was placed during construction of the wall, that is 40 feet long, 12 feet high, and 14 feet deep. It weighs almost 600 tons, and was carved at a quarry in the northern parts of the temple mount and then brought to the wall, lifted up three stories high and placed symmetrically along the wall. How was it done? No one knows.

Large stone wall forty feet long placed along the base of the Western Wall. Note that there is no cement holding the stones together; only their weight and the perfectly cut match between the stones made them hold firmly together, and withstand the enormous pressure of the temple mount over two millenniums

    Along this wall, which rests on bedrock, the ancients cut down to the mountain rock base and built vent chambers, then chiseled the mountain rock beneath the wall base so it looked like the actual wall, and to visitors today it is indistinguishable and now looks exactly like part of the wall.
    This area was covered with accumulated debris following the Roman destruction and after two millenniums, new buildings were built on top of these old layers. However, under these structures, some cavities remained buried deep underground. Since the 19th century, explorers examined these cavities and tunnels in the search for the second temple remains. Explorers, such as Warren and Wilson, did manage to unearth sections of the tunnels, but they were limited in their research by the Ottoman rulers. Only after the six-day-war (1967), when the area returned to Israeli control, was the underground area thoroughly researched and reconstructed, with some sections still in the process of archaeological excavations today. However, the tourist site was fully opened in 1996, with 1640-feet long tunnel that had been buried along the north-western wall.

Beneath the Western Wall, the tunnels run along the actual rock of the mountain; Top: this vent runs down to the bedrock below; Bottom: the rock mountain was chiseled to look like part of the wall 

    The opening of this northern exit sparked deadly Arab riots in the old city for several days, but today it is a popular tourit attraction and tends to cause one to move through the tunnel quickly back into the ancient past when Christ walked the city. Today, the route of the tunnel tour starts from the entrance on the north side of the Western Wall   prayer area, and ends in Via Dolorosa.

One of the long tunnels cut in the rock that has been modernized with framework for the safety of tourism. This old tunnel was one of many that led beneath the city and to special mitvehs for cleansing and purifying of pilgrims visiting the city

When is a Horse not a Horse? – Part II

Continuing from the last post regarding the reason horses are mentioned in the scriptural record of the Book of Mormon. Several theorists have made extensive remarks that suggest that there were no horses at all, but if there were, there is no mention of their doing anything that horses do.
    As an example, one theorists has written: “Horses are mentioned in the Book of Mormon is unstated. How they were used, when, and by whom, is left unsaid. Indeed, needing to say that they were useful on some occasions seems to imply something remarkable or unusual, otherwise the point would not need to be mentioned.”

As Mormon writes: “Now the king had commanded his servants, previous to the time of the watering of their flocks, that they should prepare his horses and chariots, and conduct him forth to the land of Nephi; for there had been a great feast appointed at the land of Nephi, by the father of Lamoni, who was king over all the land—what exactly is unusual about this use of horses and chariots?

    Yet, in reality, it is interesting that at no time is anything unusual mentioned about horses. They either play a part in the animals that the Nephites (and Jaredites before them) had in the Land of Promise, or circumstances, such as Ammon, mentioning horses as part of an overall storyline. It is actually hard to understand why someone feels they have to apologize for the mention of horses in the scriptural record, and try to find a legitimate reason why horses should not have been mentioned at all.
    This theorist gives us three reasons regarding their being mentioned. Only the first one makes any sense at all:
1. There were actual horses. Perhaps the most straightforward approach is to assume that horses, which subsequently became extinct, were available in the area in which the Nephites and Lamanites lived. It is not unusual for primary source documents to mention things, which archaeologists cannot prove. In fact, it is expected that authentic documents will give us new information about the past.

Did Nephi, who was a farmer and worked on his father’s farm, mistook a tapir for a horse, as Sorenson claims? You think?

2. Nephi Could Have Borrowed the Word “Horse.” Another approach to this question suggests that the word “horse” in the Book of Mormon is being used to refer to a different animal. Throughout history, when immigrants and travelers have encountered new and unfamiliar species, they have often applied labels from their own language, which originally referred to different animals. In many cases, the borrowed term has become the common name. For example, the Greeks coined the name hippopotamus, which literally means “river horse.” The American bison is still colloquially called buffalo—which technically refers to a different species. The terms elk and robin were also applied to American animals by Europeans, even though they are used in reference to totally different species in the Old World.
3. “Horse” Could be a Result of Translation. It is also possible that “horse” is a “translator anachronism.” Brant A. Gardner explains, “We need look no further than the King James translation of the Bible for examples of anachronisms that occur only in translation and not in the text being translated.” One prominent example is the mention of candles, which were not invented in biblical times, though the term is used in reference to oil lamps. “Thus, the word candle is an anachronism, but only in the translation.” Without the original text, it is impossible to be sure whether “horse” is a loan-shift the Nephites made or an anachronism caused by translation, but in either case the word “horse” would not refer to what today’s readers might assume or expect. One should be aware of these possibilities while reading references to horses and other plants and animals not commonly thought to be in the Americas during Book of Mormon times.

Does anyone really believe that Nephi, who worked around animals most of his life, or Joseph Smith, who knew all about horses and farm animals, would have mistakingly considered a tapir a horse?

    On the other hand, Moroni assures us that while no one knew the Nephite language, that the “Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof” (Mormon 9:34). The “he hath prepared means for the interpretation,” of course, was Joseph Smith. And he did this under that direction of the Spirit, who we are told, kept the sentence or word on display until it was interpreted correctly.
    Consequently, it adds nothing to the effort of understanding Mormon’s words to consider that they might be wrong because of translation error, or that Nephi borrowed the word for “horse.”
    The theorist goes on to write: “In fact, in many cultures and on various topographies, horses are not useful, being hard to tame and costly to maintain.”
    Actually, horses are one of the easiest animals, either wild or feral, to break to human use—usually one good ride will do it—and the animal is quite docile, easily ridden or used to haul or pull thereafter. However, the theorist is not finished. He adds, “While there is no definitive answer to why horses are mentioned in the Book of Mormon, each of these prospects creates room for further exploration, wondering, understanding, and especially faith. Each possible explanation also teaches important lessons about archaeology, ancient writings, and the nature of translations that need to be taken into account when considering information, insights, questions, and curiosities about the Book of Mormon.”

Common animals are pretty well understood by most ancient people since they worked with them nearly every day. A new animal, such as the cumom and curelom, were unknown and in the Book of Mormon, were not given inaccurate names in a translator anachronism

    It would seem that what needs to be taken into account is that both Mormon and Joseph Smith well understood horses, as most ancient people did for that was their main source of transportation and often the only beast of burden available to them.
    He also wrote: “Readers can interpret the presence of horses in the Book of Mormon in a variety of different ways.”
    The problem with this kind of theorist is the constant attack on the plain and simple language of the Book of Mormon—the language that Nephi loved and used and commanded those who wrote after him to use. A language that is clear and understandable. In this case, a horse is a horse, and would have been used by the Nephites as most cultures and civilizations have used throughout history. Why would anyone think any different on this matter. The only caveat would be to recognize that the Lord’s people never used horses in the promotion and promulgation of war. But they were certainly used for transportation and as beasts of burden—exactly what we see in the scriptural record.
    It should always be kept in mind that Book of Mormon subjects once considered anachronistic have since been verified, which has led John E. Clark, a Latter-day Saint and prominent Mesoamerican archaeologist, to declare: “the Book of Mormon looks better with age” (Clark, “Archaeological Trends,” p94)
    Such findings should urge caution against making final judgments based on absence of evidence.
    Another comment from this theorist: “Throughout history, when immigrants and travelers have encountered new and unfamiliar species, they have often applied labels from their own language, which originally referred to different animals. In many cases, the borrowed term has become the common name.”
    However, this is not true when it comes to the Book of Mormon, which any cursory view would show. As an example, when Joseph Smith encountered the two animals, cumom and curelom, that were unknown to him in New England area 1829, he simply used the name given in the record; and the same is true with the two grains, neas and sheum, and the metal ziff. To even suggest that he might have used a substitute name is incomprehensible given the facts of his translation.

So when is a horse not a horse? It appears not to be a horse when it conflicts with the mainstream Land of Promise theorists because it is uncomfortable for them to support such a controversial issue used by critics to thwart the importance and accuracy of the written word.

When is a Horse not a Horse? – Part I

Has there ever been a time in human history that a horse did not serve the purposes of a beast of burden as it has been portrayed down through the ages? Has there ever been a time when a horse in any culture and civilization did not serve as a hauler of goods, puller of plows and equipment, and a means for transportation, either riding or pulling wagons, carts, buggies, etc? 

Indians without horses had to creep up on all fours to attack a buffalo herd, which was very dangerous; without horses, they used dogs to carry travois and loads

    In the case of the North American Indian, their life before horses on the Plains was very different, with dogs being the only pack animals on the plains. The introduction of horses into plains native tribes revolutionized entire cultures, as the harnesses and equipment originally designed for dogs were easily adapted to horses and were quickly used since they could carry much larger loads than a dog.
    Some tribes abandoned a relatively sedentary life style to become horse nomads in less than a generation. Hunting became more important for most tribes as ranges were expanded. More frequent contact with distant tribes increased the likelihood of competition and warfare. Eventually, in most tribes a person’s wealth was measured in horses, and great honors came to those who could capture or steal them from an enemy.
    Horses reached Nebraska by the 1680s, and the upper Missouri by the 1750s. Much of the trade was between tribes—Apache groups took horse herds to Kansas and all the way to the Dakota, trading them for hides and other goods. The Spanish also participated in this trade in a major way. In Nebraska, two different fundamental economies evolved. Tribes in eastern Nebraska (Pawnee, Ponca, Omaha, and Oto) utilized the horse for extensive buffalo hunts, but did not abandon their older pattern of earth lodge villages and maize growing. The western part of the state became dominated by bison-hunting nomads, which are today pictured as the stereotypical Plains Indian. The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, lived in hide tepees and roamed over most of western Nebraska. These tribes were relative newcomers to the Plains, having moved out of the Great Lakes region onto the Plains in the 1700s. Horses allowed them to expand their traditional nomadic lifestyle over the vast distances of the plains.

The point is, once the Indians obtained horses, they used them in every way possible, riding, hauling, as wealth and for trade. This has pretty much been the value of horses down through the ages. So the question arises why do so many Land of Promise theorists try to change the purpose of the horses mentioned in the Book of Mormon and in the manner the Nephites used them?
    Enos tells us: “And it came to pass that the people of Nephi did till the land, and raise all manner of grain, and of fruit, and flocks of herds … and also many horses” (Enos 1:21).
    From the earliest times, during the age of the Jaredites, horses were had among them, in fact, they are singled out as being important to man, not as much as the elephant, cumom or curelom, but nonetheless important along with the ass (donkey). Moroni in his abridgement put it this way after mentioned that they had fruit and grain, silks and linen, gold and silver and precious things: “And also all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms” (Ether 9:18-19).

Yet, as one theorist writes: “The mention of horses among domesticated animals kept by Book of Mormon peoples has raised questions in some people’s minds, due to the prevailing view that horses were not found in the Americas during pre-Columbian times. Enos says that in his time, the Nephites raised “many horses,” but how and why they were used is not mentioned.”
    The question this immediately raises is why is this a question? Horses have basically one purpose and that is as a beast of burden, to carry, pull or haul things. What other reason would the Nephites, and the Jaredites before them, have for a horse other than for what all cultures and civilizations have used them?

The horses were known even among the Lamanites, as king Lamoni not only had horses, but they are mentioned in both the context of Ammon, as the king’s servant, was feeding them (Alma 18:9) and also preparing them to haul the king’s chariots (Alma 18:10). In that day and age, horses pulling chariots was a common practice and use for horses. So why is there even a question?
    Even when the Nephites were anticipating attacks by the Gadianton Robbers, they gathered all their people into a central area for seven years, taking with them “their horses, and their chariots, and their cattle, and all their flocks, and their herds, and their grain, and all their substance, and did march forth by thousands and by tens of thousands, until they had all gone forth to the place which had been appointed that they should gather themselves together, to defend themselves against their enemies” (3 Nephi 3:22).
    Again, one of the theorists raises an unusual question; "In this small handful of references, no text ever says that horses were ridden or used in battle. They are sometimes mentioned with chariots, but are never actually described as pulling them. It is hard to determine exactly what kind of role they played in the daily life of Book of Mormon peoples except to say they were 'useful'."

Horses had many uses anciently 

    One can only wonder how might they have been useful? If they were not ridden, not used to pull chariots, not used to haul things (no mention in scriptural of this, either), then what was their purpose?
    This theorist goes on to suggest: “In 3 Nephi 4:4, horses are mentioned as being among the provisions ‘reserved for themselves…that they might subsist for the space of seven years.’ The word ‘subsist’ may imply that horses in that desperate time were raised and used for food.”
    Yet, though food is mentioned that the Nephites took with them, it cannot be shown that horses, since they were singled out, were meant to suggest food or provisions. And when the siege and battle were finally concluded and the Nephites returned to their homes, there is no suggestion that horses were used or meant to be used as food. As Mormon writes: “every man, with his family, his flocks and his herds, his horses and his cattle, and all things whatsoever did belong unto them” (3 Nephi 6:1).

The Nephites had much cattle and moved their herds about; during the Gaddianton Robbers event, they moved all their cattle quite some distance—it is difficult to move large herds of cattle without people on horseback 

    In raising such questions as what were they used for and that answer not being mentioned, we can also say that the purpose of herds and cattle are never mentioned, but we know what herds are cattle are used for in ancient societies as they are today--for food. Yet, another theorist, Brant Garder, states an odd observation: “The Book of Mormon ‘horse’ never fulfills the functions we expect of a horse.”
    However, in the spiritual record, “horse” is often stated in connection with “flocks” and “herds.” They are also mentioned in connection with “chariots,” which require some type of animal to pull them, and horses were the universal animal throughout history and among all cultures and peoples used to pull chariots. They are also mentioned in regard to their usefulness to man—and again, universally, the usefulness of the horse has been easily recognized and written about for their pulling riding conveniences (wagons, buggies), hauling goods with backpacks, pulling tree stumps from the ground, dragging felled logs, etc. So what exact function did Gardner have in mind that the horse did not rise to our expectation? At no time in the scriptural record are we told exactly what role “cattle” played among the Nepbites or Jaredites, yet it would seem reasonable to understand that cattle were there for their main purpose, to provide food. It is true we are not told somebody saddled, mounted and rode off into the sunset on a horse. But at the same time, we are not told that someone milked a cow, butchered a steer or goat, or sheered a sheep. Yet the reason for the Nephites having cattle and herds is unquestionably understood, as having  horses should be.
(See the next post, “When is a Horse not a Horse? – Part II,” for more information on theorists questioning why horses are mentioned in the Book of Mormon and what we can learn from this)