Sacsayhuamán, the greatest mystery in America
During my first trip to Cusco, a symbol city of Andean culture (next to Puno and La Paz), I visited the imposing stone structure called Sacsayhuamán, located about 3,555 meters above sea level.
In my opinion, Sacsayhuamán (from the Aymara saqsaw waman, place where the falcon is satisfied) is the most mysterious place on the entire American continent.
When the conquistadors belonging to Pizarro's army arrived in Cusco in 1533, they were astonished in front of such an immense megalithic monument with cyclopean walls of enormous weight.
The Spaniards wondered how it had been possible for the indigenous Incas, who were unaware of the use of pulleys or the existence of iron, and who used tree trunks instead of wheels, to transport rocks weighing up to 200 tons, to shape them so that fit perfectly together and lift them up to place them on top of each other.
The Spaniards also wondered what mysterious motive the indigenous people, who in their eyes were “archaic,” would have had to build such a monument, taking so much time and expending so much energy.
These questions, some 477 years old, retain their relevance.
No scholar has presented sufficient and exhaustive evidence of how Sacsayhuamán was built and, above all, what its function was.
No one knows when it was actually built either, although official archeology recently suggested that indigenous people of the Killke culture erected the imposing structure in 1100 AD.
In recent years I had the opportunity to interview several archaeologists, both Peruvian and Brazilian, and I have the impression that no one really wants to face the issue of Sacsayhuamán. Why?
The well-known dating method called carbon 14 works only when there is organic material, but it is not capable of dating the period in which a monument was built.
For example, the data on the Killke culture, offered by a team of archaeologists in 2008, contrasts with the classic ethno-historical information that recognized the Incas as the builders of Sacsayhuamán starting in 1438 AD, during the kingdom of Pachacutec.
In my opinion, the fact is that a stone monument cannot be dated just because ceramic remains are found in its foundations. According to this logic, perhaps in 10 years another pottery will be found in a deeper stratum of terrain, belonging to a Killke proto-culture perhaps traceable to 900 AD. And thus, a dating of the construction of the stone structure prior to the 900 AD will be formulated.
The monument, which for some is the representation of the head of a puma, for others a fortress to defend Cusco and for others a ceremonial center, is composed of three walls approximately 400 meters long and 6 meters high. Some stones are estimated to weigh up to 200 tons, while the total volume of the three walls is about 6,000 cubic meters.
In the area to the south of the walls are the bases of what were probably three large towers: Muyucmarca, Sallacmarca and Paucarmarca. While the first has a circular base, the last two have a rectangular base.
The Muyucmarca was about 12 meters high and had a base with a diameter of 22 meters. In his Royal Commentaries, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega describes Muyucmarca as a tower that served as a water tank and was connected to the other two by underground tunnels.
It is said that in the battle of Sacsayhuamán, which occurred in 1536, the Inca Cahuide jumped into the void from Muyucmarca, in order not to surrender to the Spanish.
Dozens of books were written about the origin of Sacsayhuamán and the strangest theories were proposed to explain how its construction was carried out, a fact that until now is shrouded in mystery.
Walking through the streets of Cusco you see several books by alleged mystics, each of whom claims to know the key to how the most mysterious archaeological site in America was built.
There are those who believe that Sacsayhuamán, which was originally much larger, since the Spanish used many rocks to build their houses and churches in Cusco, was a megalithic city that exactly reproduced the capital of the ancient kingdom of Atlantis, which disappeared due to terrible disasters, earthquakes and floods.
Indeed, it is strange that the stones fit perfectly together, in such a way that not even the edge of a knife can pass between them. How was it possible to build such a perfect thing without modern construction and cutting instruments, nor the driving force, which did not appear until the 19th century?
First of all, we must analyze the problem of transporting such large rocks. According to some researchers, the heaviest stones (andesite) were already found at the Sacsayhuamán site, but, if so, it must still be explained how they were lifted to place them and fit them together.
If they had been in mines far from Sacsayhuamán, how were they transported? Since they did not have carts or pack animals such as oxen or horses, it is thought that the heaviest stones were slid over tree trunks holding them with thick ropes.
Once the rocks were grouped in the place where the structure would be built, they proceeded to polish them, with the aim of making them fit together. We have to think that the ancients conceived time differently than we do now. Working a rock for months or years was a normal thing, time was seen not as a limit, but as an opportunity.
To make one stone fit perfectly with another, the ancient builders must have used hammers made of stone harder than andesite to be able to polish the corners of each one and join it well with another.
There is also the theory of the existence of a plant that, mixed with other natural substances, would make the stone easily malleable, as if it were plasticine, used by children to play.
According to some researchers, the ancient inhabitants of the highlands mastered some alchemical techniques that allowed them to shape the rock to their liking and then make it very hard again. According to a legend spread in Cusco, Father Jorge Lira demonstrated in the last years of the 20th century that the technique to make stones malleable was true and that it was based on the use of a plant called jotcha. However, it seems that the priest failed to harden the rock again. In any case, his experiments were never supported by scientific evidence and the entire story always remained behind an aura of mystery.
Although it is admitted that the ancient builders of Sacsayhuamán managed to carve the stones so that they fit together, the enigma still remains as to how they were able to lift stones weighing dozens of tons to place them on top of each other.
According to the official theory, an oblique wooden base was placed between the ground and the rock used as a foundation. Then, perpendicular logs on which to place a wooden base on which there were other perpendicular logs. Only on the latter was the stone that was going to be placed on the one below transported. The operation was carried out by both dragging and pushing, to ensure that the rock did not fall backwards, and sticks were placed between the perpendicular trunks, in order to block the positioning. The cavities that were discovered in some rocks were used, according to some researchers, to insert logs, in order to support the rock before definitively placing it on top of another.
According to my Peruvian friend Paul Mazzei, there could be another possibility: once the largest rocks were placed in a row, the foundations of the structure, they proceeded to excavate beneath them in order to make them sink to a depth more or less equal to their height. Then, other relatively lighter rocks were simply placed on top of the first, heavier ones. Next, the ground level of the entire area was reduced and flattened, in order to hide the “trench” initially excavated.
Although one day it will be possible to exhaustively explain how Sacsayhuamán was built, the question of why and how it was erected will always remain. As already mentioned, there are those who think it was a fortress, while others consider it a ceremonial center.
In fact, it is difficult for us to understand the reasons for such a complex construction that certainly required many years to complete. However, we must remember that there are hundreds of megalithic constructions in the world and that the logic of the ancients is complicated for us, since it was related to rites and ceremonies that are incomprehensible today.
After having compared many archaeological sites in South America with each other, I came to the conclusion that Sacsayhuamán was built long before Cusco. In my opinion, the megalithic structure was the center of a citadel that extended beyond the limits of the current archaeological park.
I believe that the authors of Sacsayhuamán belonged to the so-called American megalithic civilization that developed in South America shortly after the Great Flood, starting in the ninth millennium BC.
Only with further excavation work, with the comparative study of other megalithic sites of the Andean plateau (Tiwanaku and Pukara) and with the exhaustive exploration of the enigmatic underground galleries that lead from Sacsayhuamán to Cusco or to unknown places, will it be possible to attempt to reveal, in the future, the mystery of this fascinating place that touched my heart, and which I consider to be the very symbol of the ancient American megalithic civilization.
YURI LEVERATTO
