The Titans, a Tunnel under the Pacific
"If the Spaniards, upon entering Cuzco, hadn’t acted with such cruelty, killing Atahualpa, who knows how many ships would have been needed to transport to Spain all those treasures that now lie in the depths of the Earth and may remain there forever, as those who hid them died without revealing the secret."
Thus wrote the soldier-priest Cieza de Leon a few years after the murder of the last Inca emperor and the massacres committed by Pizarro and his horde. And with good reason, as the Iberian adventurers, blinded by their greed for riches, acted in the least suitable way to fulfill it.
Pizarro took Atahualpa prisoner and declared he would release him only if all the Inca treasures were delivered to him. Before deciding, the emperor’s wife consulted the solar oracle and, learning that her husband would die regardless, committed suicide after ordering the treasures to be hidden.
Where? "In galleries more secure than fortresses," says the English archaeologist Harold Wilkins, "dug into the heart of the mountains and sealed by mysterious hieroglyphs that offer the 'Open Sesame!' of which only one Inca per generation knows the meaning; in underground passages built thousands of years ago by a highly civilized but vanished race."
This hypothesis is plausible: there are numerous such underground passages, not only in Inca territory. However, the most notable is a network of tunnels that would connect Lima to Cuzco, the ancient capital of Peru, then continue southeast to the Bolivian border. According to ancient documents, the tunnel would house a richly adorned royal tomb.
Aside from the allure of riches, these tunnels represent a captivating archaeological mystery. Researchers who have studied them agree that these underground passages could not have been dug by the Incas; the Incas may have used them, knowing of their existence, but not their origin.
Curiously, almost the entire planet is crisscrossed by similar tunnels, on which we must further reflect. We find them, besides in South America, in California, Virginia, Hawaii (where they reportedly connect the different islands of the archipelago), Oceania, Asia, and even in Sweden, Czechoslovakia, the Balearic Islands, and Malta. A huge tunnel, explored for about fifty kilometers, connects the Iberian Peninsula to Morocco, and it is widely believed that through this passage, the monkeys (the only ones in our continent) came from Africa and settled near the famous rock.
Theories range from natural causes—though, in my view, as implausible as the notion that Giants ruled before Homo sapiens.
In short, the planet Earth seems to ignite our imagination constantly, offering humanity many topics to satisfy and deepen our endless hunger for knowledge.
