Tiahuanaco is in the Bolivian Andes lying 12,500 feet (over 2 miles) above sea-level. It is located several miles from the shores of Lake Titicaca. Archeology in general dates the city at c. 200 A.D., but it was not always so. Its first investigator, Arthur Posnansky, a german engineer who dedicated fifty years to its study, dated its origins to 15,000 B.C. As we shall see, his reasons were various.

Strangely, Tiahuanaco appears to be a seaport (Posnansky, 1945), although the nearest body of water is Lake Titicaca, some 12-15 miles away (the distance depends on the level of the lake). There are several theories about how this happens to be. We will consider only one here.

On the rock cliffs near the piers and warfs of the port area are yellow-white calcareous deposits forming long, straight lines indicating pre-historic water levels. These ancient shorelines are strangely tilted, although once they must have been level. The surrounding area is covered with millions of fossilized sea-shells. It appears, from the tilting of the ancient shoreline striations and the abundant presence of fossilized oceanic flora and fauna, that a tremendous uplift of land has taken place sometime in the ancient past. Geologists estimate that this happened roughly around 100 million years ago; but the data gathered from archeological investigations indicate a different story.

Courtesy of South American Pictures/Tony Morrison

Oceanic creatures live to this day in abundance in the salty waters of the lake, indicating that it was once a part of the ocean, although it is now over 2 miles above sea-level. What seems to be the original seashore is much higher in one place than in another.

The port of Tiahuanaco, called Puma Punku or "Door of the Puma," is an area filled with enormous stone blocks scattered hither and yon like matchsticks, and weighing between 100 and 150 tons! One block still in place weighs an estimated 440 tons! One wonders, how were these blocks quarried; also how did the builders handle such huge blocks so skillfully? And what tremendous forces tumbled and scattered these gigantic stones so easily about the site?

Many of the blocks, some of them weighing upwards of 200 tons, are held together by large copper clamps shaped like an I, rather than enterlocking shapes as at Sacsahuaman or at Cuzco. Others were held together by silver rivets. The system used here is reminiscent of that used in the Egyptian ruins on Elephantine Island on the Nile. Most researchers believe that the metal was actually poured into shaped-slots carved into the rock.

Some of the docks and piers in this area are so large that hundreds of ships could dock comfortably--and nothing oceanic near these docks except a prehistoric coastline indicated by chalky fossils. Lake Titicaca, languishing miles away, is nearly 100 feet lower than the ruined docks. What tremendous geological upheaval has occurred in the last thousand years that could have tumbled these huge stones while raising the entire altiplano region 2 miles into the sky? None that anyone knows about; but 12,000 years ago might have been a different story!

A quarter of a mile or so northeast of the port area are the temples, pyramids and palaces of the main city of Tiahuanaco. (Recent excavation is turning up evidence of a population of 30,000 to 40,000 people, although this may represent a much later influx of settlers.) The main part of the city consists of several buildings. Four of them--the Acapana Pyramid, the Kalasasaya, the semi-Subterranean Temple, and a so-called "Palace"--their placement and proximity indicate a ceremonial center.

Map of the ceremonial center of Tiahuanaco. (Map redrawn from site report by Wendell C. Bennett.)

The Acapana Pyramid is a step pyramid (found in Egypt as well as Mesoamerica), and is aligned perfectly with the cardinal directions. It originally had a covering of smooth Andesite stone, but 90% of that has disappeared. The ruinous state of the pyramid is due to its being used as a stone quarry for later buildings at La Paz. Its interior is honeycombed with shafts in a complicated grid pattern, which incorporates a system of weirs used to direct water from a tank on top, going through a series of levels, and finally ending up in a stone canal surrounding the pyramid. The function of this hydraulic system is baffling to archeologists, who have drummed up a number of theoretical explanations.

The 10 ton Gateway of the Sun is monolithic, carved from a single block of Andesite granite, and is broken right down the center (what sort of seismic disturbance could have done this?). Its upper portion is deeply carved with beautiful and intricate designs, including a human figure, condors, toxodons, elephants and some symbols. Directly in the center of the gate is the so-called "Sun-god," with rays shooting from his face in all directions. He is holding a stylized staff in each hand which may represent thunder and lightning.

This figure is sometimes referred to as the "weeping god" because of the tears carved on his cheeks. The figures flanking the centerpiece are themselves unfinished, leading investigators to wonder what could have interrupted the craftsmen working on the gate that it was left unfinished. This monolith, when first discovered, was broken in half, and was lying askew deep in silt until restored to its proper position in 1908. (In fact, all the ruins were covered in a deep layer of muddy silt until excavated and partially restored.)

Of the animals represented on the Gateway of the Sun, two have been extinct for thousands of years. Jaguars and condors are still with us, but toxodons and elephants? During the Pleistocene epoch Cuverionius, an elephant-like proboscid thrived in the area, but both it and the toxodon disappeared with the Pleistocene Extinction some 11,000-12,000 years ago.

In 1934 the Peruvianist Wendell C. Bennett carried out several excavations at Tiahuanaco. Excavating in the Subterranean Temple he found two large stone images. One was a bearded statue. Depicted are large round eyes, a straight narrow nose and oval mouth. Rays of lightning are carved on the forehead.

The statue stands over 7 feet tall with arms crossed over an ankle-length tunic, which is decorated with pumas around the hem. Serpents ascend the figure on each side, reminding one of the Feathered Serpent culture-hero known as Quetzalcoatl in Central America. Strange animals (toxodons?) are carved up around the head.

An animal (toxodon?) carved on statue

Beside the bearded statue was a much larger statue called in Bennett's report "the large monolithic statue". It is the largest - over 24 feet tall - and probably the most interesting. It was sculpted out of red sandstone, and is generally covered with carved images of various kinds. He holds objects in each hand which are totally unidentifiable, although numerous interpretations have been suggested. It has been removed from the site and now stands in a plaza in La Paz. What is most interesting is the lower half of its body, which is covered with fish-scales (which upon close inspection are actually fish-heads). Immediately one recalls the Mesopotamian deity called Oannes, the man-fish amphibious being who conveyed special knowledge to ancient mankind.

This monolithic piece of work has a number of designs scattered over its surface, many of which resemble the running winged-figures found on the Gate of the Sun, only with curled-up tails. Also the "Weeping god" is depicted on the sides of the head of the statue. This is in addition to the tears already depicted on the cheeks of the monoliths face. The Weeping god seems to be a major theme at Tiahuanaco. One wonders what made their deities so sad (did they sense a major catastrophe looming on the horizon?). Other designs, although very artistic, are rather hard to describe.

Another large stone statue, usually called simply "the idol," stands (now that it has been re-erected) in the southwest corner of the Kalasasaya Temple. With the exception of the Sun Gate, it is the most picturesque of the sculptures at Tiahuanaco, since its 7-foot height is almost covered with hieroglyphic-like carvings (see Top of Page: left). No one knows if these carvings represent a form of writing or are merely decorative. Should these carvings prove to be a form of symbolic writing, what a story they might tell! Still another statue popularly known as El Fraile (Top of Page: right) is almost devoid of carvings.

There are numerous other statues which have been found at Tiahuanaco, several of which have found their way into various museums. Most have the incomprehensible stiff designs scattered about on their surfaces in the typical Tiahuanaco style. Some are rather large, and others are small. Depictions of toxodons and several other extinct creatures are plentiful at Tiahuanaco. The images of these extinct animals are understandable on pottery and textiles - they could be copied by anyone from the stone monuments dotting the area; but how would such images get carved on the original buildings themselves without a live model?

The most important edifice for dating purposes is the Kalasasaya ("Place of the Vertical Stones"). It is built like a stockade with 12 foot high columns jutting upward at intervals, each of these being carved into human figures. Posnansky was familiar with the fact that the ancient Egyptians built many temples which incorporated astronomical alignments with certain celestial bodies for religious reasons. Early on he realized that the purpose of the Kalasasaya was to determine certain important solar alignments. Some simple investigations began to uncover near-alignments; then it was only a matter of "turning back the astronomical clock" until the alignments lined up perfectly.

One might wonder why Posnanky would suspect such an extreme age for these ruins that could cause him to look for such a thing as astronomical alignments? First of all, he couldn't miss the fact that the ruins in general were covered by a thin layer of lime deposits, indicating they had been underwater for a considerable period of time. Also, certain parts of the ruins were deeply buried in sediments, which indicated that a stupendous wave of water had washed over the entire area (the altiplano is almost totally devoid of rain). Posnansky suggested the Biblical Flood (which cast a shadow over all of his other accomplishments) as the responsible agent.

In addition, the depiction of extinct Pleistocene animals, the traces of an ancient shoreline, and finally, the paradox of a seaport existing at an altitude of 12,500 feet above sea level, lead Posnansky to look for other indications that these ruins might be extremely old. He discovered alignments with the sun which were slightly "out of true," but which lined up perfectly once the skycharts were moved back in time, and this lead intensive astronomical studies.

Prof. Posnansky summed up his 50 year study in a 4 volume work entitled Tiahuanaco, The cradle of American Man first published in 1945. He explains his theories, which are rooted in archeoastronomy, as follows. Since Earth is tilted on its axis in respect to the plane of the solar system, the resulting angle is known as the "obliqueness of the ecliptic" (one should not confuse this with another astronomical phenomenon known as "Precession", as critics of Posnansky have done). If viewed from the earth, the planets of our solar system travel across the sky in a line called the plane of the ecliptic. At present our earth is tilted to cause this angle to be around 23 degrees and 27 minutes, but this is not constant. The earth's axis oscillates slowly between 22 degrees and 1 minute to an extreme of 24 degrees and 5 minutes. This cycle (repeating itself from one extreme to the other and back) takes roughly 41,000 years to complete. The alignments at the Kalasasaya temple depicts a tilt of the earth's axis amounting to 23 degrees, 8 minutes, 48 seconds, indicating a date of 15,000 B.C.

Between 1927 and 1930 Prof. Posnansky's conclusions were studied intensively by a number of authorities. Dr. Hans Ludendorff (Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Potsdam), Friedrich Becker of the Specula Vaticana, Prof. Arnold Kohlschutter (astronomer at Bonn University), and Rolf Muller (astronomer of the Institute of Astrophysics at Potsdam) verified the accuracy of Posnansky's calculations and vouched for the reliability of his conclusions.

The conventional practice of dating Tiahuanaco as beginning c. 200 A.D. and collapsing c. 1000 A.D. started with Wendell Bennett's excavations, which turned up numerous examples of pottery, small statues and other artifacts. Since it is common for later arrivals to be awed by massive ruins (sometimes attributing their origin to supernatural beings, thus replicating the "sacred" images on their own pottery and textiles), I think it is a mistake to fuse the two cultures into one, implying that the later arrivals were the same people who built the massive ruins. I believe Bennett and his successors are guilty of such an error.

There is one solution that can satisfy all of the above mysteries regarding the ruins of Tiahuanaco. This is none other than the geological cataclysm which affected the entire globe geologically and climatically, causing the Pleistocene extinction and the sinking of Atlantis. Thus, if Tiahuanaco was built before the end of the last Ice Age, then the depiction of the numerous Pleistocene animals (extinct for 12,000 years) are readily explainable. The other indications of the apparent age of the city (tilted seashore lines, lime deposits and silt) would then harmonize with the astronomical alignments built into the buildings. The evidence is strong, it seems to me, that Prof. Posnansky's original conclusions were correct. Thus I think it likely that Tiahuanaco was built at sea level c. 15,000 B.C. as an Atlantean port.