Tiahuanaco - from a distant past
by Angus Sutherland

March 17, 2007 
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"(Long) ago a highly developed civilization - utterly different from our own - was flourishing in the Andes, at 12,000 or 14,000 feet above the present level of the Pacific Ocean... 

The Apache Indians tell strange stories about tunnels between their lands and the legendary city of Tiahuanaco. Many people may consider them to be pure fantasy, but striking is that Indian chiefs refer to the mysterious tunnels as "carved out by rays that destroy the living rock" and speak that (they knew of) "beings that live near the stars..." 

Today only ruins, Tiahuanaco is one of the greatest puzzles of South America. It is situated on the southeastern shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. Very little is known about the mythical pre-Incan society of Tiahuanaco and certainly no one knows its origin. Not even the oldest living Indian was able to tell of Tiahuanaco's story to the Spaniards who came in 1549. 

Whoever these engineers were, they certainly were not - in any way - related to the Indians. The statues of Tiahuanaco depict bearded men, "strangers" to the region. 
According to the legends and myths of the Incas, the statues at Tiahuanaco represented a prehistoric race of giants who lived long before the appearance of the Inca kings. 

The old records have support from many explorers who assigned Tiahuanaco to an antiquity of several millennia... sculptures and reliefs carved out with a great precision testify to the skills of their builders. The society that built the entire Tiahuanaco area had advanced technical abilities. 

Akapana building, one of the three important temple sites, was a huge truncated pyramid, 167 feet high, with a base 496 by 650 feet. Its sides were perfectly adjusted with the cardinal points of the compass, like other great structures - for example the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

Today, only a few ruins are left but the remains of the reservoir system are clearly visible. They still demonstrate high precision evidence of complicated cut stone conduits and overflow pipes. The latter were found throughout the Tiahuanaco complex, which would suggest that the whole city had a complete drainage and the proper water flow. Their inhabitants were familiar with bronze, metallurgy and other techniques. 

Once, Lake Titicaca was bigger and its waves washed the steps leading to the entrance of an enormous palace... 

Today the lake is about two hundred kilometers long. Nothing is like it was before... in the very distant past. 

The Incas remember Tiahuanaco only as a majestic assemblage of ruins. 

All structures are predating the ancient Incas by an unknown period of time. 

Who built them and when? Local Indians told about a time of darkness "when sun was not even there...". According to the Aymaras, a true Tiahuanaco was built by the masters of sound levitation, a technique brought to the Andes by Viracocha, a white and bearded 'god'...
 
Tiahuanaco culture does not have their roots in the Andes. How old is the city's name? It is just as big a puzzle as Tiahuanaco's stone statues. Tiahuanaco: "Guanaco place", "Originated from a creator", "Light God" are only a few often mentioned names. 

No one can even say with certainty if the term "Tiahuanaco" is of Aymara-, Colla- or Quechua origin. 

When the fourth Inca, Mayta Capac witnessed the place around Titicaca Lake for the first time, he too saw only the ruins.

He ordered to build a town on the ruins and forget the past: "Before us nothing worth to mention... happened here". 

From: https://diggingupancientaliens.com/episode-45-pumapunku-tiwanaku.html