Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:42 am Post subject: Reply with quote
OP "nick c"
Tiahuanaco is a mystery, indeed!
While mythological interpretations are interesting, that is for another time.
There is certainly enough "hard" information available to draw some interesting conclusions.
Tiahuanaco (aka Tiwanaku) is almost 13000 ft above sea level, near Lake Titicaca.
The megalithic city contains stones weighing up to 100 tons which were quarried and transported from many miles away. The remains of agricultural terraces that used to feed the city, rise
above the city to altitudes of over 15000 ft. Crops, enough to sustain a city could not be grown there today.
Remains of strand lines, the former shore of Lake Titicaca, indicate that the city was once on the waters edge and that the Lake's surface was some 90' higher, however, the strand lines are tilted and in other areas it is over 300' higher than the present level.
Velikovsky, 'Earth In Upheaval' wrote:
As long ago as 1875, Alexander Agassiz demonstrated the existence of a marine crustaceous fauna in Lake Titicaca.
According to conventional sources, the city was built around 200 BCE and was abandoned around 1000 AD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku
If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I would like to sell to you
Notice how the Wikpedia entry skirts around all the really interesting factual tidbits about the Tiahuanaco. This irrational disregard for obvious catastrophic evidence permeates virtually every discipline of mainstream science. Remember Velikovsky's admonition, it is only permissible to talk about catastrophes if we can safely remove them in time or space...an extinction event 60 million years ago, a solar system is destroyed hundreds of light years away, our Sun will shine steadily yet, for millions of more years, etc.
Don't worry, be happy!
We continually need assurances of safety and stability.
Clearly this entire area is a uniformitarian's worst nightmare.
There is interesting commentary on Tiahuanaco in 'Earth In Upheaval,' though written over 52 years ago still applies today. IMHOP it is the explanation that best fits the facts.
Velikovsky, 'Earth In Upheaval', p84 wrote:
Sometime in the remote past the entire Altiplano with its lakes rose from the bottom of the ocean. At some other time point a city was built there and terraces were laid out on the elevation around it; then in another disturbance the mountains were thrust up and the area became uninhabitable.
Now what kind of conditions could create the forces necessary to accomplish that?
Nick