Saturday 12 May 2007

The Puma's Mouth - Sacsayhuaman!

You have to admit, that's a pretty impressive wall them savages built there at Sacsayhuaman in Bolivia, with blocks weighing up to 300 tons. The joints are not only intricate, but are the reason the wall is till standing, because the area is geologically unstable and highly prone to earthquakes. It's apparent that the builders took account of that in their construction. You can't even slide a sheet of paper between those blocks so precise is the fitting, although we are told to accept that the barbarians who built this structure did not possess metal tools, and they didn't use mortar either (like the Egyptians) because they didn't need it. The walls were originally even higher, but the top rows were peeled off from the back (the ground is level with the top of the wall there) and used to build Spanish churches in the area.


No-one knows exactly when these walls were constructed or who built them, but they are further testimony to the skills possessed by races we know very little or nothing about, peoples who have long since passed into the mists of time. Hopefully, we will be able someday to open the lid on the metaphorical jar of history, and peer inside to see what mysteries the past contains.