Eight Wonders of the World (con’t) Puma Punku
Puma Punku is part of a large temple complex or monument group that is part of the site near Tiwanaku, in western Bolivia. It is believed to date to AD 536 and later.
Tiwanaku is significant in Inca traditions because it is believed to be the site where the world was created. In Aymara, Puma Punku’s name means “The Door of the Puma”. The Pumapunku complex consists of an unwalled western court, a central unwalled esplanade, a terraced platform mound that is faced with stone, and a walled eastern court. Some of the unique features of the site are walls of faces, the massive H-blocks, and the precision (machine-like) stone tooling.
Tiwanaku is significant in Inca traditions because it is believed to be the site where the world was created. In Aymara, Puma Punku’s name means “The Door of the Puma”. The Pumapunku complex consists of an unwalled western court, a central unwalled esplanade, a terraced platform mound that is faced with stone, and a walled eastern court. Some of the unique features of the site are walls of faces, the massive H-blocks, and the precision (machine-like) stone tooling.
The faces are all almost different and resemble a wide range of racial features.
The Puma Punku site is located at an altitude of over 12,000 feet!
Many of the H-blocks are identical in size and weigh up to ten tons each.
These precision cuts could only be achieved using computer-aided systems and laser technology.
At its peak, Pumapunku is thought to have been “unimaginably wondrous, adorned with polished metal plaques, brightly colored ceramic and fabric ornamentation, and visited by costumed citizens, elaborately dressed priests, and elites decked in exotic jewelry. Current understanding of this complex is limited due to its age, the lack of a written record, and the current deteriorated state of the structures due to treasure hunting, looting, stone mining for building stone and railroad ballast, and natural weathering.
The actual date of construction is debatable. When an Austrian explorer named Arthur Posnansky performed a study on Puma Punku back in 1926, he put forward the idea that it’s one of the oldest archaeological sites on the face of Earth – dating back to at least 13,000 BC. Posnansky was one of the first modern explorers to examine the site, but his hypothesis continues to have many supporters.
Archaeologist Neil Steede, for example, has discussed how the astronomical alignments of the main temple at the site do suggest that it was built to coincide with the summer and winter solstices and the spring equinox as these events would have been seen 17,000 years ago.
The Tiwanaku people who inhabited Puma Punku were polytheistic and had a special focus on agriculturally-themed gods. Their creator god is believed to be depicted in the famous Sun Gate , which many scholars think was once located at Puma Punku and only later moved to Kalassaya.
According to the local myths, Puma Punku is related to the gods and the time of the first creation. Legends state that the first inhabitants had supernatural powers and were able to move stones from the ground and carry them through the air using sounds.
The Inca people accepted those legends and added that Viracocha – their creator god (and the figure depicted on the Sun Gate in their interpretation) – first made humans at that site. In the legends, it is said that this is where all of humanity’s ancestors, people of various ethnicities, set out to populate the world. For a time, the stone portraits found at Tiwanaku were believed to depict those first humans. Later interpretations suggest the faces are former rulers of the city.