The Strangest Structures of Ancient Peru #Peru #Machupichu
In 1911, while on an expedition in Peru, explorer Hiram Bingham famously stumbled into Machu Picchu, rediscovering the ancient city after being forgotten for 500 years. In the mid-1920s, military and commercial pilots flying over the southern part of the country were the first modern men to see the majestic Nazca Lines, thanks to the dawn of flight.
These two are top of mind the world over for Peruvian archaeological sites. Thanks to their awe-inspiring and iconic scale and grandeur, they have even been declared UNESCO world heritage sites. However, Peru has many more fascinating historical sites, though less popular with tourists. These include the Kasma lines, the temple fortress of Chanquillo, the geoglyphs of Lima, and Piquillacta, one of the most significant archaeological complexes worldwide.
Despite not being as popular with tourists, these other archaeological sites are just as mysterious, awe-inspiring and built at a vast scale that modern architects and engineers are intrigued at how ancient Peruvians made it happen.
Though not as impressive as the Nazca lines, the discovery of the Kasma lines hints that at one point in time, this area was a central social and administrative hub, with Sechin Alto, a massive architectural complex built over 1,000 years before the pyramids in Egypt as its centerpiece. While its exact purpose is unclear, there are hints that Sechin Alto might have been a medical or surgical center due to the numerous stone engravings depicting body organs.
Chanquillo, on the other hand, is another monumental edifice located in Peru's coastal desert. It consists of a fort and what is believed to be an observatory, identified by the Thirteen Towers. This is a series of granite towers ranging from two to seven meters high, spaced exactly five meters apart, dating from about the 4th century BC.
On the eastern outskirts of the bustling capital city of Lima, the Canto Grande geoglyphs were discovered by chance by an airplane. Sadly, rapid urban construction and industrialization have destroyed most of these geoglyphs, and those that remain are located on higher ground. They consist of a trapezoidal-shaped drawing, a solid 135-meter rectangular strip with scattered groupings of single or large stones. And despite using the same construction methods as the Nazca lines, these geoglyphs were created 2000 years before Nazca. Despite the massive effort to build these structures, their primary purpose still needs to be clarified.
Finally, no trip to Peru should miss Piquillacta, near Cusco. It was built around 800 AD by the mysterious Wari people and can only be truly appreciated when seen from a great height. Built over an area with extreme differences in elevation, its builders still constructed it perfectly. It contains over 700 rooms, precisely built into each other, using granite and additional labor and materials that match the building of the Great Pyramids.
Directed by: Igor Aleksejev
These two are top of mind the world over for Peruvian archaeological sites. Thanks to their awe-inspiring and iconic scale and grandeur, they have even been declared UNESCO world heritage sites. However, Peru has many more fascinating historical sites, though less popular with tourists. These include the Kasma lines, the temple fortress of Chanquillo, the geoglyphs of Lima, and Piquillacta, one of the most significant archaeological complexes worldwide.
Despite not being as popular with tourists, these other archaeological sites are just as mysterious, awe-inspiring and built at a vast scale that modern architects and engineers are intrigued at how ancient Peruvians made it happen.
Though not as impressive as the Nazca lines, the discovery of the Kasma lines hints that at one point in time, this area was a central social and administrative hub, with Sechin Alto, a massive architectural complex built over 1,000 years before the pyramids in Egypt as its centerpiece. While its exact purpose is unclear, there are hints that Sechin Alto might have been a medical or surgical center due to the numerous stone engravings depicting body organs.
Chanquillo, on the other hand, is another monumental edifice located in Peru's coastal desert. It consists of a fort and what is believed to be an observatory, identified by the Thirteen Towers. This is a series of granite towers ranging from two to seven meters high, spaced exactly five meters apart, dating from about the 4th century BC.
On the eastern outskirts of the bustling capital city of Lima, the Canto Grande geoglyphs were discovered by chance by an airplane. Sadly, rapid urban construction and industrialization have destroyed most of these geoglyphs, and those that remain are located on higher ground. They consist of a trapezoidal-shaped drawing, a solid 135-meter rectangular strip with scattered groupings of single or large stones. And despite using the same construction methods as the Nazca lines, these geoglyphs were created 2000 years before Nazca. Despite the massive effort to build these structures, their primary purpose still needs to be clarified.
Finally, no trip to Peru should miss Piquillacta, near Cusco. It was built around 800 AD by the mysterious Wari people and can only be truly appreciated when seen from a great height. Built over an area with extreme differences in elevation, its builders still constructed it perfectly. It contains over 700 rooms, precisely built into each other, using granite and additional labor and materials that match the building of the Great Pyramids.
Directed by: Igor Aleksejev
Transcript
00:30Provincial Peruvian town of Casma, 400 kilometers north of Lima.
00:51There are archaeological sites equipped for tourists in Casma, but they're not as impressive
00:56as the famous monuments of Machu Picchu, Cusco, and therefore there are few tourists here.
01:03But for archaeologists and historians, Casma is an important and interesting area.
01:10A large number of ruins can be seen on the satellite map, many of which have orthogonal
01:17layouts typical of urban construction.
01:22It is believed that these are the remains of the Casma Sashin culture, one of the oldest
01:27centers of civilization on Earth.
01:34In Casma, there is the largest building of the pre-Renaissance in South America, Sashin
01:39Alto, about 2 kilometers long.
01:44Monumental structures dating back to 3600 BC have been found here and were built 1,000
01:51years before the construction of the Great Pyramids in Egypt.
02:02The most famous tourist site in Casma is the archaeological site of Sierra Sashin, dating
02:08back to the 3rd millennium BC.
02:15The monument is well preserved, as it was buried under an avalanche that descended from
02:20the hill.
02:23The central rooms are made of mud bricks.
02:26The outer wall is made of roughly cut granite stones on clay mortar.
02:36The most interesting thing about this monument is the images engraved on the granite blocks.
02:42Usually these are severed heads and figures of warriors or priests.
02:51Here you can see images of dismembered bodies, torn out eyes, fragments of the spine and
02:57various internal organs.
03:06There are several versions of the purpose of this structure.
03:10Until recently it was assumed that this is a monument dedicated to a victorious war with
03:16the neighbors.
03:19Now the most popular version is that this is a temple where many sacrifices were performed.
03:28But there is also a very unusual version.
03:31This is an ancient medical and ritual surgical center.
03:36There are no images of battle scenes, no gods in whose honor sacrifices were made, but there
03:43are carefully cut off heads, arms and legs, dismembered bodies, a cleansed spine, organs
03:50of the gastrointestinal tract, some of which are depicted with amazing anatomical precision.
03:57There is even an image of a head with an open skull and possibly brain manipulation.
04:06And on large and tall blocks located in the form of steles on both sides of the entrance,
04:12there are engraved objects that historians consider to be ritual standards.
04:18But some researchers see them as surgical saws.
04:28Despite this mystery, the ritual and administrative purpose of the object does not raise any questions.
04:34But in Chasma there are strange structures, the purpose of which remains unclear.
04:52Everyone is well aware of the Nazca Geoglyphs, huge geometric shapes, lines and stripes inscribed
04:59on the surface of the desert.
05:03But few people know that Chasma also has such gigantic structures, although there are more
05:08than 700 kilometers from here to Nazca.
05:14There are much fewer of them here than in Nazca, the total length of the lines found
05:18is several tens of kilometers.
05:24These are stripes with visible boundaries 40 to 50 meters wide, clearly visible on satellite
05:29maps.
05:33There is no doubt about the age of all these lines, they are often significantly damaged
05:38by streams that dried up in antiquity.
05:43At first glance they look like ordinary roads, but this is not the case.
05:49Sometimes the stripes abut against mountain slopes without any continuation or disappear
05:54in desert places and usually they are not associated with any archaeological sites.
06:03Not far from Chasma there is an area where intersections of almost perfectly straight
06:07lines are visible.
06:09It is clearly seen that some of the stripes run into the mountains without a visible continuation.
06:17Unfortunately, now the site is being prepared for mango gardens and there is particularly
06:23nothing left of the lines.
06:30Several kilometers to the east there are line fragments that are much better preserved.
06:40In aerial photography a line is clearly visible, which rests against the gorge with a difficult
06:46relief, the riverbeds that it crosses and the connection of the two lines.
06:53Nowadays these lines are used as roads as they have much less stones compared to the
06:58surrounding desert.
07:02In the valley the lines stretch for 7 kilometers, again merge into one, which in turn seems
07:08to dissolve in the desert without any visible continuation.
07:14These lines can really be called structures.
07:18Usually their edges are simple mounds of stones, but some sections of the boundaries are made
07:23of two rows of buried stones with filling between them.
07:32The connection of lines is done more carefully.
07:36We see something similar to a stone bump, curbs, a safety island, as is done on modern
07:42roads.
07:44The line connections at the opposite end of the valley are made in the same way.
07:53Strange stone structures with pottery fragments are often found within and around the lines.
08:00Perhaps these are traces of ancient rituals.
08:10Now we're a few kilometers north of the place we just flew over and we're exactly in the
08:15middle of the strip.
08:18Obviously, these lines were not built as roads.
08:22The borders of the line run along the slopes of the ravine and there are traces of the
08:27ancient path along which it would be comfortable to move.
08:34The inner space of the lines was often not free of large stones, and if it was not for
08:40the modern road, it would be difficult to go through here.
08:45There is also intensive work going on to create the gardens, but the ancient line because
08:51of the massive borders has not yet been touched.
08:55Perhaps this will save it for a while in the future.
09:02The width of the borders, in some areas, is quite impressive.
09:06For example, here it reaches 4 meters.
09:12But the ancient structures are powerless against the modern construction equipment.
09:18Near the highway, the borders and the ancient lines have been completely destroyed.
09:34We're now moving towards the archaeological area of Pampa de Lamas.
09:40Several years ago, there were also ancient lines here.
09:43These can be seen on satellite maps, but unfortunately, not a trace of them remained.
09:49Now there are mango gardens here.
09:52The archaeological complex of Pampa de Lamas is the ruins of a large ancient city, possibly
09:59even the capital of a proto-state formation in the Chasma valley.
10:08According to the archaeologist, the ruins are about 4,000 years old.
10:16Two large bas-reliefs were found here, which are in the Sierro Seixin museum.
10:28We see the remains of a large pyramid structure surrounded by wide squares and many ruins
10:33of small structures.
10:39The city has a pronounced orthogonal layout, and it may have been conceived as a single
10:44whole.
10:46This planning and execution is so precise that the facades of the longest row of mounds
10:52along the western side diverge only 30 centimeters from the straight line at a distance of more
10:59than 700 meters, even after 4,000 years of exposure to the elements.
11:07But what we see from the air is not the whole story.
11:11The center was a little further south and is buried under modern farmland.
11:18Nowadays you can only see the ruins of a majeque, the central pyramid-shaped structure.
11:24According to archaeologists, the ruins are about 4,000 years old.
11:37Crossing the whole city and the valley, there is a line obliquely built in a way which we
11:41are already familiar with.
11:45Its beginning is well preserved.
11:48It is not a road, it is not an irrigation canal, and begins from an almost empty spot
11:54at the bases of small mountains.
11:57The beginning of the strip is a pile of stones, and in the city itself the line has well-defined
12:04boundaries.
12:12The strip runs straight over the ruins as if a giant hand has drawn the line across
12:17the valley.
12:20The line is about 15 meters wide and over 2 kilometers long.
12:25The end of the line dissolves into a desert area without visible destinations to any objects.
12:36Part of the borders are made in the form of a stone mound, but most of the borders are
12:41very high quality.
12:43These are again two rows of large stones with filling between them.
12:50As well as on all previous lines, fragments of ancient ceramics are encountered here.
12:56It is not known whether these ceramics were ritual or just garbage left over from residents
13:01and builders.
13:07What was the point of building this almost perfectly straight structure?
13:16Was the line built through the city in which they still lived or did the ancient builders
13:21cross already left ruins?
13:28And why were there tens of kilometers of all other lines built?
13:33They did not pass through the settlements and did not connect any significant objects.
13:38Why spend a huge amount of labor for the construction of such structures which are logical from
13:45a modern point of view?
13:47As we have seen, these are not roads or irrigation canals.
13:53Maybe these are signs for ancient pilgrims pointing to holy places.
13:58But why are they so enormous with such capitally constructed borders clearly visible from a
14:04great height?
14:07Maybe these are special directions for the heavenly gods who were worshipped by the ancients.
14:16Unfortunately we know almost nothing about the people who lived here.
14:21What language they spoke, what their world view was, social structure, what gods they
14:27worshipped.
14:28There is practically no archaeological work being carried out here and we will not soon
14:34find out the answer.
14:51Six kilometers south of Pampa de Lamas, in an ancient city cut by a mysterious line,
14:57there is another interesting archaeological site, the Chanquilo fortified temple.
15:05But before we climb up the hill and carefully examine this amazing structure, it is necessary
15:11to say a few words about the monument, 13 towers, located in the immediate vicinity
15:18of the temple fortress.
15:23On the crest of a small granite hill, there are 13 towers from 2 to 7 meters high.
15:31The distance between them is about 5 meters.
15:36Date of construction, the middle of the first millennium BC.
15:43In the year 2000, archaeologists made the assumption that this is an ancient astronomical
15:49observatory.
15:52A point was found at the end of a long corridor in the nearest ruins, from which the two outer
15:58towers indicated the sunrise on the summer and winter solstices.
16:08There is a large number of articles and films where archaeologists talk about their discovery.
16:15Upon closer inspection, one can find that the towers are tied exclusively to the relief,
16:22their design and the gaps between the towers are not oriented towards the observation point.
16:29And the observation point itself is not distinguished by anything special.
16:38In Chasma valley, the ancients knew about the days in the solstices, and many structures
16:43are oriented towards these astronomical events.
16:48For example, the Sishin-Alto monumental complex is focused on the two astronomical events
16:54at once, the sunset of the June day and the sunrise of the December solstice, which are
17:01on the same line as this geographic zone.
17:06The complex Las Aldas, located 20 km to the south, is oriented along a line perpendicular
17:13to the direction of these two astronomical events.
17:19It is possible that the Thirteen Towers are indeed the oldest astronomical observatory
17:23in South America, but it is possible that these are just pedestals that VIPs climbed
17:30during the holidays.
17:38Much more interesting is the object which is less popular and which is considered to
17:43be the part of this ancient observatory.
17:47So the Chanquilo Forest Temple.
17:53The beginning of construction dates back to 600 BC.
17:59The structure was built on a granite hill on a difficult terrain.
18:07The object is called a forest because it has massive walls which look like modern defensive
18:12structures and also because during the archaeological excavations ceramic figures of warriors were
18:20found on the territory of the monument.
18:25A temple is usually what all objects of unknown purpose are called, especially since there
18:31are no traces of any permanent residents here and it is quite remote from residential
18:36buildings.
18:44But the most amazing, most mysterious feature of the object is its unusual contours, its
18:50appearance visible only from great heights.
18:57Nothing like this was built neither before nor after the construction of the Chanquilo
19:03Temple in the pre-Incas era.
19:06The relief is very rugged here.
19:08The outer eastern wall is tens of meters lower than the central buildings.
19:14But this did not prevent the builders from creating such perfectly calibrated and precisely
19:19matched outlines of the structure.
19:24Obviously the facility the size of eight football fields was built according to a single project.
19:31The northern walls are the arcs of concentric circles and from the south there are perfectly
19:37executed curves composed of four arcs of concentric circles of different radii.
19:45The orientation of the object is amazing.
19:48Its inner rectangular room is oriented to the line connecting the winter and summer
19:54solstices.
19:55The western walls are built perpendicular to this direction and the eastern walls are
20:01oriented exactly in the north-south direction.
20:13It should be noted that the ruins and remains of huge areas in this part of the valley are
20:18also oriented along the line connecting the winter and summer solstices.
20:26The military use raises many questions.
20:31Although the walls are massive, they are not high.
20:34The outer wall has five entrances.
20:38There are no sources in the reservoirs of water in the structure and also there are
20:43particularly no traces of overlapping of internal buildings.
20:48In the hot Peruvian climate, the defenders of the fortress could not hold the line for
20:53any significant time.
20:55There is a higher section of the hill next to the chanquilo which makes the strategic
21:00value of the structure even less.
21:05It is unlikely that such an object was used for military purposes.
21:17The walls are made of granite rubble.
21:22The passages in the walls have well-preserved ceilings made of trees which grow in abundance
21:27in the valley.
21:33Sometimes there are traces of plaster.
21:36It is believed that the temple was completely plastered and painted yellow and white.
21:48As archaeologists tell us, the structure was abandoned in antiquity, deliberately destroyed
21:54and walled up.
22:01The builders stuck to certain technologies.
22:05Apparently at first, external relatively narrow walls were built, then the voids were filled
22:12with stones.
22:14This is how the outer walls were built.
22:23And this is the inner, artificially raised section of the structure, where the thoroughness
22:30and precision of construction becomes visible, a smooth rounding of the outer wall turning
22:37into a perfect straight line.
22:50The passages in the outer two walls are built in the form of locks, which is completely
22:56uncharacteristic for the structures of that era.
22:59When you enter, you do not see where the passage leads and what is happening inside.
23:08The diagram shows how the gateways are arranged in the outer perimeters.
23:14Most likely this was done so that the initiated under no circumstances could look inside.
23:37Now we are walking along such a passage.
23:40To find yourself in the inner space, you need to make at least two turns along a narrow
23:45corridor.
23:48Due to the peculiarities of the relief, some of the walls of the passages have sections
23:53of 8 meters high.
23:58Here you can clearly see the mats with which the different layers of masonry were laid,
24:03as well as traces of how the outer passages were walled up.
24:22There are very unusual structures inside the third perimeter.
24:27These are two round towers, built according to the same scheme, but slightly deployed
24:33relative to each other.
24:35The diameter of the outer wall of the towers is 40 meters, the inner one is 20.
24:46Each has five entrance looses, three in the outer wall, two in the inner one.
24:54To get to the very center you have to walk an intricate path.
25:06The towers are very badly destroyed, but in each one there are remains of niches and pedestals.
25:21Next to the towers we see a rectangular structure, the only building in the traditional style
25:26similar to a temple of a rich person's residence.
25:31Archaeologists call it the Temple of the Pillars after the remains of the pillars found here.
25:41The interiors have plaster floors, traces of plaster and partial ceilings.
25:51Traces of stucco molding and ornaments have been preserved on the pillars.
25:56A large fragment of the ornament was found inside one of the rooms.
26:05But these tracers are very few, since in ancient times the building was deliberately and meticulously
26:11destroyed.
26:22Based on the materials from a drone, a photogrammetric 3D model was created in which it is easy to
26:29see the inner details of this structure.
26:33Many of these small structures resemble plinths or pedestals.
26:39They are usually round.
26:42It is hard to say what they are used for.
26:44Perhaps statues were erected on them, bonfires were made or guards were stationed.
26:51Each of the five external entrances has a similar circular pedestal.
27:00Next to the Temple of the Pillars there is an unusual stepped pedestal with graceful
27:05rounded contours.
27:10It was definitely important if it was built in such an inconvenient place.
27:14The pedestal blocks almost of the entire passage between the Temple of the Pillars and the
27:20wall.
27:28And one more interesting feature.
27:31In this area, ridges of dark brown rock run along the rolling hills, which are clearly
27:37visible against the background of light granite.
27:43This brown loose rock is magnetic.
27:49On satellite maps and on aerial photography it is clearly visible that the object is built
27:55on the conjunction of two such ridges.
27:59One of them goes exactly through the centers of the round towers.
28:04This ridge is clearly visible between the towers themselves.
28:09Perhaps this is a coincidence and has nothing to do with Chankylo.
28:14But it is possible that these geological features were important for ancient architects.
28:21During the construction they saw this, but they placed the centers of the towers exactly
28:26on the same ridge.
28:34What was the purpose of this object?
28:36Why did the ancient builders put so much effort to get graceful, perfectly calibrated and
28:41such unusual outlines of this difficult terrain, visible only from a great height?
28:48Why is it so precisely oriented?
28:54Spatial modeling made it possible to estimate the errors that had to be taken into account
28:59when applying the finished plan to the relief.
29:03The results are very, very approximate.
29:05Somewhere builders were helped by an eye, somewhere by experience and methods of measurement,
29:11but somewhere on the contrary additional difficulties arose due to the relief, which is smoothed
29:17out on the 3D model.
29:22In general, when drawing complex concentric curves, the builders took into account these
29:27differences in distances and applied to the terrain a contour that has no noticeable distortions,
29:33which we now see on the coordinate grid.
29:42In the end, the resulting orthographic projection looks flawless.
29:47How the ancient builders did this without any precise measuring instruments or with
29:52some sort of control from a height remains a mystery.
30:06Being inside the object or nearby, you cannot even imagine that the structure has such amazing
30:12contours.
30:16But what or for whom were the two identical towers built?
30:22Did they contain artifacts or did they contain people, oracles, healers?
30:34Cenkilo was a very important and significant place for the ancients.
30:39The desert in front of the hill is literally strewn with fragments of pottery.
30:46What rituals or ceremonies were carried out here?
30:51According to historians, the system of beliefs was shamanism, which is significantly different
30:57from the modern, largely formal religion.
31:01Or maybe something was happening here that is beyond our understanding.
31:13We can only hope that new ways of studying and modern technology will help us unravel
31:18the exciting mystery of the Cenkilo temple forests.
31:42In the 20th century, on the eastern outskirts of Lima,
31:46geoglyphs were discovered from an airplane, a large number of stripes and figures.
31:51They are called the Canto Grande geoglyphs, after the name of the ancient culture that
31:56existed here about four and a half thousand years ago.
32:00Unfortunately, due to intensive urban construction in our time, almost nothing is left of them.
32:09Several kilometers higher, along the gorge where civilization has not yet reached, several
32:14similar geoglyphs were found on satellite maps.
32:25In the mountains in the small flat area of the surface, there is a giant drawing, which
32:30apparently belongs to the Canto Grande group of geoglyphs.
32:36But the most amazing thing that informed construction method and location, it is very similar to
32:42the well-known Nazca lines.
32:48Most of the Nazca geoglyphs are trapezoids, truncated triangles, from a narrow part of
32:53which thin lines emerge at different angles.
33:01The geoglyph that we see is also a trapezoid, with lines extending from the narrow end.
33:10The geoglyph is about 150 meters long.
33:15It was built in the same way as Nazca geoglyphs were mainly built, the surface inside the
33:20contour was cleared of stones which were transferred to the curbs.
33:29On the Nazca plateau, on the wide part of many trapezoids, there is a single element
33:34in the form of a single stone, a group of large stones, a heap of rubble or a ring structure.
33:42Here, on the wide part, there is also a single element.
33:50It is a ring structure of stones, where you can see fragments of ancient ceramics.
34:02Like most Nazca trapezoids, this trapezoid, with its wide part, is directed towards the
34:07valley, to a lower and open space.
34:19Literally one and a half kilometers from the trapezoid, there is another unique geoglyph,
34:25which no longer resembles the Nazcan figures.
34:30It is a perfect circle, with a diameter of 135 meters, with a straight line adjacent to it.
34:44The geoglyph is located on the top of a mountain, on a slope.
34:54The builders put a lot of effort to clear the seven-mile strip.
35:03Some stones weigh tens or even hundreds of kilograms.
35:17What is the point of building these structures in such hard-to-reach places?
35:24There is not even a hint of any ancient roads or large settlements.
35:31And how did the drawing, in many ways repeating the Nazcan geoglyphs, turn out to be 400 kilometers
35:37from Nazca?
35:38Furthermore, if you take into account the age of the culture that is credited with creating
35:44these geoglyphs, it was built 2,000 years before the appearance of the Nazca culture.
35:51It is a pity that research on these interesting structures is practically not carried out.
36:14Looking at these ruins, you might think that these are the remains of an ancient city,
36:29of which there are quite a lot in Peru.
36:33But it's not.
36:35Before us is one of the most mysterious ancient structures, which still baffles historians
36:40and archaeologists.
36:44But first things first.
36:48Piquiacta was built during the Huari culture.
36:51The beginning of construction of Piquiacta is 500 to 600 A.D.
36:58Huari is a little-studied, largely mysterious culture that existed on the west coast of
37:04Peru from 500 to 1100 A.D.
37:09Many historians consider it the first empire in South America.
37:16The influence of the Huari spread rapidly to almost the entire territory of modern Peru
37:21between 500 and 600 A.D.
37:27The empire had such great power and wealth that it allowed Huari not only to maintain
37:31expansion with a large bureaucracy and armies, but also to build large administrative centers
37:38throughout the territory.
37:46Piquiacta is located at an altitude of 3200 meters, just 200 kilometers from Cusco, the
37:53ancient capital of the Incas.
37:58The original name of the monument is unknown.
38:02It was first called Piquiacta during the time of the Incas, who came here a few hundred
38:06years after the disappearance of Huari.
38:12Translated from Quechua, language of the Incas, Piquiacta means flea city.
38:19Indeed, walking along these long and straight-as-narrow, stretching for hundreds of meters roads, avenues,
38:28looking at the labyrinths of monumental ruins, you begin to feel like something very small
38:34and insignificant.
38:38However, to truly appreciate the grandeur of this unique and one-of-a-kind building,
38:46you can only look at it from a great height.
38:50The outlines of the structure, despite the different terrain, where the height difference
38:55reaches 100 meters, look perfect.
38:59Its dimensions are amazing, 750 by 630 meters.
39:08What we see here is not a group of separate structures interconnected.
39:15Piquiacta was built in the form of a single building and it was done according to a carefully
39:20detailed and thought-out plan.
39:27Piquiacta has about 30 kilometers of walls and 100 separate rooms.
39:35The amount of labor and materials involved is comparable to the construction of the Great
39:39Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.
39:46These walls and structures are the centerpiece of an unfinished complex covering an area
39:51of about 2 square kilometers.
39:59But this is only the visible part of a larger structure.
40:04A kilometer to the east is the famous monument of Rumicolca built under the rule of Juari.
40:11A few centuries after the departure of the Juari, the Incas rebuilt it into an outpost,
40:17since the road that runs along the gorge here led to their capital Cusco.
40:23Under the Juari, the Rumicolca was an aqueduct supplying water to Piquiacta.
40:31Even before the start of the construction, a complex system of hydraulic structures was
40:36designed and built consisting of underground and surface channels, aqueducts and reservoirs
40:44stretching for more than 50 kilometers high into the mountains.
40:49A correctly calculated slope provided a flow of water with such a speed as not to destroy
40:55the channels themselves and, at the same time, avoiding losses in the water's filtration
41:00through the bottom.
41:02A system of reservoirs balanced out the amount of water during the rainy season.
41:13Piquiacta was first explored in the 1930s.
41:18Before that, huacueros, grave robbers, were the ones engaged in activities here.
41:24From the middle of the 20th century, the monument began to be intensively studied and an archaeological
41:32mission is working here to this day.
41:37There are four sectors in the diagram.
41:41Sector 1 consists of 80 huge cell courtyards with walls 40 meters long and fenced with
41:49a system of gallery corridors.
41:54Central sector 2, believed to be administrative, is of extremely complex construction.
42:02Sector 3 also consisted of rectangular courtyard structures, the size of which was larger than
42:12the first sector.
42:15This sector has been hit hard. Until recently, a village was located here which is now demolished.
42:23The first studies and restoration attempts were unsuccessful, the documents were lost
42:29and the archaeologists who worked here, instead of rectangular structures, began to mistakenly
42:35recreate terraces by analogy with Inca buildings.
42:44Sector 4, about 500 small separate premise rooms.
42:50This is a very interesting part of the complex and we'll look at it later.
42:57It is noteworthy that Huari used a metric system similar to the modern one.
43:04Their buildings are multiples of 1, 2, 5, 10 or more meters.
43:14It is believed that the complex was functional, there are even traces of repair and restoration.
43:21But several yards in sectors 1 and 3 remained unfinished.
43:32The walls are thickly plastered and painted. The rooms have massive floors made of clay
43:39and gypsum.
43:43The height of the walls reaches 14 meters. There are cornices in the walls and it is
43:49believed that many structures were 2 to 3 story buildings which had roofs.
43:55The yards themselves remained in the open.
44:01There is a special type of premises called temple of niches, small rooms with rounded
44:07corners and trapezoidal niches in the walls.
44:13In the corners of these rooms there are equipped pits of offerings.
44:24According to archeologists, construction began with external and common walls for all sectors.
44:37When applying a plan of this size on uneven terrain, errors will inevitably arise in which
44:43the general contours are significantly distorted.
44:48But from above, Pikiakta looks like it was applied on a flat plain.
44:54There are no clues as to how the Huari architects managed to achieve this.
45:04And a natural question arises. What was the purpose of Pikiakta?
45:09For what purpose did Huari spend so many resources?
45:15It is quite obvious that for the construction of such a scale, the efforts of many thousands
45:20of people, architects, craftsmen and the resources of almost the entire empire are needed.
45:30Archeologists are able to accurately determine the purpose of ancient objects by archeological
45:35artifacts, burials, logic and style of architecture.
45:41But this is just where the unsolvable mysteries associated with Pikiakta begin.
45:48As it turned out, there are practically no archeological artifacts in the Pikiakta that
45:54can be found on the surface of the earth.
45:58500 years after the construction and operation began, the Huari people carefully cleaned
46:04and unburied Pikiakta when they left here in about 1100.
46:10A very small number of fragments of ceramics, burnt bones and bronze miniatures are found
46:17by archeologists under the floors, deep in the earth.
46:22It is believed that these are ritual offerings, but it is possible that many of the finds
46:27are household garbage that the builders left behind.
46:33Several skulls and fragments of human bodies were found, and only four skeletons, two
46:40of which are embedded in the wall at the beginning of the construction.
46:45That is, the number of finds associated with activities in Pikiakta is quite insignificant.
46:53But the most mysterious and intriguing thing that baffles modern archeologists is that
46:58there are extremely few doorways and almost no windows in Pikiakta.
47:08All sectors are isolated from each other and avenues in the first three sectors have access
47:13only to some neighboring structures.
47:17In our time, it is no longer possible to understand what individual structures looked like, what
47:23was their height, whether there were roofs, exterior finishes, but the three-dimensional
47:29reconstruction that we now see accurately reflects the scale of the entire structure
47:35and its detailed plan.
47:37In closed rooms and corridors inside courtyards, there are sometimes doorways, but, most surprisingly,
47:44the courtyards do not communicate with each other in any way.
47:49That is, almost all courtyards in the first three sectors are completely isolated from
47:54each other and have no connection with adjacent structures.
47:59How the movement between courtyards surrounded by high walls took place remains a mystery.
48:05It is also unclear how the interior rooms were illuminated.
48:10There are no traces of soot on the walls.
48:17Another riddle is the fourth sector.
48:21These are about 500 absolutely identical small rooms, 4 by 5 meters in size, with entrances
48:29and rounded corners.
48:33This sector is separated by perhaps the thickest and most powerful wall that can be seen in
48:41Pikiakta.
48:42It can be clearly seen that the rooms themselves narrow slightly in height.
48:48It is difficult to say whether they had roofs, but without roofs it would be uncomfortable
48:53here, the rainy season is quite long, and the temperature at night can almost drop to
48:58almost zero.
49:02There are also no archaeological artifacts here that would help to understand the purpose
49:07of these premises.
49:11Archaeologists occasionally find only debris and traces of hearths left after Pikiakta
49:17was abandoned.
49:19Interestingly, the backs of all rooms are additionally reinforced with very thick walls.
49:31When you pass by the rows of these identical rooms, a completely natural analogy arises
49:37with the rows of booth offices in a modern business center, or with a production line
49:43where certain products are mass-produced.
49:47These rooms were given a special significance, since rounded corners are usually seen in
49:52Hwari Temple buildings.
49:57It is completely incomprehensible why Hwari needed so many identical rooms organized into
50:04a huge well-ordered structure.
50:14There is another mysterious building in Pikiakta.
50:18Now we are moving along the road by which tourists usually arrive in Pikiakta.
50:24The same road was used in antiquity, it is clearly visible on the satellite map.
50:31But there is a second road that leads to nowhere.
50:38The road, 10 meters wide, with 10 meter walls, in the form of a fence, starts from the fourth
50:46sector and passes through the mountains.
50:51The road goes directly on the rocks, which makes it very difficult to pass, although
50:56the builders were quite capable of removing.
51:00Further, the road runs along a very steep slope, where one edge is much higher than
51:06the other, passes over the top and dissolves on an even steeper slope.
51:13It was not possible to go down there because of the steepness of the slope and an unthinkable
51:18amount of thorny plants covering everything around.
51:24If you drive around the monument on a modern highway, you will find that the place where
51:28the road comes out to is completely impassable, there are rocks and a steep climb.
51:35There is a road, more than 600 meters long, was made either purely formally or had completely
51:42incomprehensible functions.
51:48What is the purpose of Pikiakta?
51:51For Huari this was a paramount project, the construction of such an object requires the
51:56efforts of the entire empire.
52:01It is significant that Huari had a capital near the modern city of Ayacucho.
52:06It was a large city by ancient standards, where there are living quarters, temples,
52:13roads, warehouses for products.
52:16A large number of archaeological artifacts are still found here, but there is no regular
52:21planning, as in Pikiakta, there is none in other settlements either.
52:27There are only a few sites on the territory of the Huari empire that have a similar rectangular
52:33architecture.
52:35There is only one building similar in scale and architecture to Pikiakta.
52:42Just like Pikiakta, it is located on the outskirts of the empire, in the town Viracochapampa.
52:49It is slightly smaller and only the central part has been built, but elements of Pikiakta
52:55architecture are clearly visible here as well.
53:00Until recently, it was believed that Pikiakta is a major administrative and ceremonial center
53:06of the Huari culture.
53:08More recently, a large settlement of Huari was found 15 km away, which has traces of
53:14residential and temple buildings, as well as a large number of archaeological remains
53:20and which is considered the real administrative center.
53:27At the same time, Pikiakta, as can be seen from the unusual architecture and almost complete
53:33absence of artifacts, was not used for housing or any act of ceremonial activity.
53:40Unlikely are the versions of warehouses for food or military barracks for the same reasons.
53:49There are hypotheses that this is a terrible prison for especially dangerous criminals
53:55or a warehouse of tribal relics and mummies of tribes subordinate to Huari.
54:01But even in these cases, there must be both archaeological artifacts and some logic in
54:07the architecture.
54:08But what is the logic behind the roads leading to nowhere and completely isolated courtyards
54:13surrounded by multi-story galleries?
54:17In this intricately accurate rectilinear architecture, what did the builders hope to achieve putting
54:23in this incredible effort?
54:28How was this complex built?
54:30How was it designed?
54:32The builders, especially those who supervise simple performers, should have had a plan
54:37for the entire structure.
54:39But during the Huari culture, there was only a kipu, a primitive knot, writing.
54:46Interestingly, the Incas were well aware of the Pikiakta and, as we have seen, restored
54:53their aqueduct.
54:54But there is no evidence of their presence in Pikiakta itself.
55:00Perhaps it was a cursed place, or for some other reason the Incas avoided Pikiakta.
55:08This unique monument is very popular among tourists.
55:13Archaeological research is constantly being carried out here, restoration work is underway,
55:19but there are still no acceptable versions of the purpose of this object.