Random findings from Bolivia, Tiahuanaco, Titicaca

I've been to Bolivia twice in the last 5 years, and both times I took pictures of some odd things I came accross. Bolivia is a strange place archaeologically, I think there are great secrets hiding there.

I have no real theories or explainations regarding these few pictures I took, they are just things I saw in museums and such that I found odd or striking, pictures of objects and things that likely don't get much shutter time and people on the whole don't get to see. So, I'll just post them with brief thoughts. Feel free to draw your own conclusions/provide insight. I'll add to this thread throughout the day, as I have some pics at home that need to be scanned as well.


Museum Photos

These first 3 pictures were taken at a small museum on Isla de la Luna, one of the sacred islands in Lake Titicaca. All three of these artifacts were found underwater, as evidenced by the errosion. There were boards of photos around showing the recovery of these objects as well. The first one appears to be the top part of an animal statue (head). It's interesting because it seems to have been hollowed out or something...

Museum 1

Museum 2

Museum 3

These next to many people here should be used to by now, but I'll throw them up because I actually saw them :p --- I love these skulls because they show up everywhere from South America to Russia and Egypt. Why would the ancient people develop such an obsession with pointy heads?

OMG Anunnaki 1

OMG Anunnaki 2

A few more pictures to finish the 'Museum' series. The first one is an oddly European looking head. The others are regular pottery and such, but note the odd symbols. This is a culture that supposedly had no writting system. I'm not an expert in these things, but those symbols look to be more than just decoration.

Also, I wasn't able to take pictures of it because the Museo de Oro did not allow them, but I did see the Fuente Magna. Amazing stuff. I wish someone would ACTUALLY study it.

Pottery 1

Pottery 2

Pottery 3

Pottery 4

Pottery 5

Pottery 6


Isla de la Luna

These are pictures of one of the two sacred islands in lake Titicaca. These islands play a star roll in the Inca origin stories, that likely came from the Tiahuanaco civilization itself, if only we had records. Take note that the buildings here are all Inca, not Tiahuanaco. Notice how 'sloppy' the construction is. This is interesting, when noting the precision with which Tiahuanaco itself was built (pics further down).

Luna 1

Luna 2

Luna 3


...continued below...



[edit on 26-8-2009 by El Davicho]

Isla del Sol

This is the second sacred island. There is a coastal Incan settlement here, on the far side of the island, opposite from the small village where we docked. The whole place is terraced. Our Quechua guide said that most of the land was terraced LONG before the local people started farming it. A lot of the stone walls surrounding the terraced areas were built by the Incas. There is oddly no known pre-Inca ruins here...they must have gone under long ago. Again, notice how crude the Inca buildings are.

Terraced Fields

Ruins 1

Ruins 2

Ruins 3


Tiahuanaco

The rest of the pictures are from the ruins of Tiahuanaco, starting with a picture of us leaving La Paz, so you can see how awesome it is.

La Paz

For the oldest established civilization in South America, notice how intricate the carvings are...

Strange Bowl

Bowl Inscriptions

Notice the bore holes in these two structures...

Piller 1

Top of Gate

The people here actually built a small model of there own 'temple' complex...

Model

Notice how precise these structures are, especially compared to the much later Incan constructions...also, notice how much sediment is built up on top of these things. How did so much dirt pile up over just 1000 years?

Tiahuanaco 1

Tiahuanaco 2

Tiahuanaco 3

Tiahuanaco 4

Tiahuanaco 5

Tiahuanaco 6

Tiahuanaco 7

Tiahuanaco 8

Tiahuanaco 9

Tiahuanaco 10

Tiahuanaco 11

Tiahuanaco 12

Gateway of the Sun

The last thing I will say is that the Tiahuanaco civilization is extremely mysterious and enigmatic. We think we know when they lived, but have no idea who they were. They were gone before the Inca found their cities, and found them so facinating it is now believed that Machu Pichu itself is a replica of the pre-Incan acheivements.

Let me know what you folks think of all this!



[edit on 26-8-2009 by El Davicho]

reply to post by El Davicho
Thank you very much for sharing them. Very good photos! I'd love to visit there too, one day.

Good photos! It must have been alot of fun.

Did you ask about the submerged ruins inside lake Titicaca?


I wish I had a time machine to go back and solve all these wonderful yet puzzling mysteries...

Now that...would be cool

Thank you Davicho!
It mus be a place in ATS for all that have good issues about own discoveries in the world!

SNC

Great thread! Thanks for the photos! Clearly structures built by a primitive group of people with little or no organizational capabilities, no technology base and an overall primitive and superstitious mindset, inferior to our modern glorious civilization. /sarcasm

reply to post by El Davicho


Thank you for sharing those wonderful photos. The skulls are from Remulak, France!

I, too, would love to visit this area and see the ruins.

I have always wondered how old Tiahuanaco was. But now I KNOW.

‘Most importantly, they established a colonial base, which grew into a huge
town, in the area known to your archaeologists as Thiacuano (1), located not far
from Lake Titicaca. The Andes did not exist at the time, the mountains formed
some time later, as you will soon see.

‘At Thiacuano, an enormous seaport was built. In those days, North and South America were flat and eventually, a canal was constructed to link an inland sea, existing where Brazil is now, with the Pacific Ocean. This sea also had an outlet into the Atlantic Ocean, so that it was possible to pass from one ocean to the other and so, to colonise the continent of Atlantis...’
a canal, they must have intended to use boats.’

‘They used their flying machines just as you now use aeroplanes Michel, but for very heavy loads, they used machines of anti-gravitation, exactly like the heavy vehicles are now used on Earth. ‘So, as I said, they colonised the continent of Atlantis. Many white people from Atlantis preferred, at the time, to emigrate to the region of Northern Europe, as they didn’t accept the new government and the new religion coming from Mu.

These white people set off in their sea vessels propelled by steam and wind.
Indeed, the white race had discovered steam power, having passed through a
period you would call ‘prehistoric’. I must also explain that Britain was not an
island, at this time as it was joined to northern Europe, and the Straits of
Gibraltar didn’t exist either, as Africa reached to th"

-THOA from the Book Thiaoouba Prophecy by Michel Desmarquet.



[edit on 27-8-2009 by Thiaoouba Prophecy]

Beautiful Photos. I will visit Thiahaunaco within the next 3 years. I want to be able to say that I have visited my races 14,529 year old City. We built Thiahuanaco, The Pyramids of Eygpt at Giza and the Statues on Easter Island. Those are also on my travel list.

Thanks for the comments folks! I'm going to check out that book Thiaoouba Prophecy. I'll update this thread today or tomorrow with pictures of my trip to El Fuerte and some rock paintings we saw in Saipina. I just need to scan them...the days before digital cameras were rough...

Nice to see you came here, specially to my city!

My country, specially my city, is very rich when it comes to culture and ancient civilizations. When I registered to ATS I said I would make a thread about Tiahuanaco in the Ancient Civilizations forums. Didn't get around that yet, but I will sure do it if there's enough demand, and if you guys are interested! I have been Tiahuanaco a couple of times before. I have seen most of the culture there. I will try to find some of my old school notebooks to see what interesting things I can find. Did you see the Monolitos/Monoliths? They are a very important icon of Tiahanuco. Did you see the Akapana Pyramid? It's full structure is weird just as the egyptian pyramids.

If there is enough demand, I will try to go to Tiahanaco again sometime and get pictures of whatever you guys want! My country is not known so I get a little bit excited when I hear people come here and are intrigued about our ancient cultures.

I also recommend you all, if you ever come to Bolivia, go to Chile by car, you will find some amusing things on your way .

Again sorry for the bump, but at least I think I am helping a little .

This is amazing, what a lucky person to have traveled to this mysterious place or places. Did you ever get the feeling you had lived there in past life? What are the people like and how did they welcome you?

Just amazing photos. Thank you.