A Visit To The Megalithic Site Of Huaytara In Peru

It's another adventure with HiddenIncaTours.com and I'm Brian Forrester. And today we're in the highlands of Peru in a small town called Huaytara and we're going to be looking at this structure that went from being a colonial church to before being an Inca structure and prior to that a megalithic structure. And we're going to inspect damage that is cataclysmic that could very likely have been done during the great series of cataclysms 12,000 years ago. So these are granite blocks that were once part of the structure and you can see the archaeologists have just lined them up because they don't know where actually they go. And now we're entering the Palacio Inca, which of course was an Inca palace, but it has a much greater and more intriguing history than that. This stone, again these are stones that were from the original structure, and this I believe is called Pink Porphyry, while the lower stone is granite. The quarry we were told by local people is at least 50 kilometers away and that's typical of the megalithic sites. Usually the stone is not from the immediate area but was brought in from a more distant location because the quality of the stone was vital to the original function. So here we're looking at the church adobe structure built in the 16th century and then below we're going to approach the oldest part which is not Inca but in fact megalithic inherited by the Inca themselves. You see the trapezoidal shapes which are typical of Inca constructions but the Inca did not invent the concept, they inherited it from older structures such as this. And now a brief 360 degree view of the total enclosure. That's an Inca wall in behind, that is concrete, and here's the main structure itself. Thanks to quadcopter technology with we're able to see all levels of the structure and the mountains in behind, very rugged terrain. Now these walls are between one meter and two meters thick, very tight-fitting stone, no mortar whatsoever, very precise. And again you see the difference between the megalithic work below and the much simpler adobe style above. Whether the adobe is from the Inca period or the colonial period is unknown but we're zooming into the detail of the fineness of the craftsmanship of the megalithic work. The stones are not as massive as one finds perhaps in Cusco or other sites like Sacsayhuaman or Machu Picchu but it's the quality of the workmanship and the hardness of the stone that tells us that the Inca inherited this structure. And now we're seeing incredible damage to specific areas especially this corner of this building. It is very likely that this was done with bursts of very intense heat that literally caused the surfaces to explode off. Now the church has had internal fires but how the heat effects on the outside could be explained by internal fires is simply not the case. And as we move farther along the building you can see that the damage gets reduced and reduced. So it's mainly one corner which is the eastern corner which seems to have been greatly affected. Here this is probably Inca foundation work, rough stone with clay mortar from the area. And then on top of it we see the could be Inca but is more likely later colonial. And then the incredibly fine workmanship here. Again the wall varies between one meter and two meters thick. And interesting scorching marks on the surfaces and the crumbling of this very hard volcanic stone. Again likely the result of very intense bursts of heat. And also likely at least 2,000 degrees Celsius which is much greater than a typical external open fire would create. In my book I document the concept that this is actually bursts of solar plasma that struck this building and others 12,000 years ago. And again you see the fineness of the construction perfectly fitting together, no mortar, no mistakes. And then that doorway which was clearly filled in much later. And now a closer look at it. You notice the interesting pillowed effect which is typical of the megalithic work that we see in the city of Cusco that again was done far longer back in time than the Inca time period. The stone I would guess is seven out of ten on the Mohs scale with ten being diamond. So the Inca's bronze tools could not have shaped these surfaces whatsoever. And at some point in time likely during the colonial period this trapezoidal door which would have gone into the building was filled in just with rough rocks, adobe bricks, and other forms of clay mortar. So inspecting again the surfaces of the building where it's most damaged. Again this is likely not vandalism but intense bursts of very high heat. It is quite possible that at sunrise on one day the plasma flares erupted and hit this part of the building as well as structures in Cusco and other parts of the highland in Peru because all of the megalithic structures show signs of catastrophic damage. Not that by vandals of the colonial Spanish times but a natural force. And again the incredible tightness of the construction which could would be very very difficult to accomplish today. Probably could be done with diamond tool technology but we see zero in the way of tool marks here which is very curious. A lot of the surfaces are in very good shape but that's because there has probably been roofing over top of it at least during Inca times. So this isn't really the polygonal type of work that we see in Cusco. This is more similar to what we find at the Coricancha. It's a more linear form of construction and again we're back at the corner that has the very severe catastrophic damage because as we walk along this wall again you see that the original doorways have been filled in and then trapezoidal windows now with glass and the farther along we go the lesser the damage to the exterior. And here again you see the archway which was added by the colonial Spanish and basically rubble used or bits of the megalithic wall used in the foundation and adobe all the way up to the top. So another quadcopter view of the landscape. Very rough and mountainous. The quarry 50 kilometers or even farther away. So tough terrain to move stone but the stones are not so huge that they would each would require multiple people to move. And this just gives you a view of the outside of the church itself and why don't we go inside to see what the inside of the structure looks like. Again painted adobe on the outside and then we see colonial work. Lots of mortar used with bits and pieces of the older structure and we're seeing burn marks in the lower areas as you can see there. That could have been internal fires that we were told about happened between 100 and 200 years ago but such localized fires would not have affected the outside surfaces. And unique to this structure you see these indented trapezoidal shapes. Normally it's a trapezoid shape that is 90 degree angles like this one you see in the center of the video. One, two, three surfaces but then there only two surfaces. So that again seems to be unique to this structure at Huaytara. And this gives an internal view of the whole thing. What's interesting is that the windows line up directly with the indentations and the little trapezoid shapes are matched on the other side. So this is where we see the major damage which is on the inside and the outside and the damage gets lesser and lesser the farther away we go. In a future video we'll be looking at this place which is also located in the highlands and it's called Vilca Suaman and it's a combination again of a church, Inca reconstruction and older megalithic work. This is much more polygonal than is the case in Huaytara.