Mystery Cutimbo： Who Built the Megalithic Towers at Lake Titicaca？ #ancienthistory #peru

Located more than 4,000 meters above sea level, on a flat top mesa stand these incredible stone towers at a place called Kutimbu. Located about 20 kilometers south of the city of Puno near Lake Titicaca, these towers called Cholpas are purported by archaeologists and historians to be the creations of the Lupaca culture. The Lupaca culture were an Amara-speaking pastoral people known for camelid herding and mixed agricultural practices. Cholpas are known as mortuary towers and the finer ones were used for elite burials and bundled up bodies of the Lupaca elite were found in these towers. However, was this their original function and were they really created by the Lupaca culture? While visiting this site I recently saw some of the common architectural styles that one sees in Cusco. Inside these structures are perfect trapezoidal niches common to the culture who created the megalithic sites. We also see the pillow-style polygonal work made of hard volcanic stone. Also around the site we see bas-relief highly stylized animals that resemble those seen in such faraway places as Gobekli Tepe in Turkey and in Gila in the United Arab Emirates. The one in Gila looks like it could have been created here in Peru as it shows very similar polygonal stonework to what one sees here. Is there any connection or just a case of different cultures around the world creating similar types of structures at different time periods? But back to the question, did the Lupaca culture build the site or did they inherit it from an earlier culture and reuse it for their own purposes? If we look at known Lupaca structures we can see just how rough the stonework is. Using rough fieldstone and mortar they attempted to emulate the older sites found in the area and repurpose the original sites for their own uses. Also the precise masonry found at the site seemed to betray the mainstream story that a pastoral llama herding culture with only the most primitive tools were the creators of the finer chulpas. So if not them, just who were the original builders? Were they the same builders that created Sacsayhuaman's Citadel Walls and Ollantaytambo Sun Temple? The architectural styles and methods of construction seem very similar so it seems logical to conclude they might have been the same culture that created the chulpas. However, there does seem to be one major difference between those sites and this one and that chulpas are only to be found in this particular region and not in Cusco or other places that have megalithic work. Was there something about this region that called for a different building type to capture the energies found in this region? We also see snakes are commonly featured on these chulpas and snakes not only imply wisdom and the underworld in Andean culture but also rebirth and healing. Maybe the towers which all feature a beehive shaped stone roof were used by the megalithic builders as acoustic chambers where people would go for healing or for ascension reasons. Maybe even after death. Another thing I'd like to say is that the site has a very special energetic quality to it. I was here with some friends and they fell into a deep meditative state almost immediately when we got here. They basically just found a spot that they wanted to sit and went into trance. If I wasn't so focused on filming to cover this site and because we only had limited time before we had to go to another location I probably would have joined them as I could feel this special energy here. So what I just noticed when we came out here was you see the three layers of redstone on top of this chulpa and he's saying that would signify the soul which is the sun and that makes sense really. So they they use different rock to represent not only different properties of the stone because this is a different stone than what we see over here. This is definitely like a red volcanic stone over here. So symbolically each of these stones represented something that was important in the Andean society. So there were more chulpas here and they got destroyed probably by lightning. Got another snake down here in the corner. So I think on this side of the stone we can see there's a snake here and a snake here and a snake over here. So we have four snakes and this protrusion right here. So it's interesting we find four snakes on this side but not on the front just just on the back. This is the area where they would have gone inside this chulpa and this is about this is about three and a half feet tall. This whole entryway and I'm not sure how they would get that stone out of here. Okay we were trying to figure out what this figure is. We think it might be a viscacha because they are native to the Lake Titicaca region. Unfortunately the sun is now behind a cloud so we can't see it that well but it's a it's a very large tail going up here and big feet. So and here are these guys again. My guide said they could be monkeys but then we get to the puma over here. He says this is a map of the continent of South America and it does look like that. So Peru is right over here and interesting because I thought it looked like something. Check out how impressive the masonry work is here. Every stone face has a different angle which fits in perfectly to the faces of the adjacent stone. It would be extremely hard if not impossible for modern day masons to do this. So one wonders how a pastoral people with no tradition of giant masonry work could have pulled this off. So you can see up here there's another snake and right above it is a nub and we usually don't see that. Usually they see the nubs on the lower section of the stone but here it's on the upper section. And once again we have the signature. I don't know if they call that the mason mark but we have a little stone put right in the middle of these blocks. Look at this another face. So just as we're leaving we see this strange creature and look at this it looks like he has a human face. And look at the size of these hands with these five giant fingers and a lizard tail. Just bizarre. Below the chilpas on the top of the mesa is an area with rock art which according to archaeologists dates back approximately 8,000 years ago. Here we find a grave site and above them paintings of llamas, geometric patterns, and human-like figures. So look at this guy above these llamas. He kind of looks like an ask a mummy with a big head, two big eyes. I hope you liked this brief look at Cuctimbu's amazing archaeology site. Next week we will be looking at the site of Solestani, another site which holds many mysterious chilpas attributed to the Inca, Tiwanakin, and Kola cultures. Come and join me next week as we check out this amazing site. And don't forget to hit the like and subscribe buttons if you would like to see more of these videos in the future. I would also like to hear your comments as your feedback means a lot to me. You can also show some extra support by the super thanks feature. Every extra bit of support really makes a difference in helping me finance these explorations. Thank you again and happy travels all!