Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco)

Published June 12, 2010

Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) is an ancient city whose remains are located over two miles above sea level near the southern end of Lake Titicaca on the Altiplano of Bolivia. It was first encountered by Spanish conquistadors in 1549. Tiwanaku has all the features of a harbour, which has led some to describe it as the seaport of nearby Puma Punku another remarkable ancient site^(o).

The ruins are scattered over a number of square miles through which the Guayqui-La Paz railway was constructed, which was responsible for the breaking up of many monuments to provide ballast. Before that, stone from the site was used in the construction of nearby homes and a church.

Belisario Díaz Romero believed that Tiwanaku had been built by a race of people he calls Homo atlanticus, who had come to America from Atlantis over a landbridge from the east, outlined in his 1906 book Tiahuanacu^[¹²³⁵^]. Heather Pringle notes^(t) that before Romero, “Francis de Castelnau (1810-1880), for example, proposed in the mid-19th century that Tiwanaku was the work of wandering Egyptian pharaohs, as opposed to the ‘imbecilic race that inhabits the country today’.”

The controversial Arthur Posnansky, who linked Tiahuanaco with Aztlan, the mythical “white” island homeland of the Aztecs investigated them in the early 20^th century. The similarity of Aztlan with the name of Plato’s city has excited some straw-clutching Atlantis seekers into claiming a definite connection between the two.

Posnansky also noted that the expected alignments of structures at Tiwanaku were offset by an amount that suggested their construction at a time when they would have been correctly aligned to the cardinal points. He, after many years of study, was convinced that Tiahuanaco was the oldest civilisation on Earth ^[516] dating it to around 15,000 BC, which he later reduced to 10,000 BC.

In the 1920s, Edmund Kiss studied the ruins of Tiwanaku and concluded that it had been constructed by Nordic refugees from Atlantis which had been destroyed by a falling moon! His ideas were enthusiastically received back in Nazi Germany. A further expedition was planned but never materialised because of the start of World War II.^(u)

Dr Graham Holton, an Australian commentator has written about the pseudo-science practised in the early 20th century at Tiwanaku by the likes of Posnansky and Kiss and endorsed by Hörbiger and Hans Bellamy^(al)(am).

Although, as you can see below, Posnansky’s work and particularly his dating of Tiwanaku has been rejected by many, he still has supporters. In Graham Hancock‘s 1995 book Fingerprints of the Gods ^[275], he supported Posnansky’s date, referring to his work throughout the book. Ian Alex Blease, a devout sceptic took issue with this endorsement (aa). For my part, I note that Hancock was happy to support Posnansky in ‘Fingerprints’, but in America Before ^[1680], despite its title, he gives Posnansky’s date no mention, perhaps because it clashed with his new date for the destruction of his ‘Lost Civilisation’!

>>Hancock has been highly critical of Carbon-14 as a dating method, particularly for megalithic sites and specifically Tiwanaku. The late Garrett Fagan took issue with Hancock regarding the dating of Tiwanaku in a 2000 post on Hancock’s site^(ar). Hancock responded with a challenge to Fagan that led to a further article from him^(aq). The temperature rose with a further article from Hancock^(as).<<

Charles Orser Jnr. debunked Posnansky’s dating in a 2001 article^(k)as did Paul Heinrich⁽ⁿ⁾.

Marin, Minella & Schievenin ^[972.97] “Between 1927 and 1930 several scientists, including Hans Ludendorf, at the time director of the Astronomical Observatory of Potsdam; astronomer Arnold Kohlshutter, University of Bonn; Dr Rolf Muller, University of Potsdam and Dr Friedrich Becker, Specula Vatican, meticulously checked the archaeological-astronomical research of Posnansky for accuracy. After three years of work these scientists corroborated his thesis.”

Before retirement, R. Cedric Leonard supported Posnansky’s early date for Tiwanaku citing a number of atronomers who endorsed his chronology. “Between 1927 and 1930 Prof. Posnansky’s conclusions were studied intensively by a number of authorities. Dr. Hans Ludendorff (Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Potsdam), Friedrich Becker of the Specula Vaticana, Prof. Arnold Kohlschutter (astronomer at Bonn University), and Rolf Müller (astronomer of the Institute of Astrophysics at Potsdam) verified the accuracy of Posnansky’s calculations and vouched for the reliability of his conclusions.

The conventional practice of dating Tiahuanacu as beginning c. 200 A.D. and collapsing c. 1000 A.D. started with Wendell Bennett’s excavations, which turned up numerous examples of pottery, small statues and other artifacts. Since it is common for later arrivals to be awed by massive ruins (sometimes attributing their origin to supernatural beings, thus replicating the “sacred” images on their own pottery and textiles), I think it is a mistake to fuse the two cultures into one, implying that the later arrivals were the same people who built the original ruins. I believe Bennett and his successors are all guilty of such an error.” ^(ap)

R. Cedric Leonard believed that Posnansky’s date addressed all of the mysteries associated with the site and “Thus I think it likely that Tiahuanaco was built at sea level c.15,000 B.C. as an Atlantean port.”^(z)

The American archaeologist, Neil Steede, while reviewing Posnansky’s date, thought that a date of 7000-5000 BC was more appropriate^(aj).

At the other end of the spectrum, Emmet Sweeney, an ardent chronology revisionist claimed that “most probably, Tiahuanaco was built around the same time as pharaoh Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Sakkara in Egypt. It can thus claim to be among the oldest of human monuments ^[700.208].” Tiwanaku is conventionally dated between 200 BC and 100 AD, while the Step Pyramid is thought to have been constructed around 2650 BC.

Some researchers, including Jim Allen, have studied Tiwanaku’s remarkable Gate of the Sun and identified the figures carved on it as a sophisticated calendar^(v).

A paper from Marco Antonio Cabero regarding the ‘Gate’ throws a modicum of doubt on its possible use as a calendar. Instead, he focused on the other side of the monument where he claims there is evidence that the ancient people of Tiwanaku knew the ‘golden number’, phi.

“The composition of the front face of the Gate of the Sun in Tiwanaku presents, anthropometric, and bilateral symmetry. On the back side, there are also harmonic proportions but with less significance. These proportions were not found before because the study of the content of its engraving frieze was believed to be a calendar, an idea that has been so widely extended, that any other interpretations were ignored (however, the presence of these proportions does not exclude the possible existence of some type of calendar). The Gate of the Sun may not be part of a temple, but its content could also be considered as the expression of a monument in itself; a work that testifies to the importance of knowledge, art, and science “^(ac).

Ashley Cowie has recently proposed that Tiwanaku was located on an ancient Prime Meridian^(w).

Also eye-catching is the claim^(l) by Roger Elefant that later construction at Tiwanaku was carried out by the Vikings!

However, a more recent, but catastrophic, explanation is offered by Stephen Smith^(d) on the Thunderbolts.info website. Perhaps Smith’s ideas might be combined with the studies of George Dodwell to produce a more comprehensive hypothesis. Posnansky’s date is greatly at variance with conventional dating that puts the flourishing of Tiwanaku from 1200 BC until 1200 AD. The latter part of that period roughly coincides with the existence of the Wari Empire, a possible rival of Tiwanaku^(e).

In 2013, Jason Yaeger and Alexei Vranich published a detailed study of the chronological development of Tiwanaku and Puma Punku. This is now available on the Academia.edu website^(ao). Anyone seeking support for ancient astronauts, giants or Atlantis will be greatly disappointed. The authors confirmed a starting date for monumental construction at the site of no earlier than 200 BC, which continued intermittently until the arrival of the Spanish invaders. Their report is the result of the ‘hard slog’ required by real archaeology.

Several claims attempting to link Tiahuanaco with Atlantis have been made, with one anonymous blog^(y) insisting that it was the capital of Atlantis. James Bailey was an early advocate ^[149] of a Peruvian Atlantis with its capital at Tiwanaku or Chan Chan, which was probably the largest pre-Colombian city in South America.

The claim of a direct connection between Tiahuanaco and Atlantis is hard to accept on a number of grounds; for example, the idea of an army travelling from the west coast of South America to attack Greece in the east of the Mediterranean is not tenable. That there was an advanced culture in the Andes is undeniable but to link it to Plato’s story is stretching credibility to extremes. Lake Titicaca and Tiahuanaco have plenty of mysteries still to be explained. In 1980 the Bolivian scholar, Hugo Boero Rojo, aided by one of the local natives, Elias Mamani, located underwater ruins off the coast of Puerta Acosta^[⁵⁷⁶^]. His discoveries included megalithic temples, flights of stairs and stone roads.

More recently, Dave Truman has written about an alignment known as ‘The Way of Viracocha’ that runs from Cajamarca in the north, through Cuzco and Tiwanaku and finishing at Pukara Grande^(p), oriented exactly 45° west of true north. Truman has built on the work of Maria Sholten d’Ebneth (1926-2007), who wrote of the La Ruta de Wiracocha^[^1236]in the 1970s^(q). Others have expanded on her work, but usually in Spanish. Truman has speculated on whether “Viracocha, the great teacher and restorer of civilisation in the Andes, in some way embodied the scientific knowledge of a sophisticated, but long-forgotten high culture?” Truman

also discusses the ‘chakana’ or Andean stepped cross (see right) and its possible meaning.

It was reported in October 2013^(g) ⁽that a team of Belgian and Bolivian archaeologists had found an assortment of ceramics, gems and gold objects at an apparent ceremonial site beneath the waters of Lake Titicaca, which was sacred to the Incas and Tiwanakus. It was not until 2019 that images of some of the artefacts recovered from the lake were widely published^(x).

We cannot leave the matter of mysterious Tiahuanaco without referring to the fact that some miles further south is Lake Poopó beside which Jim Allen is convinced that the city of Atlantis was located. Allen claims that the large plain to the west of the lake is the plain mentioned by Plato as being adjacent to the city of Atlantis. In a recent documentary “Atlantis in the Andes” broadcast by ‘Discovery Civilization’, Allen identified Tiahuanaco as one of the ten kingdoms of Atlantis. However, I cannot help noticing that while Tiwanaku, claimed to be 17,000 years old, provides us with an astonishing wealth of structures and finely dressed stone, Allen’s chosen Atlantis site, Pampa Aullagas, offers little more than rubble!

Another supporter of an Andean Atlantis is Sean Bambrough, who has been developing a theory since 1999 that identifies Tiwanaku as the city of Atlantis^(h). He has now published his magnum opus on the academia.edu website^(ae).

In February 2015, Marcelo Ozorio also suggested a link with Plato’s Atlantis and most interesting is the huge number of images included on his site⁽ⁱ⁾. There is also a large collection of related images on a YouTube clip^(m⁾.

In 2022, Marco Vigato‘s book, Empires of Atlantis ^[1830] was published, which included Tiwanaku as part of the evidence for his hyperdiffusionist Atlantis^(ab).

In 2008, David E. Flynn brought to public attention an astonishing series of satellite photos⁽^a⁾that show a vast network of the remains apparently of man-made structures that extend for many miles around Lake Titicaca. These ‘geoglyphs’ encompass Tiahuanaco.

The most remarkable collection of early photos of the Tiwanaku site can be found on the Above Top Secret website^(b). The accompanying text makes a strong case for treating the location as archaeologically contaminated and as a consequence that many of the dates proposed for the site should be considered suspect. Other mysteries are the fact that saltwater Lake Titicaca contains known sea life and that old waterlines are slanted^(c).

In late March 2015, the Bolivian government announced^(j) that ground-penetrating radar had identified what appeared to be a buried pyramid in the Tiwanaku complex as well as other ‘anomalies’ and that excavations may start in May or June.

A mixed Spanish and English website^(f) offers a number of interesting papers including a chapter from Posnansky’s book Tiahuanaco: The Cradle of American Man.

Archaeology magazine has an interesting Q & A paper relating to the history and current state of preservation at the Tiwanaku site^(s).

A May 2017 report^(r) confirmed that the entire Tiwanaku complex is much more extensive than previously thought, covering an area of at least 650 hectares (1,675 acres).

Joseph Davidovits who controversially proposed that Giza’s Great Pyramid stones had been cast rather than carved has also claimed that other well-known structures had been created in a similar manner, such as at Tiwanaku and Puma Punku in Bolivia^(ah) and Easter Island^(ai). He offers scientific evidence to support this claim in a very interesting video^(ak). My objection to his ‘cast rather than carved’ hypothesis, particularly in relation to Easter Island, is that partially finished statues are visible today in a quarry still attached at the back to the rock from which they were carved as well as some of the tools used for the job. Images of these can be seen in Thor Heyerdahl’s Aku-Aku ^[1938].

Brien Foerster is an American writer who now lives in Cuzco, the former Inca capital in Peru. He has studied the ancient cultures of the Andes and believes that many predated the Incas and had advanced technologies that permitted the precise drilling of stone^(af), the quality of which he has compared with examples found in Egypt and like Chris Dunn concluded that their level of accuracy could not have been achieved without possession of a high technology, now lost^(ag). He has expanded on this in his 2014 book, Lost Ancient Technology of Egypt ^[1487].

A fully illustrated guide to the intriguing monuments of Tiwanaku/Puma Punku is now available which is an excellent introduction to the site including a map by Javier Escalante Moscoso^(an).

^(a)https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1977971/posts

^(b)https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread732575/pg1

^(c) https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2012/04/30/tiwanaku/

^(d) https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2013/04/03/tiwanaku-3/

^(e) http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/science-wari-tiwanaku-rival-empire-01473.html

^(f) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/arqueologia/esp_tiahuanaco5.htm

^(g) 10-bolivia-lake-titicaca-yields-trove.html”https://phys.org/news/2013-10-bolivia-lake-titicaca-yields-trove.html#jCp

^(h) https://2rbetterthan1.wordpress.com/atlantis-south-americatiahuanaco/

⁽ⁱ⁾ Tiwanaku, pre-columbian archaeological and world heritage site at Bolivia (viagem.space)

^(j) https://web.archive.org/web/20170319193806/https://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2015/03/27/bolivia-detects-buried-pyramid-at-tiahuanaco-site/print

^(k) https://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg62910.html

^(l) https://atlantide-mu.over-blog.com/2013/12/terre-creuse.html

^(m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuoXm9uafI

⁽ⁿ⁾ http://www.intersurf.com/~chalcedony/Tiwanaku.html

^(o)See: https://web.archive.org/web/20170601230717/https://www.atlantisquest.com/prehistcity.html

^(p) https://grahamhancock.com/trumand1/

^(q) https://puri-aprendiendovida.blogspot.ie/2013/02/la-ruta-de-viracocha-camino-de.html

^(r) Latin American Herald Tribune – Unexpected Finds Increase Mystery Surrounding Tiahuanaco Citadel (archive.org)

^(s) https://interactive.archaeology.org/tiwanaku/qanda.html

^(t) https://archive.archaeology.org/blog/the-fantasy-world-of-tiwanaku/

^(u) https://theappendix.net/issues/2013/4/andean-atlantis-race-science-and-the-nazi-occult-in-bolivia

^(v) https://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/the-gate-of-the-sun-calendar-from-ancient-tiwanacu/

^(w) https://www.ancient-origins.net/events/unearthing-lost-meridian-tiwanaku-s-temple-builders-0010322

^(x) https://www.sciencealert.com/stunning-discovery-reveals-mysterious-religion-pre-dating-the-incas-by-500-years

^(y) https://grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?1,1063585,1063585#msg-1063585

^(z) https://web.archive.org/web/20161107001948/https://www.atlantisquest.com/prehistcity.html

^(aa) https://www.oocities.org/debunkinglc/tiwanaku.html (link broken)

^(ab) https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Atlantis-Civilizations-Traditions-throughout/dp/1591434335

^(ac) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318354740_Mathematics_in_Tiwanaku-The_gold_number_in_the_gate_of_the_sun

^(ad) (PDF) Mathematics in Tiwanaku-The gold number in the gate of the sun (researchgate.net)

^(ae) https://www.academia.edu/61088843/Atlantis_Found_in_the_Andes_by_V_Sean_Bambrough

^(af) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7of1Lkef0

^(ag) https://ahotcupofjoe.net/

^(ah) https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/tiahuanaco-monuments-tiwanaku-pumapunku-bolivia/

^(ai) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/

^(aj) QC2K – Neil Steede (archive.org)

^(ak) https://www.geopolymer.org/library/video/they-came-from-america-to-build-easter-island/

^(al)https://www.academia.edu/33604321/Pseudo_Archaeology_as_State_Supported_Science_Hörbiger_Posnansky_Kiss_and_the_Ahnenerbe_Expedition_to_Tiwanaku_Bolivia

^(am) (99+) 2007 Chapter 3 Tiwanaku.doc | Graham Holton – Academia.edu

^(an) Tiwanaku, the mysterious pre-Inca capital – mapaymochila.es

^(ao) (99+) A Radiocarbon Chronology of the Pumapunku Complex and A Reassessment of the Development of Tiwanaku, Bolivia | Alexei Vranich – Academia.edu

^(ap) Tiahuanacu, The Mysterious City (archive.org)

^(aq) https://www.hallofmaat.com/methodological/an-answer-to-graham-hancock/ *

^(ar) https://grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?1,1772 *

^(as) https://grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?1,2590 *

Tagged Alexei Vranich, Altiplano, Arnold Kohlshutter, Arthur Posnansky, Ashley Cowie, Aztecs, Aztlan, Belisario Díaz Romero, Bolivia, Brian Foerster, Chakana, Charles Orser jnr, Chris Dunn, Cusco, Dave Truman, David E. Flynn, Easter Island, Edmund Kiss, Emmet Sweeney, Francis de Castelnau, Friedrich Becker, Garrett Fagan, Gate of the Sun, George Dodwell, Graham Hancock, Graham Holton, Hanns Hoerbiger, Hans Bellamy, Hans Ludendorf, Heather Pringle, Hugo Boero Rojo, Ian Alex Blease, Incas, James Bailey, Jason Yaeger, Jim Allen, Joseph Davidovits, Lake Poopo, Lake Titicaca, Marcelo Ozorio, Marco Antonio Cabero, Marco M. Vigato, Maria Sholten d’Ebneth, Marin Minella & Schievenin, Neil Steede, Paul Heinrich, Pumapunku, pyramids, R. Cedric Leonard, Roger Elefant, Rolf Muller, Sean Bambrough, Stephen Smith, Tiahuanaco, Tiwanaku, Vikings, Wari, World War II

Hörbiger, Hanns

Published May 31, 2010

Hanns Hörbiger (1860-1931) was an Austrian mining engineer by profession and in his spare time was an amateur astronomer. Today, he is probably better known as the father of the actors Paul and Attila Hörbiger. Another son, Hans Robert Hörbiger (1885-1955), followed in his father’s misguided cosmological footsteps, eventually working for Heinrich Himmler’s Ahnenerbe^(ac).

By gazing at the moon Hanns, Snr. became convinced that he was looking at a bright outer layer of ice. Hörbiger published his “Doctrine of Eternal Ice” around 1913 in a book^[³⁸⁹^] co-authored with a schoolteacher named Philip Fauth. Hörbiger proposed an early form of catastrophism that saw the Earth capture several moons in succession. Periodically, each of these moons disintegrated as they spiralled to earth producing enormous ‘ice showers’ followed by meteors of iron. He saw the effects of these impacts as the source of Flood myths and claimed that when our current Moon was captured around 9500 BC it triggered earthquakes that led to the destruction of Atlantis. His theories were hailed in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s and were officially backed by the Nazis (see Ahnenerbe). Heather Pringle notes^[⁰⁰³²^.180] Hitler’s personal support for Hörbiger’s theories.

In 1966, Egerton Sykes wrote that “in addition, Hitler requiring a Teutonic cosmology as well as a Germanic Europe, adopted Hoerbiger’s hypothesis, probably one of the few sensible acts that the Nazis ever made”^(w).

It seems that the adoption of World Ice Theory by National Socialism was intended to present a German alternative to ‘Jewish science’, specifically, to the theory of relativity, developed by Albert Einstein^(x).

There was a Viennese Hörbiger Institute for World Ice Science founded in 1932^(p). Their publication Mitteilungen had two volumes published from 1941 to 1944 and a third volume 1971-1976^(o).

An interesting 1949 report by Manfred Reiffenstein describes the problems that the Hörbiger Institute had encountered with the Nazis from 1938 onwards. While efforts were made to close the Institute down and transfer its archives to Himmler’s Ahnenerbe organisation, this was prevented by the efforts of Hörbiger’s sons^(s), which might be considered an example of postwar revisionism.

A recent paper by Graham Holton explicitly accuses Hörbiger of ‘archaeological racism’, along with Edmund Kiss, Posnansky and others in the Ahnenerbe^(t). Holton also noted that Hörbiger also subscribed to Blavatsky‘s daft idea of Root Races.

His ideas were adopted and developed further by Hans Bellamy in a number of his books^[⁰⁹²^][⁰⁹⁶^][⁰⁹⁷^]. During the first half of the 20th century, many beyond the Nazi realm frequently referred to Hörbiger’s moon theory as authoritative.

Hörbiger refused to accept the evidence that his ‘icy’ moon had a daytime temperature of 100°C. Followers of Hörbiger existed in Germany, Britain and France after the war, until an actual landing on the Moon demonstrated that it was composed of neither ice nor cheese.

Of course, the moon landing is denounced by some as faked and according to one 2019 blogger, it must be so because it contradicts Hörbiger’s theories!!! The same blogger lists his religion as ‘Hitlerism’^(y).

A bizarre consequence of Hörbiger’s status with the Nazi leadership is recounted by Pauwels and Bergier ^[910.170] who tell us that: “The German engineers, whose work was fundamental to the construction of those rockets that sent the first artificial satellites up into the sky, were prevented by the leaders of the NSDAP themselves from using the V2 for it to be completed at the scheduled time.

Work on the V2 in Peenemünde had to be interrupted several times because Hitler and the apologists of the Hörbiger doctrine feared that rocket launches could result in a world catastrophe.

General Walter Dornberger led the tests in Peenemünde, where the guided missiles were created. These experiments were stopped in order to submit the general’s reports to the apostles of Hörbiger’s cosmology. Above all, one wanted to know how the “eternal ice” would react in space and whether this violation of the stratosphere would not result in some kind of catastrophe in the world.

In his book “V2 – The shot into the universe” General Dornberger tells that shortly afterwards his work had to be interrupted again for two months. The guide had dreamed that the V2 would not work, or rather that heaven would take its revenge. This dream was to carry more weight for the leading men of the Third Reich than the view of the technicians. Behind the Germany of science and organization, the spirit of ancient magic was still alive.“^(z)

Several other writers developed theories that were variations on Hörbiger’s ideas. 1954 saw the publication of The Moon Puzzle^[786] by the Swedish engineer, N.O. Bergquist, in which he suggested that Earth had a close encounter with a planetoid which caused the ejection of a large amount of matter, which became our Moon leaving a huge scar we call the Pacific. Although many details of Berquist’s theory differ greatly from Hörbiger’s, he never refers to the then widely supported views of Hörbiger.

In 1955, G. Demortier published a theory of cosmic catastrophe that was somewhat similar to Hörbiger’s. However, a couple of years earlier, doubts were beginning to emerge regarding aspects of Hörbiger’s theories as our cosmological knowledge advanced^(u), nevertheless, in the same magazine Edmund Kiss attempted to justify Hörbiger’s idea of an ice-covered Moon!

It is even more astounding that as late as 1964, Egerton Sykes, the leading British atlantologist of the day, was still clinging to the concept of an ice-covered lunar surface. In fact, after re-reading the old editions of Sykes’ Atlantis newsletter, I am amazed at the number of contributors that offered so many articles based on Hörbiger’s flawed ideas. My personal view is that having read Sykes’ newsletters, he can only be considered a gullible British gentleman.

Egerton Sykes founded and promoted an English post-war Hoerbiger Institute through his Atlantis magazine^(q). In March 1948 Bellamy contributed a short article (Hoerbiger Monograph No. 1. 2nd Edition)⁽ⁿ⁾to the newsletter, reiterating his support for the idea that the capture of our moon led to the destruction of Atlantis.

Commander E.H. Nutter, a Royal Navy engineer, who contributed many articles to Sykes’ Atlantis magazine was considered “the leading technical authority on the Hoerbiger Theory in England” in the 1950s^(v).

Although Hörbiger wrote extensively about the origins of our satellite, when Immanuel Velikovsky wrote a short paper in 1973 entitled Earth without a Moon^(v) he made no reference to the theories of Hörbiger.

Henry M. Eichner was also drawn to Hörbiger’s Moon theory as a mechanism to explain the worldwide Deluge myths. However, as the first Moon landing took place just two years before his death, Eichner was forced to admit that Hörbiger got his claim of an icy Moon wrong, but still believed that some of Hörbiger’s ideas had merit ^[287.57].

Uwe Topper, the controversial German researcher has continued to support much of Hörbiger’s ideas. Additionally, in 2003, Gary Gilligan, a prominent catastrophist, first proposed that our Moon had been captured around 2000 BC, which he has now revised to 1200 BC^(I)!

The August 2010 edition of the BBC’s Focus magazine (p.81), informed us that the Moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 3.8cm per year, destroying the foundation of Hörbiger’s basic theory. The 9^th Nov. 2011 issue of New Scientist published further evidence supporting this view^(h),with further claims that this recession will reverse in the very distant future as the Earth’s rotation slows^(r).

In the 17^th century Johannes Kepler demonstrated that when an object’s orbital velocity increases, its orbital radius will expand; thus, the Moon slowly recedes from Earth^(d). This idea was discussed further in a BBC documentary broadcast on Feb.1^st, 2011^(b).

The 9th Nov. 2011 issue of New Scientist published further evidence supporting this view(h), with further claims that this recession will reverse in the very distant future as the Earth’s rotation slows^(r).

The Live Science website in April 2023 offered more information on the future of the Earth-Moon relationship^(ab). “In about 50 billion years, Earth’s slowing rotation would make it tidally lock with the moon so that Earth would permanently show just one side to the moon, Jean Creighton, director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, told Live Science. At this point, the moon and Earth would stop moving away from each other, Eric Klumpe, a professor of astronomy at Middle Tennessee State University, told Live Science.

However, about 5 billion years from now, as the sun begins to die, it will swell to become a red giant star, “at which point the Earth-moon system will almost certainly be disrupted and destroyed,” David Trilling, chair of the Astronomy and Planetary Science Department at Northern Arizona University, told Live Science.”

Nevertheless, updated Moon capture theories have been developed since Hörbiger. Emilio Spedicato has published a brief overview of recent contributions on the subject as well as his version^(c), dating it to around 9450 BC, triggering the end of the Ice Age and the destruction of Atlantis!

It was long-accepted wisdom that a moonless earth would have made the development of complex life more difficult because of greater climatic fluctuations. However, a new study challenges this, calculating that Jupiter together with other factors would minimise the effect of not having our satellite^(g)

The story of lunar history took an unexpected turn in 2011 when the journal Nature published a paper by planetary scientists Erik Asphaug of the University of Santa Cruz and Martin Jutzi of the University of Berne who proposed that originally the Earth had two moons that later collided and formed our present satellite^(e). At the end of 2011, two NASA lunar probes were launched^(j) which may resolve this particular question.

In America, the WEL-Institute is dedicated to investigating Hörbiger’s ‘World Ice Theory’^(k). I note that the U.S. is also home to associations concerned with both a Hollow Earth^(l)and a Flat Earth^(m)!

^(b) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12311119

^(c)Wayback Machine (archive.org)

^(d)I ve heard that the Moon is moving away from Earth by about an inch 25 cm each year Why is this happening – Astronomy Magazine (archive.org)

^(e) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20160320161310/https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390413,00.asp

^(g)https://web.archive.org/web/20190925225222/https://www.astrobio.net/news-exclusive/the-odds-for-life-on-a-moonless-earth/

^(h⁾https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21147-how-the-cold-dead-moon-stayed-magnetic.html

^(I)https://www.gks.uk.com/moon-origin-egyptian/

^(j) GRAIL and the Mystery of the Missing Moon | Science Mission Directorate (archive.org)

^(k)https://welinstitute.wordpress.com/about/

^(l) https://www.ourhollowearth.com/

^(m) https://theflatearthsociety.org/home/

⁽ⁿ⁾ https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/library/pamphlets/Atlantis%20Hoerbiger%20Monograph%20(No.%201%20March%201948).pdf