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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Hiram Bingham
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is generally accepted to have been an Incan retreat, built in the middle of the 15th century on a barely accessible mountaintop of Peru about fifty miles northwest of Cuzco. It was apparently abandoned a century later and only brought to the attention of the outside world in 1911 when it was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956).
In 2021 the use of a more advanced dating method (accelerator mass spectrometry) has pushed back the earliest date for the site by a couple of decades to 1420 AD(j).
Mark Adams, the American writer, wrote an account of his retracing of Bingham’s journey to Machu Picchu[976]. Along with the narrative of his pilgrimage, Adams has also interwoven a valuable history of the region.
In 2013, a Polish-Peruvian team, while exploring a previously unexcavated building on the site, claimed to have discovered that the structure was astronomically aligned(a). The following year saw a newly discovered section of the Inca Road, which leads to Machu Picchu, announced by the Andina News Agency(c).
In July 2016, it was reported that what are considered pre-Inca petroglyphs were discovered in the Machu Picchu region(d)(e). Research is proceeding.
The siting of the sanctuary has been something of a mystery, Recent research suggests that the existence of geological faults that lie beneath it may offer some of the answers. Rualdo Menegat, a Brazilian geologist, presented a paper to the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in Phoenix, in which he claims that the Incas deliberately chose to build Machu Picchu and some of their cities where tectonic faults meet!(h)
It was revealed in 2019 that work had commenced on the building of a new international airport to service Machu Picchu, a development that has been vigorously opposed as a threat to the already fragile site. It is worth noting that in 2017, 1.5 million visitors, nearly twice the limit recommended by UNESCO, came to Machu Picchu(g).
Also in 2019, it was announced that an even older Inca site was discovered 1,500 metres higher than Machu Picchu using LiDar(i).
Some pathetic attempts have been made to link Machu Picchu with Atlantis. One of them claims that “This was the (summer?) residence of the continental governor, who at the time of the destruction of Atlantis was a woman.”(b) Others, such as Rand Flem-Ath along with the late Colin Wilson[063], as well as Jim Alison, have included the Andean site in proposed global grids linking prehistoric sites.
A less-known Inca site is that of Choquequirao(f), sometimes referred to as the ‘sister’ of Machu Picchu. Only a third of the site has been excavated so far.
>In March 2022, it was reported that “a new academic paper argues that since its rediscovery more than a century ago, the site has been known by the wrong name. A Peruvian historian and a leading US archaeologist argue that the Unesco world heritage site was known by its Inca inhabitants as Huayna Picchu – the name of a peak overlooking the ruins – or simply Picchu.”(l)<
Charles R. Kos expressed a belief “that Macchu(sic) Picchu in Peru which is held to be ‘Inca’ is in fact, I am fairly certain, an Irish Monastery from the Dark Ages.”(k)
(a) https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-2330/
(h) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190923140814.htm
(j) Machu Picchu older than expected, study reveals | YaleNews
(l) Machu Picchu: Inca site ‘has gone by wrong name for over 100 years’ | Archaeology | The Guardian *
Cuzco
Cuzco is a provincial capital of modern Peru, which in the 11th century was the capital of the Inca Empire. One remarkable sight in the city is the 12-angle stone in the wall on Hatun Rumiyoc Street, which has now been outdone by a 13-angle stone, recently identified, which is built into an irrigation system at the Inkawasi archaeological site, located in Huancavelica region’s Huaytará district(c). The astonishing mortarless Inca masonry in the town has to be seen to be believed.
A few years ago Davide Andrea published his theory on how the Incas fitted those multi-angled stones(d). April Holloway has touched on the suggestion that the Incas or their predecessors had discovered how to soften stone(g). An extensive four-part article elsewhere(h) focuses on the Sri Lankan site of Sigiriya. where what appears to be numerous examples of softened stone can be seen. However, the author concluded that what was on display were features that had been cast in situ and that the same method had been employed when building the pyramids and creating the huge monoliths of Baalbek! It is worth noting that Andrea concluded that “we’re still unsure of how the Incas fit the stones so perfectly”.
The city of Cuzco contained The Corichancha, (Place of Gold), which the Incas dedicated to Viracocha and which astounded the Conquistadors in the 1530s when confronted with its opulence(b). It was 
covered inside and out with over 700 sheets of gold and silver. The nearby Garden of the Sun contained golden animals, birds and plants. Pipes, aqueducts and basins were also made of gold. The complex was fed by natural hot and cold springs. Apart from all this ostentatious wealth, some writers have drawn further parallels between Plato’s Atlantis, Homer’s Phaeacia and the Cuzco of the Incas. Although nobody, so far, has suggested that Cuzco had been the location of Atlantis it has been mooted that it may have been constructed as a reminder of the glory of a previous homeland. Donnelly considered Peru to be an Atlantean colony. Local people are clearly not unaware of the suggestion that Cuzco has been associated with Plato’s lost city and so you will find the Atlantis Hotel within a few blocks of the main square.
>Just 2 km north of Cuzco’s main square lies the remarkable fortress/temple of Sacsayhuaman, which is the largest structure ever built by the Inca. The irregular shaped stones used in its construction fit together like a jigsaw puzzle without the use of any mortar.<
Frank Joseph states[102] that north-west of Cuzco there is a sacred mountain whose summit and a village on its southern slope are known as Atalaia. Pre-Inca remains are also to be found in the vicinity of Cuzco, an ancient sun-worshipping city, which was recently discovered to have the highest ultra-violet levels on our planet. For centuries rumours have persisted(a) that a series of tunnels existed under Cuzco. In 2000, a 2 km tunnel was discovered beneath the city by the Spanish archaeologist, Anselm Pi Rambla(f).
Yale University in the United States, and the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cuzco (UNSAAC) in Peru, announced the establishment of an International Center for the Study of Machu Picchu and Inca Culture, in Cuzco. The Centre opened in 2011(a) following the return of hundreds of items looted by Hiram Bingham.
Brian Foerster is convinced that pre-Incan advanced technology was used in the earliest construction of Cusco, an idea that he expands on in a short YouTube video(e).
(a) https://news.yale.edu/2011/10/06/peru-yale-center-study-machu-picchu-and-inca-culture-opens
(b) https://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_9.htm (offline Feb. 2016) see Archive 2921
(c) https://www.peruviantimes.com/24/thirteen-angled-stone-found-at-inca-site-of-inkawasi/23139/
(d) https://www.davideandrea.com/personal/ideas/inca_stones/index.html
(e) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwDRZ-u8E2Q
(f) See: https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-3915
(g) Could Ancient Peruvians Soften Stone? | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)
(h) How they softened the stone. Sigiriya. Part 1. Softening of the stone. (geolines.ru)