Ollantaytambo

OLLANTAYTAMBO
Sacsayhuaman's Unfinished Brother

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At some time unknown, and for reasons unknown, work mysteriously stopped on this huge project. There is clear evidence of sudden abandonment all along the way from the quarry to the construction site. Partially cut stones lie in the fields, on the roads and the ramp. Some of these monsters, like the one at left (figure 6) with the strange cups cut into it, are as much as 6 metres long.

The local people call these "piedras consadas," weary stones. They were too tired to go any further. Significantly, there seems to be no history, no memory, no legends even of when or why work stopped on this massive project.

For information on the origins of these monuments, go to the Current Theories section. Otherwise, continue on to Mesopotamia.

Chapter Nine: Mesopotamia.

Ollantaytambo lies some 60 kilometres north-west from its bigger brother, Sacsayhuaman. As one enters the site, the first structure encountered is a vast amphitheatre extending all the way up a steep concave hillside to a flat ridge 80 metres above. This amphitheatre can be seen in figure 1.

Figure 1: The amphitheatre of Ollantaytambo. Click for larger image.

As one climbs up through the terraces of this amphitheatre, it can be seen that the lower levels are comprised of small stones, but the higher terraces, paradoxically, are comprised of blocks of greater size.

Some 60 metres up the terracing, there can be found a range of blocks laying scattered about rather casually, ranging from 50 to 70 tons each.

At the same level, 60 metres from the base, 20 metres from the flat ridge at the summit, can also be found a lintelled doorway, as can be seen in figure 2 and 3, which is virtually alongside a series of ten polygonal niches fitted into the accompanying wall of tightly fitted trapezoidal blocks, as can be seen in figure 3.

At the summit of Ollantaytambo lies the remnants of what has been dubbed a 'fortress-temple'. This area is home to many scattered megaliths, ranging from between 100 to 200 tons. But at the highest point of the summit (figure 4) a squat, square structure dominates the landscape. It is fronted by six truly massive megaliths, each about two metres in breadth, a metre in depth, and varying between 3.4 and 4.3 metres in height. One is struck by the impression that these gigantic, smoothly cut facing stones may have originally covered the back wall of a room, the front and sides of which now lay tumbled all around the summit. This is in part due to the fact that they have sculpting on their facings, as can be seen in figure 4. These six megaliths were set into the edge of a higher mound and on top of this, and all around, were further megaliths, at least thirty of which are estimated to be in the 200-ton range.

Figure 2: The lintelled doorway alongside the ten niches built into the wall of trapezoidal blocks.

Figure 3: Example of the polygonal niches built into the wall, with the lintelled doorway in the background as seen from the opposite side as that seen in figure 2.

Figure 4: The six gigantic blocks atop the summit of Ollantaytambo may have been the back part of a wall. The sculpting can be seen most prominantly on the block third from the right. For a closeup of this sculpting, click on the image.

These polished, pink, jewel-hard pink-porphyry blocks were quarried nearly 8 kilometres away, and about 900 metres higher on the opposite side of the sacred Vilcamayu River. This means that they had to be dragged down to the valley floor, across the river, and then steeply up again to the summit of Ollantaytambo, a positively superhuman task, even with todays technological capabilities.

As with Puma Punku, there is evidence that the original builders used "I" jointing methods to join the blocks here. They carved an "I" shape into the adjoining blocks, then poured molten metal into the grooves, and once solidified, had successfully joined the two blocks together. An example of this "I" groove can be seen in figure 5. This is but one block, hence only half the "I" groove.

Figure 5: An example of the I groove carved in order to join two blocks using a metal clamp, similar to that used in Puma Punku.

Figure 6: One of the "weary" blocks, left lying midway between the quarry and the construction site.

Figure 7: Another example of the "weary" stones.

Figure 9: Another example of the "weary" stones.

Figure 8: Another example of the "weary" stones.

Figure 11: An example of some areas of the jointing method employed at Ollantaytambo, reminiscent of Sacsayhuaman, or Macchu Picchu. Click image for a closeup outlining the precision of the jointing.

Some areas in Ollantaytambo employ a jointing method phenomenally similar to those used at Sacsayhuaman, or Macchu Picchu. One must keep in mind that even though this is a two-dimensional image, these blocks are three-dimentional, and as such, it is one thing to carve these blocks so that their faces line up, as the reader can see in figure 10 or 11, but a much harder task to line up the entire face of the two (or more) blocks that lie against each other; in many cases, blocks such as these are two metres deep. That is an enormous volume of facing to line up with such precision that not even the thinnest of knifeblades, nor the finest of surgical scaples, could slip between them. Keep in mind that mortar was not used for fitting these meglithic blocks.

Figure 10: An example of the jointing method employed at Ollantaytambo.

It seems that there are many enigmatic structures, such as here at Ollantaytambo, all across the world, that leave questions unanswered, questions such as who built them? When? For what purpose? Where did these elusive builders disappear to, and why? These are the sort of questions addressed, or attempted to be addressed, in the Current Theories section. Keep in mind that, with all theories, these will constantly be evolving as new information arises. But the information will not change. So the pages the reader has just traversed will not change. These pages are the information, the facts, and facts do not change. the WHY of it all will evolve until all the facts have come to light, therefore, the oncoming pages will follow suite.

At Aramu Muru, in Hayu Marca, a few kilometres from the shores of Lake titicaca, there lies a Doorway to the Gods. Some have had powerful spiritual experiences there, and subsequently describe seeing pink smooth blocks with a temple-like connotation. Could this have something to do with the remains of Ollantaytambo, as seen here in figure 4?