Further ReadingIntroduction
This Indian tribe left behind massive stone blocks that once interlocked. There are keystone cuts in blocks weighing up to 200 tons. T-shapes have been cut into the blocks at the point where one block corners another. Obviously a metal clasp was once fashioned at these points to hold the stone blocks together.
[Photo from Ivar Zapp, Navigators of the Ancient World (1998), available from Amazon. This book looks at the spheres of Costa Rica -- perfectly cyclindrical spheres about 4 feet tall, that are found throughout the country. Their creation are so perfect that the techniques used appear to exceed even our own knowledge today.]
The blocks are cut with extraordinary precision, which is visible in photographs.
The groove cut was perfect, and the spacing of holes was exact. Here is a photograph:
Thus, even though some blocks weighed over 100 tons, they are perfectly polished and with fine absolutely straight cut lines, just millimeters in depth with drilled holes with an exact distance between them.
How Was It Constructed?
Puma Punku is 13,300 feet (4000 meters) above sea level. No trees will grow at such height. Thus, there was no possibility to use tree rollers to transport the megalithic stones.The stones used at Puma Punku are made of diorite and granite. The only stone that is hard enough to cut diorite is diamond.
Location
Puma Punku is found in the highlands of Bolivia. To arrive there, you travel 12 miles south from Lake Titicaca and you will find the ancient remains of Tiwanaku (Spanish: Tiahuanaco and Tiahuanacu). Then about 1 mile from Tiwanaku is Puma Punku.
The Point
When you see ingenious design, you can recognize it due to factors such as precision, the difficulty of finding solutions to physical constraints, and the differentiation from the end result from what can be expected due to random forces, regardless of time.