Twilight of the Gods: The Mayan Calendar and the Return of the Extraterrestrials by Erich Von Daniken Read Free Book Online Page A

that Egypt was a lot closer for the British, French, and German archaeologists who preferred to dig around in the desert sands. Very few chose to take the arduous journey to the High Andes of Peru and Bolivia. Let's not forget that Tiwanaku lies at an altitude of some 13,000 feet. The air is thin and the way up is difficult. Today's tourists have it much easier. A jet brings them to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. From there, it's just an hour and a half on the now fully paved road to Tiwanaku and Puma Punku. The altitude hasn't changed, however, and if you choose to make the trip, don't try to do too much on your first few days. It takes a couple of days for your blood cells to acclimate to the different altitude.

    ~osnansky: A Fanatic?
    One man who decided he did want to know more was Arthur Posnansky, the Royal Bavarian professor of geodesic engineering. He worked from 1904 to 1945 in Tiwanaku. The place fascinated him so much that, soon after he got there, he decided to remain in Bolivia, and over the years he was lauded with one honorary academic title after the other. Posnansky was: President of the Geographic Society of La Paz; president of the Archaeological Society of Bolivia; director of the Tiwanaku Institute for Anthropology; Ethnography and Early History; member of the New York Academy of Sciences; and so on and so on. From 1910 onward, practically nothing happened in the field of Bolivian and Peruvian archaeology unless Arthur Posnansky had given it the go ahead. He was respected, honored, and hated-all in all a very controversial person. Posnansky wrote four scientific treatises on Tiwanaku, or the "cradle of humanity," as he called it.47 He despised, mocked, and scorned archaeologist Max Uhle, even calling him an illusionist, counterfeiter, and fantasist, this last in a pamphlet written to discredit Max Uhle.48
    Posnansky was the first person to ascertain the exact geographic position of Tiwanaku: 16 degrees, 33 minutes, and 7 seconds south, and 68 degrees, 40 minutes and 24 seconds west of Greenwich. Posnansky cursed the unprofessional destruction of the ruins by an excavator named Georges Courty and claimed that this same indiscriminate and cavalier Georges Courty, who had carried out excavations in Tiwanaku in 1903, was nothing more than a grave robber and had caused more destruction than in any of the long ages that had passed. The indigenous peoples, according to Posnansky, had named their main temple "Akapana," as their forefathers had done. In the ancient Aymara language this meant "the place where the observers dwell." That's something we really ought to keep in mind, don't you think?

    According to Posnansky, Tiwanaku had experienced no "decadent period. And those that claim such nonsense have never really studied this prehistoric metropolis.... Tiwanaku is the greatest sun temple ever to be constructed by mankind-not just in South America, but in the whole world."49
    That was no flamboyant comparison: Posnansky was well acquainted with the structures in Egypt. In Tiwanaku he found countless signs that pointed to a connection between Heaven and Earth. He deciphered depictions of stars and other heavenly bodies and noted that one of the large statues that was found in Tiwanaku carried the name Pachamama, which meant no less than "Mother of the Cosmos." (Pacha means "cosmos" in Aymara.) This statue bears two of the same winged beings on its breast that can be seen on the sun gate. On its back is a series of phenomenally delicate illustrations engraved millimeter for millimeter, as if the hand of the artist were guided by some kind of intricate stencil and he were using a drill of dental precision. The statue is now the pride and joy of the Open-air Museum in La Paz. Among the engravings, Posnansky discovered the most perfect calendar, which not only chronicled the passing of the year, but also the phases of the moon.

    1.10. This statue is known as Pachamama. Image courtesy of Tatjana Ingold, Solothurn,