Viracocha: The Real Life Superhero of Inca Lore?
In contemporary culture, superheroes are often attributed to the work of comic books and fiction. It started in the 1930’s with the works of Superman and Captain Marvel, but it could have begun much earlier.
But first, let’s begin where a few comics have begun, at the closing end of an apocalypse. The world is in turmoil after millions have died. The world has been wrecked by earthquakes, storms, volcanoes, and floods of a biblical scale. Storms so epic that the sun and stars are lost in darkness and the world is on ice.
Yet certain families withstood the collapse of society. They are splintered across South America enduring in isolated tribes or sometimes completely isolated. Law and order is a memory. The few survivors attack and steal from one another, even their own brothers. The laws of the jungle rule.
Then Viracocha came, by boat. Or in the myth the craft was living serpents. Viracocha was described as a tall bearded man that wore a white rob. He taught the survivors how they should live, with great love and warmth. He taught them that they should not harm each other.
But Viracocha or Ticci Viracocha as he was always known was not a one trick pony, or even a pushover. When he arrived at the village of Cacha, the people cornered him with threats of stoning. Unafraid, he sat down to his knees and raised his hands. The sky turned to flames and the villagers begged for forgiveness.
Beyond restoring laws, Ticca is remembered for bringing writing, architecture, metallurgy, and farming back to Peru.
Is Ticca just an ancient myth?
The Gate of the Sun
Hidden away in Bolivia is the city of Tiahuanaco, sitting atop an immense artificial hill. The hill is retained inside an immense wall of stone portals and intricately carved faces weighing hundreds of tons. All held in place by I-shaped metal clamps found nowhere else in ancient America. These walls are built around a pyramid 50 feet high oriented towards the cardinal points. The pyramid itself is built atop an elaborate zig zagging structure of channels that are believed to have once channeled water with stones cut to one fifth of an inch. The purpose of this plumbing is still a mystery to this day. Some scholars believe that this temple may have once been used to observe the solstices and equinoxes.
But it all came to an end. You see, this city was surrounded by water and was once an island on Lake Titicaca. You can still find piers there today that have long ago gone dry. It is speculated that Tiahuanaco served as an active port as early as 15,000 B.C. Then a flood came, a great cataclysm that scattered human skeletons and debris across the landscape. There is evidence for this deluge occurring sometime in 12,000 B.C. and was followed by a gradual cooling of the region. Over time farming became impossible. There is evidence that someone put in great effort towards growing maize. But in the end Tiahuanaco was abandoned when sinking water levels at Lake Titicaca left Tiahuanaco marooned.
Is this marvel of architecture really the work of the Viracocha?
Is there any truth to the myths?
