1 - The Gold Of The Gods

To me this is the most incredible, fantastic story of the century. It could easily have come straight from the realms of Science Fiction if I had not seen and photographed the incredible truth in person. What I saw was not the product of dreams or imagination, it was real and tangible.

A gigantic system of tunnels, thousands of miles in length and built by unknown constructors at some unknown date, lies hidden deep below the South American continent. Hundreds of miles of underground passages have already been explored and measured in Ecuador and Pent. That is only a beginning, yet the world knows nothing about it.

On July 21, 1969, Juan Moricz, an Argentine subject, deposited a legal title-deed (Fig. 1) signed by several witnesses with Dr. Gustavo Falconi, a notary in Guayaquil. The deed sets out Moricz’s claim to be the discoverer of the tunnels as far as the Republic of Ecuador and posterity are concerned. I had this document, which was written in Spanish, translated by a UN interpreter.

I quote the most important parts of it at the beginning of this incredible story of mine:

“Juan Moricz, Argentine citizen by naturalization, born in Hungary, Passport No. 4361689 ...

 

“I have discovered objects of great cultural and historical value to mankind in the Province of Morona- Santiago, within the boundaries of the Republic of Ecuador.

Fig. 1.

With the issue of this notarial title-deed on July 21. 1969, the caves beneath Ecuador became the property of Juan Moricz.

Moricz put them under state control which will smooth the way for future research.

“The objects consist mainly of metal plaques inscribed with what is probably a resume of the history of a lost civilization, the very existence of which was unsuspected by mankind hitherto. The objects are distributed among various caves and are of many different kinds. I was able to make my discovery in fortunate circumstances ... In my capacity as a scholar, I was carrying out research into the folklore and the ethnological and linguistic aspects of Ecuadorian tribes ...

“The objects I found are of the following kinds:

1. Stone and metal objects of different sizes and colors.
2. Metal plaques (leaves) engraved with signs and writing.

These form a veritable metal library which might contain a synopsis of the history of humanity, as well as an account of the origin of mankind on earth and information about a vanished civilization.

 

“The fact of my discovery has made me the legal owner of the metal plaques and other objects in accordance with Article 665 of the Civil Code.

“However, as I am convinced that the objects, which were not found on my own land, are of incalculable cultural value, I refer to Article 666, according to which the treasure I discovered remains my personal property, but subject to State control.

“I beg you, most excellent President of the Republic, to appoint a scientific commission to verify the contents of this document and assess the value of the finds ...

 

“I am prepared to show such a commission the exact geographical position and site of the entrance, as well as the objects I have discovered so far...”

Moricz stumbled on the underground passages in June, 1965, during his research work, in which he was ably assisted by Peruvian Indians who acted as skillful intermediaries between him and their tricky fellow tribesmen. Being cautious by nature and skeptical as befitting a scholar, he kept silent for three years. Not until he had covered many miles of underground passages and found all kinds of remarkable objects did he ask President Velasco Ibarra for an audience in the spring of 1968.

But the President of a country in which nearly all his predecessors had been deposed by rebellions before the expiry of their term of office, had no time for this lone wolf with his incredible tale of discovery. The palace flunkies found the obstinate archaeologist very charming and assured him, after long delays, that the President would be glad to receive him in a few months’ time, but Moricz was finally told he could not have an audience until 1969. Disillusioned and embittered he withdrew to his subterranean retreat.

I first met Juan Moricz on March 4, 1972.

His lawyer, Dr. Pena Matheus of Guayaquil, had been trying to get in touch with him by telegram and telephone for two whole days. I had settled down in Dr. Pena’s office with plenty to read, somewhat nervous, I must admit, because according to all reports Moricz was a very difficult man to approach and had a deep aversion to anyone connected with the writing profession. Finally one of the telegrams readied him. He telephoned me.

He knew my books! “I don’t mind talking to you,” he said.

On the night of March 4 he stood there, a wiry, deeply tanned man in his mid-forties, with gray hair (Fig. 2). He is one of those men who has to be drawn out, because he himself is anything but talkative. My vehement, insistent questions amused him. Gradually he began to give a factual and very expressive description of his tunnels.

“I can’t believe it!” I cried.

“Nevertheless, it’s just as he says,” said Dr. Pena, “I’ve seen it all with my own eyes.”

Moricz invited me to visit the caves.

Moricz, Franz Seiner (my traveling companion) and I climbed into a Toyota jeep. During the twenty-four hour drive to the site we took turns at the wheel. Before we entered the caves, we took the precaution of having a good sleep. When the dawn sky announced the advent of a hot day, our adventure began.

Fig. 2.

Erich von Daniken with Juan Moricz, the discoverer of the caves,

 in front of a side-entrance to the mysterious underworld.

Fig. 3.

The secret entrance to the hidden tunnel system, which is guarded by hostile Indians,

is situated within the triangle formed by

the three towns Gualaquiza, San Antonio and Yaupi in the province of Morona-Santiago.

The entrance, cut in the rock and wide as a barn door, is situated in the province of Morona-Santiago, in the triangle formed by Gualaquiza-San Antonio-Yaupi (Fig. 3), a region inhabited by hostile Indians. Suddenly, from one step to another, broad daylight changed to pitch darkness. Birds fluttered past our heads. We felt the draught they created and shrank back. We switched on our torches and the lamps on our helmets, and there in front of us was the gaping hole which led down into the depths. We slid down a rope to the first platform 250 feet below the surface. From there we made two further descents of 250 feet.

Then our visit to the age-old underworld of a strange unknown race really began. The passages (Fig. 4) all form perfect right angles. Sometimes they are narrow, sometimes wide. The walls are smooth and often seem to be polished. The ceilings are flat and at times look as if they were covered with a kind of glaze. Obviously these passages did not originate from natural causes-they looked more like contemporary air-raid shelters!

As I was feeling and examining ceilings and walls, I burst out laughing and the sound echoed through the tunnels. Moricz shone his torch on my face:

“What’s wrong? Have you gone crazy?”

“I’d like to see the archaeologist with the nerve to tell me that this work was done with hand-axes!”

My doubts about the existence of the underground tunnels vanished as if by magic and I felt tremendously happy. Moricz said that passages like those through which we were going extended for hundreds of miles under the soil of Ecuador and Peru.

“Now we turn off to the right,” called Moricz.

We stood at the entrance to a hall as big as the hangar of a Jumbo Jet. It could have been a distribution center or a storeroom, I thought. Galleries leading in different directions branched off it. When I tried to use my compass to find out where they led, it went on strike. I shook it, but the needle did not move. Moricz watched me:

“It’s no use. There is radiation down here that makes it impossible to get a compass bearing. I don’t know anything about the radiation, I have only observed it. It’s really a job for physicists.”

On the threshold of a side passage a skeleton lay on the ground It looked as if a doctor had carefully prepared it for an anatomy lesson, but in addition had sprayed it all over with gold dust.

Fig. 4.

Inside the artificial tunnel system, which is haunted by swarms of birds.

In two places which I measured the droppings were 32-35 inches deep.

The ceilings are flat; the walls form right angles and are often covered with a kind of glaze.

The bones gleamed in the light of our torches like solid gold.

Moricz told us to switch off our torches and follow him slowly. It was very quiet; all I could hear was our footsteps, our breathing and the whir of the birds, to which we rapidly grew accustomed. The darkness was blacker than the darkest night.

“Switch on your torches,” shouted Moricz.

We were standing dumbfounded and amazed in the middle of a gigantic hall. Moricz, the proud discoverer, had prepared the effect as cleverly as the citizens of Brussels, who use the same trick when confronting foreign tourists with their Grand Place, perhaps the most beautiful square in the world. This nameless hall into which the seventh passage leads is intimidatingly large, but very beautiful and nobly proportioned. We were told that the ground plan measures 153 by 164 yards, It went through my mind that these were almost the dimensions of the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan and that in both cases no one knows who the builders, the brilliant technicians, were.

There was a table in the middle of the room.

Was it really a table? Presumably, for there were seven chairs along one side. Were they chairs? Apparently they were. Stone chairs? No, they did not have the same cold feeling as stone. Were they made of wood? Definitely not. Wood would never have lasted for thousands of years. Were they made of metal? I did not think so.

They felt like some kind of plastic, but they were as hard and heavy as steel. There were animals behind the chairs: saurians, elephants, lions, crocodiles, jaguars, camels, bears, monkeys, bison, and wolves, with snails and crabs crawling about between them. Apparently they had been cast in molds and there was no logical sequence about their arrangement. They were not in pairs, as is usual in pictures of Noah’s Ark. They were not arranged by species, as zoologists prefer. Nor were they in the hierarchical order of natural evolution used by biologists. They simply stood there peacefully, as if the laws of nature did not apply.

The whole thing was like a fantastic zoo and what is more all the animals were made of solid metal. Also in this hall was the most precious treasure of all, the metal library mentioned in the notarial title-deed, although I could never have guessed what it was really like from reading about it. The library of metal plaques was opposite the zoo, to the left of the conference table. It consisted partly of actual plaques and partly of metal leaves only millimeters thick. Most of them measured about 3 feet 2 inches by 1 foot 7 inches.

After a long and critical examination, I still could not make out what material had been used in their manufacture. It must have been unusual, for the leaves stood upright without buckling, in spite of their size and thinness. They were placed next to each other like bound pages of giant folios. Each leaf had writing on it, stamped and printed regularly as if by a machine. So far Moricz has not managed to count the pages of his metal library, but I accept his estimate that there might be two or three thousand.

The characters on the metal plaques are unknown, but if only the appropriate scholars were told of the existence of this unique find now I am sure that they could be deciphered comparatively quickly in view of the wealth of possibilities for comparison.

No matter who the creator of this library was, nor when he lived, this great unknown was not only master of a technique for the “mass-production of metal folios in vast numbers-the proof is there-he also had written characters with which he wanted to convey important information to beings in a distant future. This metal library was created to outlast the ages, to remain legible for eternity. Time will show whether our own age is seriously interested in discovering such fantastic, awe-inspiring secrets.

Is it prepared to decipher an age-old work even if it means bringing to light truths that might turn our neat but dubious world picture completely upside down?
Do not the high priests of all religions ultimately abhor revelations about prehistory that might replace belief in the creation by knowledge of the Creation?
Is man really prepared to admit that the history of his origin was entirely different from the one which is instilled into him in the form of a pious fairy story?

Fig. 5

An amulet dating to around 9000-4000 B.C. A being stands on the terrestrial globe.

How did Stone Age men know that the earth was round, a discovery that was not made until much later?

Are pre-historians really seeking the unvarnished truth without prejudice and partiality?

No one likes to fall off a skyscraper he has built himself.

The walls and passages of the tunnel system were bare. There were no paintings like those in the deep burial chambers in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, no reliefs of the kind found in prehistoric caves at sites all over the world. Instead there were stone figures which we bumped into at every step. Moricz owns a stone amulet 4 ½ inches high and 2 ½ inches wide.

The obverse (Fig. 5) is engraved with a being with a hexagonal body and round head that might have been drawn by a child. The figure holds the moon in its right hand and the sun in its left hand. Admittedly, that is not particularly surprising, but-it stands with both feet firmly on the terrestrial globe! Surely that is a clear proof that even in times when the first primitive drawings were scratched on stone, a chosen few of our first ancestors already knew that we lived on a globe! The reverse shows a half moon and the radiant sun.

Without any doubt, this stone amulet found in the tunnels seems to me to be a proof that they were already in existence in the Middle Paleolithic (9000-4000 B.C.).

Fig. 6.

If this engraving by a prehistoric stonemason represents a dinosaur, there’s something wrong!

These animals lived 135,000,000 years ago.

There is another engraving on a stone plaque (Fig. 6), 11 ½ inches high and 1 foot 8 ½ inches wide, this time depicting an animal. I suspect that it is a representation of a dinosaur. This extinct prehistoric animal moved on land with the help of long hind legs as shown in the engraving. Even its gigantic size dinosaurs were as much as 65 feet long-can still be sensed in the foreshortened squat version of the body, and the feet with three toes strengthen my suspicion. If my identification of this picture is correct, it will be most uncanny.

This extinct reptile lived in the earth’s Middle Ages during the Upper Cretaceous, i.e. 135,000,000 years ago, when the modern continents began to assume their present configuration. I am not going to speculate any further. I simply ask this question: what intelligent, thinking being ever saw a saurian?

In front of us lay the skeleton of a man, carved out of stone (Fig. 7). I counted ten pairs of ribs, all anatomically accurate.

Fig. 7.

A skeleton carved out of stone

In an office, I beg your pardon, a square stone room, Moricz showed me a dome (Fig. 8). Figures with dark faces stood like guards around its circumference. They had hats on their heads and held spearlike objects in their hands, as if they were ready to defend themselves.

 
Figures flew or floated through the air near the top of the dome. By the light of my torch I discovered a skeleton crouched behind the “Romanesque” entrance to the dome. It did not shock me, but what did shock me was this model of a dome. Heinrich Schliemann discovered the first dome when he excavated Mycenae, a fortress and town in the northeast Peloponnese, from 1874 to 1876, and that dome was supposed to have been built by the Achaeans at the end of the fourteenth century B.C.

I actually learnt at school that the Pantheon in Rome, built in Hadrian’s reign between A.D. 120 and 125, was the first dome. But from now on I shall consider this piece of; stonework as the oldest example of a dome.

Fig. 8.

Probably the very first dome ever built.

What we were taught at school and what we read in books are no longer valid.

A clown with a bulbous nose knelt on a stone plinth (Fig. 9). The little fellow sported a helmet that covered his ears. Earphones like those on our telephones were attached to the lobes of his ears. A ring in relief, with a diameter of 2 inches and 2/5 inch thick, was stuck to the front of the helmet. It was fitted with 15 holes, which seemed to be admirably adapted for fitting plugs into. A chain hung round his neck and it, too, had a ring with a number of holes in it like those we use for dialing telephone numbers.

Other remarkable features were the spacesuit accessories on the suit that the gnome wore, and the gloves, in which his fingers were well protected against dangerous contacts. I would not have paid any attention to a winged mother figure, between whose arms knelt a slit-eyed child in a crash-helmet, if I had not seen the identical figure (Fig. 10), though in clay, during a visit to the American Museum in Madrid.

Whole books could and will be written about these tunnels and their treasures. Among many other things, they will mention the 6-feet high stonemason’s works, representing beings with three and seven heads; the triangular plaques, with writing on them as if schoolchildren had been making their first attempts at writing; dice with geometrical figures on their six plane surfaces; the piece of soapstone, 3 feet 8 inches long and 9 ¼ inches wide, which is curved like a boomerang and covered with stars, etc.

Fig 9.

Clown, divinity or space traveler?

The figure has such obviously technical accessories that he could easily have been one of a crew of cosmonauts.

Mouthpiece, sockets on his helmet-what does it all mean?
 

Fig. 10.

The identical winged mother figure to the one in the caves in Ecuador

is on show in the American Museum in Madrid-but made of clay!

No one knows who built the tunnels; no one knows the sculptors who left behind these strange ambiguous works. Only one thing seems clear to me. The tunnel builders were not the same men as the stonemasons; their stark practical passages were obviously not meant to be decorated. Perhaps they showed the underground vaults to a chosen group and the latter fashioned in stone things they had seen and heard and stored the results in the depths.

So far the entrance to this underground treasure-trove of human history is known only to a few trustworthy people and it is guarded by a wild Indian tribe. Indians lurk unseen in the undergrowth and watch every movement made by strangers. Moricz has been accepted as a friend by the chieftain of the cave guardians and three members of the tribe who are occasionally in contact with civilization.

Once a year, at the beginning of spring, on March 21, the chieftain climbs down alone to the first platform in the underworld to offer ritual prayers. Both his cheeks bear the same signs as are marked in the rock at the entrance to the tunnels (Fig. 11). To this day the tribe of tunnel guardians still make masks and carvings “of the men with long noses” (gas masks?) and they tell, as Moricz knows, of the heroic deeds of the “flying beings” who once came from heaven.

But the Indians will not go into the tunnels for love or money.

Fig. 11.

These markings are carved in the rock at the entrance to the tunnel.

The chieftain of the tribe that guards the cave has identical markings on both cheeks.

They are age-old Indian symbols.

“No, no,” they said to Moricz. “Spirits live down there.”

But it is a remarkable fact that Indian chiefs occasionally use gold to pay the debts they have incurred with the civilized world or present friends who have rendered their tribe a service with precious gold objects from their five-hundred-year-old past.

On several occasions Moricz had stopped me taking photographs as we passed through the tunnels. He kept on making different excuses. Sometimes it was the radiation that would make the negatives unusable, sometimes it was the flash which might damage the metal library with its blinding light. At first I could not understand why, but after a few hours underground I began to sense the reason for Moricz’s strange behavior.

You could not get rid of the feeling of being constantly watched, of destroying something magic, of unleashing a catastrophe. Would the entrances suddenly close? Would my flash ignite a synchronized laser beam? Would we never see the light of day again? Childish ideas for men engaged on serious investigation? Perhaps.

But if you had experienced what it was like down there, you would understand these absurd ideas. Teams equipped with modern technical aids will have to work down there to see whether there are any dangers to be overcome or avoided. When I first saw the pile of gold, I begged to be allowed to take just one photo. Once again I was refused. The lumps of gold had to be levered from the pile and that might make a noise and start stones falling from the roof like an avalanche. Moricz noticed my frustration and laughed.

“You’ll be able to photograph plenty of gold later, but not in such vast quantities. Will that do?”

Today I know that the biggest treasure from the dark tunnels is not on show in South American museums. It lies in the back patio of the Church of Maria Auxiliadora at Cuenca in Ecuador, some 8,100 feet above sea level.

Father Crespi (Fig. 12), the collector of the treasure, which is priceless just for its weight in gold, has been living in Cuenca for forty-five years. He is accepted as a trustworthy friend of the Indians, who during past decades fetched the most valuable gold, silver and metal objects from their hiding places piece by piece and gave them to him, and still do so today.

I had been warned beforehand that the good Father was fond of pulling his visitors’ legs. I soon had a taste of this. In all seriousness he showed me an object that was obviously the lower part of a flatiron.

“Look,” he said, “that proves that the Inca rulers had their trousers pressed even in those days!”

We laughed and Father Crespi led us through his treasure chambers. Room I houses stonemason’s work; Room II contains Inca artifacts of gold, silver, copper and brass, while Room III holds the gold treasure, which he very seldom shows anyone, and then unwillingly.

Cuenca has a “Gold Museum” of its own, but it cannot compare with Father Crespi’s.
 

The showpiece was a stele (Fig. 26), 20 ½ inches high, 5 ½ inches wide and 1 ½ inches thick. Fifty-six different characters are “stamped” on its 56 squares. I had seen absolutely identical characters on the leaves in the metal library in the Great Hall! Whoever made this metal stele used a code (an alphabet?) with 56 letters or symbols arranged to form writing. What makes this all the more remarkable is the fact that hitherto it has always been claimed that the South American cultures (Incas) possessed no alphabetical writing or script with alphabetical characteristics.

“Have you seen this lady?” asked Moricz.

She was 12 ½ inches high and naturally of solid gold. Her head was formed of two triangles, whose planes seemed to have wings welded to them. Coiled cables emerged from her ears; they were obviously not jewelry, for the lady’s earrings were clipped to her ear lobes. She had healthy, if triangular proportions, with well-formed breasts and stood with legs apart. The fact that she had no arms did not mar her beauty. She wore long, elegant trousers. A sphere floated above her head and I felt that the stars on either side referred to her origin. A star from a past age? A maiden from the stars?

Next came a brass discus, 8 ½ inches in diameter (Fig. 13). It cannot have been a shield, as the archaeologists would catalog it. For one thing it is too heavy, for another it has never had a hand-hold on its smooth reverse side. I believe that this discus, too, was intended to transmit information. It exhibits two stylized, but incredibly accurate spermatozoa, two laughing suns, the sickle of a waning moon, a large star and two stylized triangular men’s faces. In the middle are small raised circles, arranged to give the beholder visual pleasure, but apparently intended to produce a different and more serious effect.

Father Crespi put a heavy copper plaque in front of the camera.

Fig. 12.

This is Father Carlo Crespi,

who collects and guards an incredible treasure of gold and silver objects

in the back patio of the Church of Mana Auxiliadora at Cuenca.

Fig. 13.

Heavy brass discus, 8 ½ inches in diameter.

A precious and mysterious means of conveying information, but certainly not a normal shield!

“Here is something special for you, my young friend. This piece dates to the period before the Flood.”

Three creatures, holding a tall tablet with some signs on it, stared at me. The pairs of eyes looked as if they were peering from behind goggles. The upper left-hand monster pointed to a sphere, the righthand one was clad from head to foot in an overall, which was fastened at the sides, and proudly wore a three-cornered star on his head. Above the tablet with signs floated two winged spheres. What were the monsters holding? Some kind of Morse code, dots, dashes, SOS’s? A switchboard for electric contacts? Anything is possible, but I suspect technical analogies rather than letters on this tablet. And according to the Father, who has been given special Vatican permission to carry out his archaeological research, it does date to the period before the Flood.

Take my word for it, when you catch sight of the treasures in the back patio of Maria Auxiliadora, you have to be very strong-willed not to get “gold-drunk.” But it was not the large amounts of gold that impressed me, it was the representation of stars, moons, suns and snakes that gleamed on hundreds of metal plaques-nearly all of them unequivocal symbols of space travel.

Fig. 14.

The dominant feature of this copper plaque is a pyramid on which snakes writhe upwards.

Do the circles indicate the number of astronauts buried inside it?

I picked some exceptionally photogenic examples of such pictures out of what is presumably the lost heritage of the Incas, who were very familiar with the snake sign and used it decoratively in representations of their ruler, the “Son of the Sun.”

Here they are: A relief with a pyramid (Fig. 14). The steep sides are bordered by snakes. There are two suns, two astronaut-like monsters, two deer-like animals and some circles with dots in them. Do the circles indicate the number of space travelers buried inside the pyramid?

Fig. 15.

Notable features of this solid gold pyramid:

the snakes are where they belong - in the sky - and at its foot are elephants,

which the artists could not possibly have seen in South America around 12,000 B.C.

The writing on the lower edge of the pyramid is unknown and has not been deciphered so far.

Another plaque with a pyramid (Fig. 15). Two jaguars, symbols of strength, have their paws on the sides. There are obvious signs of writing at the foot of the pyramid. To the right and left we see elephants, which lived in South America about 12,000 years ago before any civilizations or cultures are supposed to have existed. And the snakes are at last where they ought to be, in the sky. No one can deny that snakes and dragons have a special place in all myths about the creation. Even a scientist such as Dr. Irene Sanger-Bredt, who is an engineer in the aircraft and space industries, puts the following question in her book ‘Ungeloste Ratsel der Schopfung’ (Unsolved Puzzles of the Creation):

“Why does the dragon motif play such an important part in the figurative representations and myths of the ancient Chinese, Indians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews, Germans and Mayas?”

In her answer, Dr. Sanger-Bredt thinks it probable that snake and dragon symbols must have some connection with the creation and the universe.

In his book The Masters of the World, Robert Charroux quotes ancient texts to show that gleaming snakes which floated in the air have occurred everywhere, that the Phoenicians and Egyptians raised snakes and dragons to the godhead, and that the snake belonged to the element of fire, because in it there is a speed which nothing can exceed, because of its breath.

Charroux quotes Areios of Heracleopolis literally:

“The first and highest divinity is the snake with the sparrow-hawk head; when it opens its eyes, it fills the whole of the newly created world with light; when it shuts them, the darkness spreads over everything.”

The historian Sanchuniaton, who lived in Beirut circa 1250 B.C., is reputed to have recorded the mythology and history of the Phoenicians. Charroux quotes this passage from him:

“The snake has a speed which nothing can exceed, because of its breath. It can impart any speed it likes to the spirals it describes as it moves ... Its energy is exceptional ... With its brilliance it has illuminated everything.”

These are not descriptions of the sort of snakes that intelligent human beings saw crawling about on the ground.

But why have snakes so persistently made their home in all the creation stories and myths? For once, I shall obey the call of the scholars, according to whom our primeval ancestors can only be understood in terms of their own mental level at the time when they lived, and use simple depth psychology.

If our ancestors saw a large unusual bird, they described what they had actually seen, as the concept for it was included in their limited vocabulary. But how could they have described a phenomenon in the firmament seen for the first time for which words and concepts were lacking? Probably the alien cosmonauts were not over-particular about casualties during their first landing on our planet. Perhaps spectators were hit and scorched by the red-hot trail of a jet during the landing or destroyed by the thrust of a rocket on the return launching. There was absolutely no technical vocabulary for an eyewitness account of this terrifying yet grandiose event.

The unknown gleaming (metal) thing that landed or took off, snorting, smelling and kicking up a din was obviously not a bird. So they described what they had seen-using current ideas -as a thing ‘like a dragon” or ‘like a great gleaming bird,” or, because it was so far beyond their comprehension, as “a feathered fire-breathing serpent.” Horrified by what they had experienced, fathers told their sons and they told their grandsons for centuries and millennia about the terrifying apparition of the dragon or snake. With the passage of time the eye-witness account using a makeshift vocabulary gradually became vaguer. Sometimes the fire-breathing dragon would loom largest, sometimes the flying snake, until they assumed their predominant position in mythology.

There are countless snakes on the gold plaques in the tunnels underneath Ecuador and Peru, and on Father Crespi’s treasures: snakes crawling up pyramids, striving for the summits, flying in the heavens with a trail of fire or lying on the heads of the gods. But neither here nor elsewhere do we see a single snake doing the things men have always seen them do-wriggling through the grass, hanging from a tree, swallowing a mouse or writhing about in the mud with other snakes. Everywhere dragons and even more so snakes stand as symbols for phenomena from the cosmos.

What do the archaeologists say about all this?

The snake was a symbol of immortality. Why? Because our observant ancestors had noticed that the reptile shed its skin and constantly emerged from it renewed. Surely our ancestral students of behavior observed that in the end the snake died just the same?

The snake was an expression of agility and maneuverability. Would not birds or butterflies have been better models than this miserable creature crawling on the ground? The snake was an emblem of fertility and was honored as such by primitive peoples-all of whom were afraid of snakes. A strange stimulus to the production of offspring. Forest dwellers were afraid of the snake and so they chose it as a god. Lions, bears or jaguars are much more dangerous-snakes only seize animals that they want to eat, they do not attack indiscriminately.

Moses gets nearer to the truth (Genesis 3:1) For him the snake is the messenger of disaster much as in the North Germanic Midgard of early times, that “farm” between heaven and earth, the snake coils round the property as the personification of danger and destructive power.

Prehistoric evidence shows:

• that snakes and dragons are connected with the creation of men

• that snakes and dragons are connected with the stars

• that snakes can fly

• that snakes have an unpleasant fiery breath

So far there has been no profound investigation of the origin of snakes in myths and legends in archaeological and ethnological literature. Experts could fill this gap. I gladly place my archives at their disposal.

Father Crespi has partially stacked his metal plaques by motifs, for example those with pictures of pyramids. I took a close look at more than 40 and some of them are reproduced in this book. All the pyramid engravings have four things in common:

1. a sun, but more frequently several suns, is depicted above the pyramid

2. snakes are always flying next to or over the pyramid

3. animals of various kinds are always present

4. two concentric circles in varying numbers, but always of the same size, are engraved near the pyramids. I counted between 9 and 78

These concentric circles, actually a large dot inside a circle, are not only found here at Cuenca, but in all kinds of prehistoric cave paintings and reliefs. Until now these dotted circles were and still are interpreted as solar symbols. I have my doubts about this. The sun (with laughing face or a corona of rays) always has a place reserved for it in addition; in fact, frequently several suns are shining. If the suns are depicted so unmistakably, we ought to ask ourselves what the circles have to tell us. Do they indicate the numbers of astronauts observed?

When they occur near the pyramid, are they an indication of the number of alien gods buried inside them? Or do they mark the sequence of explosions observed? I believe that the dotted circles are purely and simply a form of reckoning. What I mean cannot be more graphically depicted than in the cave painting which was discovered in the Kimberley Ranges, Australia (Fig. 16).

Fig. 16.

Cave painting of a god, found in the Kimberley Ranges, Australia.

No one can seriously interpret the 62 small circles as “suns”!

The god’s “halo” symbolizes the sun, but 62 circles are painted next to the figure. Are these simply meant to be small suns? There are all kinds of possible questions and I find any answer more likely than the claim that the dotted circles, even when they are next to obvious pictures of the sun, represent yet more solar symbols. Our prehistoric message transmitters did not make things all that easy for us. In addition animals are always present.

I cannot resist one more taunt. At the foot of the pyramid made with great accuracy of neat blocks stand two delightful elephants. That’s nice.

Archaeologists have dug up elephants’ bones in North America and Mexico, but they were dated to before 12,000 B.C. But elephants had completely disappeared from the scene in South America in the age of the Incas, whose culture, it is established, began around A.D. 1200.

So we must make a choice: either the Incas had received visitors from Africa who drew elephants next to the pyramids for them or these gold plaques are more than 14,000 years old (12,000 plus 2,000). The only answer is either / or.

I think that the pyramids stamped in metal from Father Crespi’s treasure help to eliminate an academic error. Until now scholars have asserted that both the pyramids in South America and the Mayan pyramids in Central America originated without any connection with the Egyptian pyramids. In Egypt the colossal structures were burial places, in the other hemisphere simply grandiose edifices on the upper platforms of which temples were built The gold plaques do not exhibit a single flattened surface at the summit with a temple on it!

They have the same pyramidal shapes as those in Egypt. Who copied from whom? Who were the first to build pyramids, the Incas or the Egyptians? They cannot be posthumous forgeries. Firstly forgers would have needed more gold than there is in Fort Knox, secondly, they would have needed to employ a whole corps of artists with a far-reaching knowledge of the ancient peoples and their cultures, and thirdly it would have been necessary to continue making the grandiose forgeries right through the Inca period, whenever that was.

I should like to know what tricks scholars will use to displace this fabulous metal treasure of inestimable archaeological and historical value, which is described here for the first time, from the period into which it does not seem to fit. Could it be that all pyramids everywhere in the world had the same master-builders?

Characters can often be made out on the illustrated objects from Cuenca. Are they older than all previously known forms of writing?

Cuneiform writing in Phoenicia and hieroglyphics in Egypt are supposed to have originated circa 2000 B.C. from a mixture of Egyptian and Babylonian influences. Circa 1700 B.C. the pre-Israelite population of Palestine is supposed to have created a simplified syllabic script with about 100 signs, composed of a mixture of both the foregoing kinds of writing. The Phoenician alphabet with 22 signs (Fig. 17) developed from this shortly before 1500 B.C.

With the addition or transformation of signs all the alphabets in the world derive from the Phoenician one. About 1000 B.C. the Greeks adopted two variations of the Phoenician alphabet; they left out some expendable consonantal signs and used them to represent vowels, and that is how the first phonetic script in the world originated.

Fig. 17.

Phoenician alphabet, 12th-10th century B.C.

All the alphabets in the world originated from the Phoenician alphabet with its 22 signs. At least that was the accepted theory until now. For generations all the scholars specializing in this field have claimed that neither the pre-Inca peoples nor the Incas themselves had an alphabetical script. They marveled at the Indians’ civilized achievements, their road-building and water-supply systems, the accurate calendar, the Nazca culture, the buildings at Cuzco, their highly developed agriculture, an (oral) postal service that worked and many other things. The one thing they would not credit them with was writing or an alphabet.

Professor Thomas Barthel, Director of the Folklore Institute of Tubingen University, told the 39th International Congress of American Studies at Lima that he had succeeded in establishing 400 signs of an Inca writing. He could interpret the meaning of 50 of them and read 24. It was not an alphabetical script. Peruvian and German scholars spoke of “attractive patterns and ornaments” which they thought were akin to writing.

In January, 1972 a veritable bomb exploded on the Congress for Andean Archaeology at Lima. The Peruvian ethnologist Dr. Victoria de la Jara backed up ten years of research work with proof that the Incas really did have a script. She said that the geometrical patterns (squares, right-angles, lozenges, dots, dashes, etc.) on Inca pottery and urns were in fact characters with a content ranging from the simple to the highly complicated. They related factual historical events, they recounted myths and proved that even then some of the Incas practiced the noble but ill-paid art of poetry. Groups of elements formed a grammar based on complementary colors. When Dr. de la Jara finished her lecture, there was thunderous applause from her fellow scholars.

What will the ethnologists say when they begin to rack their brains over the writing on the plaques at Cuenca? I know perfectly well that there will be no thunderous applause for me, but I still say that the characters on these metal plaques found deep under the earth will prove to be the oldest writing in the world! And that wise messengers from the gods inscribed technical data and advice for future generations on them!

I have seen three prehistoric model aircraft of ultramodern design!

Anyone who travels to Colombia can see the first one (Fig. 18) on show in the State Bank at Bogota. The second is naturally owned by Father Crespi and the third still lies 780 feet below ground in Juan Moricz’s tunnels.

Fig 18.

This gold model of a Concorde is in the State Bank, Bogota.

It can’t be incorporated into any fish or bird cult. There weren’t any!

(for more info click above image)
 

Fig. 19.

The Aeronautical Institute, New York,

made these technical drawings after accurate testing in a wind tunnel.

(for more info click above image)

For centuries archaeologists have cataloged the model at Bogota as a decorative religious artifact. I’m sorry for the archaeologists, but that simply won’t do. Aviation experts have seen the object and tried it out in a wind tunnel. They believe it is a model aircraft. Dr. Arthur Poyslee of the Aeronautical Institute, New York, says:

“The possibility that the artifact is meant to represent a fish or a bird is very slight. Not only because this gold model was found deep in the interior of Colombia and artists would never have seen a saltwater fish, but also because one cannot imagine a bird with such geometrical wings and high vertical fins.”

The front part is as clumsy as that of the heaviest U.S. B52. The pilot’s cockpit lies directly behind the streamlined nose, protected by a windscreen. The aircraft’s rear, heavy with the propulsion unit it contains, rests in aerodynamic symmetry on two rounded-off wings. (The model at Bogota has two delta wings like the Concorde and terminates, like it, in a sharply pointed nose.) Two stabilizing fins and the upright tail complete the Inca model aircraft (Fig. 19).

Who could be so dreary and unimaginative as to interpret these model aircraft as birds or flying fish?

The constructors modified the archaeologists’ “religious artifact” with these drawings!

In all ages gold was a rare and consequently precious metal; it was found in temples and royal palaces. If an object was cast in gold, it was because it had great value per se and also because it was to be preserved for an indefinite period of time. Hence it was made of a material that did not rust or corrode. Anyway, there was no fish or bird cult to which these models could be attributed.

There is a massive gold sphere (Fig. 20) with a broad flange round it, in the cosmological treasury at the State Bank in Bogota. To anticipate fatuous objections, it is not a sculptural representation of a hat with a brim. Hats have hollow spaces for even the most stupid heads to fit into.

In Gods from Outer Space, I showed - without contradiction - why I consider that the sphere is the ideal shape for spaceships or space-stations. Spherical bodies rotate in space, thus creating an artificial gravity for the crew in the cabins placed at the sphere’s circumference. (Gravity is necessary for the metabolism of the organs on lengthy journeys.)

The gold sphere once again supports my contention that the sphere was the shape used for celestial vehicles in distant ages.

Fig 20.

There is a massive gold sphere in the cosmological treasure chamber of the state Bank Bogota.

The broad flange could equally well be a docking ramp for supply ships and a storeroom,

divided into cells, for solar energy.

The technical possibilities we can imagine are endless.

The negative in stone is in the Turkish Museum in Istanbul.

Fig. 21.

The matrix, the negative, of the golden space sphere from Cuenca

 is on show in the Turkish Museum at Istanbul!

In addition to serving as a docking ramp for supply ships, the broad flange may also have been divided into cells to store solar energy. The technical possibilities, we can imagine, are endless. At all events, I should like to know how the matrix (Fig. 21) of this gold sphere came to be in Turkey, 7,500 miles from Ecuador!

This find, carved out of stone, is on show in the Turkish Museum, Istanbul. It is the negative of the gold sphere in Bogota’s treasure: the same sphere, the same notched pattern on the encircling rim.

The card under the stone matrix in the first story of the Museum at Istanbul says “Unclassifiable.” As long as science refuses to accept the idea that flying machines could cross the oceans and cover the vast distances between the continents as early as prehistoric times, its rigid prejudice will find certain puzzles insoluble.

One cannot say that scholars have no imagination, but the fact remains that they insist on new discoveries fitting into accepted patterns.

Fig. 22.

This copper figure, 20 inches high, has normal human proportions, but only four fingers and four toes on hands and feet.

The serious scientific explanation?

An adding machine! Were the Incas so stupid as to make a whole figure just to represent a “four”?

Really this is the “Star God.”

At Cuenca I photographed a copper object, some 20 inches high, representing a figure of normal human dimensions (Fig. 22). An abnormal feature is that he has only four fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot. However, we also find representations of the gods with some of their limbs missing among the ancient Indians, the Maoris, the Etruscans and other peoples.

Yet I read in a serious scientific publication how simple the solution of this mystery is. Toes and fingers were a kind of adding machine. If the artist wanted to express the number “19,” he left out one finger or one toe. Pursuing this scholarly fantasy, the number “16” was represented as a being with four plus four toes and four plus four fingers = 16! This ingenuous way of counting seems to me to be unworthy of a people who built roads and fortresses and cities.

Why, by the gods of all the stars, did the intelligent Incas have to draw or sculpt a whole man with hands and feet to express the number 4? Deadly serious science gets entangled in the net of its own fantasy. To be sure it admits that the Incas could count, but it does not credit them with being able to represent “4” by four dots or four dashes. So they had to lop off fingers and toes. O sancta simplidtas!

As for the figure that is minus two fingers and two toes, the explanation as a childish method of counting is unconvincing, for according to Father Crespi, it is a representation of the “Star God.” In his right arm the smiling sun god clasps an animal combination of hippopotamus, parrot and snake, in his left, a staff with his emblem, the laughing sun at the top and a decorative snake’s head at the bottom. Star-like points surround the god’s happy face and they can be seen, too, on his two colleagues from caves in the Australian bush, the two “creators” (Fig 23).

They wear overalls with broad straps around the chest.

Fig. 23.

These funny mythical figures, primeval inhabitants of Australia,

known as the “two creators,” have the same star-like points as the “Star God,”

which is “sold” to us as a calculating machine.

At some time in the future, probably after the metal library has been deciphered, it will transpire that figures with anatomically inaccurate limbs are really pictorial representations of traditional oral descriptions of phenomena from the cosmos that were different.

The masterpiece of the Inca’s Diirer, Degas or Picasso, is a metal plaque measuring 38 ½ inches by 19 inches by 1 inch. No matter how long one studies it, one keeps on making new discoveries. I noted down what I found: a star, a being with a fat paunch and a snake’s tail, a rat-like animal, a man in a coat of mail and a helmet, a man with a triangular head from which rays emanate, two faces, a wheel with a face peeping out of it, birds, snakes, bald and hairy heads, a face that grows out of another one, a snake with a face, two concentric circles with a face inside. A veritable riot! Paired together amid all the disorder are two strong gold “hinges,” which bring into prominence a face above a falling bomb! (Fig. 24).

What was the artist trying to convey?

Was he a predecessor of Hieronymus Bosch?

Has he perpetuated the moment of the annihilation of earthly chaos by the Star God?

The minute fraction of the treasure from the patio of the Church of Maria Auxiliadora at Cuenca that I have illustrated here is a still more minute fraction of the precious objects which rest undisturbed in Juan Moricz’s tunnels, an orgy of human history in metal.

What were the Incas’ metal objects for, what was their purpose? Are they simply expensive primitive toys?

Fig. 24.

One keeps on making new discoveries on this metal plaque,

which- measures 38 ½ inches by 19 inches by 1 inch.

A star, a being with a fat paunch, a man in a coat of mail with a helmet, faces,

a wheel with a face peeping out of it, a face with another one growing out of it and ...

The whole chaotic scene is menaced by a falling bomb,

which the artist emphasized by placing it between two hinges.

Or are they really messages from a very early age that we cannot decipher?

Professor Miloslav Stingl is the leading South American scholar in the Iron Curtain countries; he graduated in the ancient civilizations of America. Today he is a member of the Academy of Sciences at Prague and author of archaeological and ethnological books. In versunkenen Mayastadten (1971), for example, is highly acclaimed.

Professor Stingl, who was a guest in my house, saw the photographs I had taken at Cuenca.

“If these pictures are genuine, and everything indicates that they are, because no one makes forgeries in gold, at any rate not on such a large scale, this is the biggest archaeological sensation since the discovery- of Troy. Years ago I myself supported the view that the Incas had no writing in the alphabetical sense of the word. And now I’m faced with Inca writing! It must be very, very ancient, because one can recognize the transition from ideograms to writing.”

 

“What do you make of the engravings? How do you fit them into the existing system?”

 

“To be able to give a precise scientific verdict I should have to subject each plaque to a detailed and lengthy examination, and compare each one with material already available. For the moment I can only say that I am dumbfounded. The sun was often part of the scenery in known Inca engravings, but man was never equated with the sun, as I see time and again in these photographs. There are representations of men with sun’s rays round their heads and there are men depicted with star points coming from them. The symbol of ‘holy power’ has always been the head. But in these pictures the head is simultaneously sun or star. That points to new direct connections.”

 

“How would you interpret the bomb on the plaque?”

The famous scholar took out a magnifying glass and examined the photograph in silence for a long time.

“No interpretation is possible; all this is absolutely new. Explained in totemistic terms, I would say the radiant figures with the stars above and the snake symbols below indicate a connection between heaven and earth. And that means that the stellar beings and suns had a relationship with the inhabitants of the earth.”

“What else?”

“I cannot say any more. Of course, the solar wheel is well known, but here it is not clear whether it is a solar wheel, for there is a face inside it, which is quite contradictory. At all events, all the figures, birds, snakes, helmeted figures and everything else that can be seen on the plaque seem to originate from a dream world, from a mythology.”

“A mythology that is daily acquiring a more tangible and realistic background!”

 

The professor laughed: "I have to admit that you have arguments in your jigsaw puzzle that disconcert even an old fox like me and give me cause for reflection.”

Who is going to study the tunnels and treasures ‘Underneath Ecuador,' who is going to bring this sensational archaeological discovery into the searching light of scientific examination? There does not seem to be anyone available as rich and enthusiastic as Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated Troy and Mycenae. When Moricz discovered the tunnels he was as poor as a church mouse. Since then he has discovered iron and silver mines and leased them to metal firms to exploit.

He has become comparatively rich, but he lives extremely simply and uses all his wealth for his research work. But Juan Moricz is not rich enough to engage expert assistance and continue his work on the extended scale that is essential.

He knows perfectly well that he could immediately get the help of speculators, Wild West type gold-diggers; he would only have to show them a fraction of the alluring gold treasures in the tunnels below Ecuador. He does not want that kind of assistance. It would degenerate into plundering and would not benefit mankind. That is why it is difficult to organize’ a disinterested expedition that would be exclusively devoted to research. Even in 1969 when Moricz invited guests to visit the site, he had the group accompanied by armed guards.

Moricz and Pena said that the further the group penetrated into the labyrinth, the tenser and more febrile grew the atmosphere, until finally the guests were afraid of the guards, who had caught-gold fever. They all had to turn back. Why does Ecuador do nothing to encourage a scientific expedition that would bring fame to the country?

Ecuador, with its five million inhabitants, is one of the poorest countries in South America. The plantations of cocoa, bananas, tobacco, rice and sugar-cane do not bring in enough foreign exchange for the purchase of modern technical equipment. Indian agriculture on the plateau produces potatoes and corn, and there is some sheep and lama breeding. The wild rubber obtained from the eastern forests is no longer in demand.

Perhaps government-aided exploitation of mineral wealth (gold, silver, copper, lead and manganese) may bring in some income in the years to come, as may the petroleum found offshore. But even then all the surplus will be used in the first place to alleviate the wretched poverty; as yet the government shows no interest in projects that do not directly help to overcome the problem of hunger.

Juan Moricz estimates that inspection of the tunnel system alone, without detailed research, would cost more than one million Swiss francs. An electricity station would have to be set up, security measures would have to be taken and some form of mining machinery would be necessary. My knowledge of this buried treasure, which has so much to tell us about human history, induces me to repeat the challenge I issued in Chariots of the Gods? in 1968:

“A Utopian archaeological year is due! During this year archaeologists, physicists, chemists, geologists, metallurgists and all the allied branches of these disciplines would concentrate on one question: did our ancestors receive visits from outer space?”

So that no individual or institution can say that it is out of the question to go in search of nebulous mysterious caves, I reprint lawyer Pena’s visiting-card. He will gladly put any serious investigator in touch with Juan Moricz. (Fig. 25)

Fig. 25.

Lawyer Pena tells every serious research worker how to get in touch with Juan Moricz!

The tunnels under Ecuador need detailed investigation!

Nearby, in the Peruvian Andes, Francisco Pizarro (1478-1541) discovered cave entrances closed with slabs of rock on Huascaran, the mountain of the Incas, 22,203 feet above sea level. The Spaniards suspected that there were storerooms behind them.

Speleologists did not remember these caves until 1971, when an expedition was organized. The periodical Bild der Wissenschaft gave an account of the expedition which descended in the neighborhood of the Peruvian village of Otuzco equipped with all the latest technical equipment (winches, electric cables, miner’s lamps and hydrogen bottles).

Two hundred feet below the earth the scientists made a staggering discovery.

At the far end of caves which had several stories they suddenly found themselves confronted with water-tight doors made of gigantic slabs of rock. In spite of their tremendous weight, four men were able to push the doors open. They pivoted on stone balls in a bed formed by dripping water.

Bild der Wissenschaften reported as follows:

“Vast tunnels, which would leave even modern underground constructors green with envy, began behind the ‘six doors.’ These tunnels lead straight towards the coast, at times with a slope of 14 per cent. The floor is covered with stone slabs that have been pitted and grooved to make them slip-proof. If it is an adventure even today to penetrate these 55- to 65-mile-long transport tunnels in the direction of the coast and finally reach a spot 80 feet below sea level, imagine the difficulties that must have been involved in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in transporting goods deep under the Andes to save them from the grasp of Pizarro and the Spanish Viceroy.

 

The Great Ocean lurks at the end of the underground passages of ‘Guanape,’ so called after the island that lies off the coast of Peru here, because it is assumed that these passages once led under the sea to this island. After the passages have gone uphill and downhill several times in pitch darkness, a murmur and the strangely hollow sounding noise of surf is heard. In the light of the searchlight the next downhill slope ends on the edge of a pitch black flood which is identified as seawater. The present-day coast also begins here underground. Was this not the case in former times?”

Scholars think that a search on the island of Guanape would be pointless, because there is nothing there to indicate that a passage from the mainland ever emerged on to it.

“No one knows where these subterranean roads of the Incas and their ancestors end or whether they lead the way to the bursting treasuries of worlds that vanished long ago.”

Francisco Pizarro and his rapacious followers had already suspected that gold treasures existed in impenetrable Inca hiding places. In 1532 the noble Spaniard promised the Inca ruler Atahualpa his life and freedom if he filled two-thirds of a room measuring 23 by 16 by 10 feet with gold. Atahualpa believed the word of the ambassador of Her Christian Majesty Juana the Mad (1479-1555). Day after day the Incas fetched gold until the room was filled to the required height. Then Pizarro broke his word and had Atahualpa executed (1533).

In the same year the Spanish Viceroy elevated the Inca Manco Capac to the rank of shadow king. (He, too, was murdered by the Christian conquerors in 1544.) His death saw the end of the Inca dynasty, which had entered history with its legendary founder of the same name. According to the historians, 13 “Sons of the Sun” are supposed to have ruled the Inca kingdom between the first and the last Manco Capac. If we date its historically established beginning to around A.D. 1200 and its end to 1544, the year when the last sun king died, then this mighty empire that stretched from Chile to Ecuador, from the Andes north of Quito to Valparaiso in the south, must have been built up in barely 350 years.

During this period, the first pre-Columbian empire in South America must have been welded together. For the conquered territories and peoples were not considered as occupation zones, but were integrated into the prevailing constitution. Progressive achievements in agriculture were passed on by trained officials, as were the smoothly functioning rules of a communal economic order.

• Did the Incas equip a network of 2,500 miles of well-built roads with rest-houses during the same span of time?

• Did they simultaneously build cities such as Cuzco, Tiahuanaco, Macchu Picchu, and the cyclopean fortresses of Ollaintaytambo and Sacsahuaman?

• Did they also lay down water mains and work silver, tin and copper mines, whose products they alloyed to make bronze?

• And did they develop the goldsmith’s art, weave the finest cloth and make pottery with noble shapes “on the side,” as it were?

I hardly dare speak of the high culture which they nurtured in addition during this limited 350 year period. But if it was not the Incas but their ancestors who should be credited with these wonderful achievements, surely the culture and tool technology of the pre-Inca peoples must have been higher than the Incas who came after them.

No, the chronology cannot be blindly pasted together like that, because there are so many indications to turn the arbitrary (re-)construction upside down.
I assert that the tunnel system existed thousands of years before the Inca kingdom came into being. (How and with what tools are the Incas supposed to have built hundreds of miles of passages deep under the earth? The Channel tunnel has been planned by the engineers of our highly technological century for fifty years and they still have not decided which method should be used to build this comparatively minor tunnel.)

I assert that the age-old tunnel systems were known to the Inca ruling classes. (After Atahualpa’s murder, the last Manco Capac ordered the metal treasures scattered throughout the kingdom to be collected in the Temple of the Sun and deposited in the existing caves, which were known to him, to keep them safe from the white invaders.)

Fig. 26.

This metal stele is the showpiece. It is 20 ½ by 5 ½ by 1 ½ inches.

Fifty-six different characters are “stamped” on its 56 squares.

The folios of the metal library in the Great Hall have exactly the same signs! Did the maker of this stele know a code,

an alphabet with 56 signs or symbols, which were arranged to form writing?

Until now it has been claimed that there were no scripts using alphabets in the South American cultures.

I assert that the metal treasures under Ecuador and Peru came from a period long before the rise of the Inca kingdom and its culture. About 1570 the Spanish chronicler Pater Cristobal de Molina tried to fathom the motives behind the Incas’ tunnel building. In his book ‘Ritos y Fabulas de los Incas’, published in 1572, Molina tells us that the original father of mankind withdrew into a cave after he had done his work, i.e. after the creation was completed. But this secret retreat became the birthplace of many peoples who had appeared out of an “endless night.”

Molina related that these caves were also used for generations as treasuries for hiding the peoples’ wealth whenever they were oppressed. Absolute secrecy in the circles who knew about the caves was an iron law, non-compliance with which was punishable by death. (How potent this law still is today I was able to experience on my journey through Ecuador in the year of grace 1972.)

Let the Vatican grail guardian Father Crespi of Cuenca be the key witness to the pre-Christian origin of the metal treasures. He said to me:

“Everything that the Indians brought me from the tunnels dates to before Christ. Most of the symbols and pre-historic representations are older than the Flood.”

Three kinds of treasure await excavation in the tunnels and halls under Ecuador and Peru:

1. The inexhaustible legacy of the builders of the actual tunnels

2. The stonemason’s work of the first intelligent men, who were presumably pupils of the tunnel constructors

3. The gold and silver treasures of the Incas that were hidden here from the Spanish Conquistadors after 1532.

But the question of questions is: Why were the tunnels built?

Back to Contents