Megalithic Marvels - Ancient Anomalies of Peru & Easter Island

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Fresh off our recent expedition to Peru and Easter Island, I sit down with fellow history researcher and explorer Simon Tufnell to discuss the endless ancient anomalies that we witnessed, touched and examined during our South American expedition. From the Nazca Lines, to strange elongated skulls, to Cusco's 200 ton blocks, to mysterious caves, to "The Lost City" of Machu Picchu and to the Colossal Moai statues of Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Simon and I not only share our own reflections and theories concerning these enigmatic sites, but we dive deep into some of the long forgotten legends and oral traditions regarding them. Is there more to history than we have been told?TOURS

Well, I'm excited to be joined in this episode by a friend and fellow researcher and explorer. This is a guy who's been on a couple of my tours now to Egypt last year and to Peru and Easter Island this year. Simon Tough Nell. Simon, how you doing my friend? I'm doing very well, Derek. How are you? I'm great. I'm excited that we are going to take an hour plus here and talk about geek out really about ancient history and our travels and it's just been so cool getting to know you the last couple of years first in Egypt. Yes. And now Peru and Easter Island. I mean, what are your, what are your first initial thoughts after coming back from these amazing countries we just

visited? Well, I went with you last year to Egypt and I didn't think anything could come close because that was such an amazing experience. And I'd always wanted to go to Easter Island. I can talk about that a little bit and been fascinated with Peru. And I tell you, this really met and exceeded my expectations. This trip was just off the charts. Amazing. Really pleased I went.

I did not pay him to say that, everybody. That's Simon talking himself. But Simon, you know, on the last couple of years, years we've spent together on tour. I've really been impressed with your research acumen, the theories you bring to the table while we're out looking at these sites and you're well researched. So tell everybody watching and listening. Tell us a little bit about your journey of you're originally from England. Yes.

Like me, now you live in the Seattle area where you've raised your family the last couple decades, but how did you go down this rabbit hole personally of a guy who appreciated history to like alternative history explorer? That's a great question. And it's been a lifetime journey, to be honest with you. I've always been interested in history. That was one of my majors, my best subjects at school. And I've always been interested in exploring.

And if anybody asked me what I wanted to do, of course, I became an accountant and now I'm in IT, but if what I wanted to do was to become an archaeologist. And I really wanted to go to Egypt and explore other places and find out what really happened. That was, archaeology was always my passion. So how did that manifest itself? When I was a young kid, as soon as I could read, I would read encyclopedias about far off in distant places. and Easter Island caught my attention and my imagination, probably the most. So going there was like a lifelong dream come true, to be honest with you.

And then, of course, you know, ancient Egypt is the place that you really want to discover if you're into ancient civilizations. So I'd always dreamed about going to those places, never thought it would be possible. And glad I hooked up with you through your website and your podcast and, you know, your tours that you offer. And that's kind of been my history, is trying to search for the deeper meaning in things, search for things that maybe other people haven't seen,

and try to put pieces of the puzzle together. Because I think there's a lot of pieces out there that they're not necessarily connected, and I try to look for those connections. On your journey of awakening regarding our true ancient past, was there a seminal moment or two? Was there a book you read? I don't know if it was you that said one of Graham Hancock's books really opened up the door for you,

or was there an image you saw? Or was there a certain moment that sparked a deeper traversing into this subject? Yes. Being involved or interested in history meant you had to read about dates and timelines, and it was all given to you. And it wasn't until 1995, I suppose. Probably I was in my 30s at the time, and I read Fingoprins of the Gods by Graham Hancock.

And it just opened my eyes. It kind of blew my mind, actually, of how much information is being hidden from us or at least just not really widely known or accepted. So, a similar moment, definitely, 1995, Graham Hancock, Fingop fingerprints of the Gods. And from there, I just started looking at other authors, other writers. There wasn't a lot available on the internet.

The internet hadn't really started yet at that point. But come, you know, five, ten years later, then things started to come more available. And you could actually start to go down those rabbit holes that we like to go down. But it started there reading his book and then trying to understand more about the possibilities of alternate, you know, time winds and ancient civilizations. I didn't really know much about the ice age and what we now call the younger dryous impact theory. That came obviously much later, but the possibility that things were much older, that was my awakening moment. And so Simon, let's start out talking first about the pre-tour along the coast. It's like you're in another world verse, Kusko, when you're down there by the

water in this wind-swept area, this literal desert on the ocean. We saw the Nazca Lines, we saw some incredible artifacts in museums, we saw the mysterious candelabra, as they call it, this trident that's a geoglyph. What jumped out at you on that pre-tour down in the desert? Well, I have three things that I made a note of. And you've kind of mentioned them already, but I can kind of give you my impression and my experience of them. But first of all, I'd never been south of the equator before. So for me, that was kind of an exciting experience. As a traveler, you know, I've gone all over Europe.

I've gone to Asia a few times. Travel to every one of the 50 states in the U.S., traveled to Mexico, obviously Canada. This was kind of breaking a barrier for me, and it was really exciting to fly all the way down into the southern hemisphere. And it just felt like I was almost in another world because it just seemed so distant to me in the past, and now I'm here. And that was amazing, just to land in Peru. And the first day we were there, I came in a day early, and I met up with Hank and Ian from the Egypt tour. So we kind of encouraged each other to go on this tour after getting to know each other really well in Egypt. And we hung out for a day before everybody else arrived and explored the archaeology museum.

I think it's called the Larcoe Museum in Lima. And went along the coast and looked at the cliffs and just kind of tried to get in an experience of what it was like to be in this desert. I mean, it rarely rains. And that whole coastline is such, it's amazing because it's one of the driest places on earth as far as I understand. So we were just trying to spend a day to get acclimatized to what Peru was like. And then the first day of the actual trip of that pre-tour, we went to Pyrrachas and we saw those elongated skulls. Now, this is something I'd never really researched very much at all before. And I had read Brian Forrester's book just before the trip to kind of do a little bit of research.

And he talks about how maybe some of those people that came to Paracas came from another part of the world. He suspects, based on DNA test, there's a possibility they could have come from the Black Sea because they had like brown or even red hair. And we got to see that because that was hard to believe. and we got to see these skulls with the hair and then these elongated skulls that have higher cranial volume, not just a different shape. And that's something I'd never really thought through before of how that opens up possibilities of the origin of this civilization. It's not just people binding their head. There's larger cranial mass and no sutures.

I think that's right. Correct. And there's not just one or two. There's quite a few. So this is not an isolated case. And I found that really fascinating because of the implications of what that meant. Whether it's a different genetic race

that evolves on Earth many thousands of years ago, it still opens up the possibility that this race could have been a lot older than what we realize. Or could it have been, you know, ancient aliens, you know, that TV series, you know, could that have come into play? I don't know. But I really began to understand the significance of those skulls and kind of what the possibilities are.

So that was the first thing. And I know you were very interested in studying and understanding more about those skulls. So your curiosity and your enthusiasm kind of helped me to really get into that, to be honest. Oh yeah, that was my favorite part of the pre-tour down there in the desert was going to that museum in Ica, Peru, which is several miles inland from Paracas on the coast. And I was a little nervous if I'm being honest, Simon, because the last time I was in Peru last year, we went all the way an hour south of Kusko to see this one museum to see the, what's known as the wiki humanoid only to be presented with a fake. And they weren't going to tell us it was a fake, but you can't fool me. I've been there multiple times.

I'm like, where's the real one? They're like, what are you talking about? I'm like, that is a replica. Admitted, yeah, the real one is being researched. And so I was nervous that something like that might happen again. But I was so thankful when we go into it. to the Ica Museum, there were the elongated skulls. Last time I was there in 2017, you couldn't even photograph them. So I was so thankful that not only could we photograph them, we could take

as much of video as we wanted, but it was interesting. In 2017, they had the biggest skull, the Chango skull. Yes. In its own case, in the center of the room, all lit up. And, this time the room was as dark as could be, right? And it's just thrown in with all of these other skulls. It was like it was tact purposeful. There's really not a lot to see here. It's so dark. And we're going to just put this in the world's biggest elongated school in this case with just a bunch of normal cradle headboarded skulls. Right. Nothing to see here move along was kind of their take on it. So it was a good thing we brought.

I just happened to be prepared with extra, two extra flashlights that we were able to put on top of the glass and you can see them. But yeah, no sagittal sutures, huge. I would say 30% at least minimum more cranial mass than our skulls. They look otherworldly, don't they? They do. They do.

And also, maybe I'm mistaken, but didn't it? socket seemed to be a little larger than most skulls. Correct. Yeah. So I'm trying to imagine what that person might have looked like while they were alive. And it's quite different. I mean, it would have to be quite different. Yeah.

So that was amazing. Like I said, it opened up possibilities for me, something I hadn't thought about before, about the history of ancient civilizations and the people that developed and created that technology, which we believe existed earlier. And so that was fascinating, and I'm glad we went there. Anything else to jump at it to you from the pre-tour region?

Yeah, a couple of the things. The candelabra, I mean, it's huge. You read about it and you see pictures, and it's not anywhere close to the actual NASCAR lines that everybody talks about, which are famous. and it's ostensibly just a stop on the way to these islands to see, you know, some native wildlife and what have you. But for me, it was the high point of that cruise that we did. And we were cruising along and then we stopped and they looked up and there's this massive geoglyph just sitting on the side of the cliff.

Kind of like a lighthouse. I mean, it's the size, it's bigger actually than most lighthouses. And to me, that's kind of what it represented, that it felt like it was really beckoning people from afar that they've reached their destination. Or it was a way to say, you know, welcome. What it meant, it's hard to say. I mean, they call it the candelabwe, but, I mean, it looks more like a trident. It's got three prongs. So there's obviously some significance possibly in the way that it's shaped.

we may never know for sure. But I did feel a very strong sense of energy and resonance with it. And it really stood out as soon as I saw it. As soon as I saw it, I felt very powerful feeling about what it represented and what it might have meant in the past. Yeah, it's an incredible experience to pull up in the boat, you know, not far from the shore and see that thing. It rises almost 600 feet tall.

Is it 600? Yeah. That is so tall and it's at least two or three feet deep down. Yeah. And people go, well, how can that be when this is sand? Well, once you realize the wind there and once you get a little bit of rain, that earth turns to like cement. That's what you heard, yes. That's how it and the Nazca lines have been preserved.

So yeah, that was wild to see the Trident of Paracas and then the Nazca lions. You know, most people get caught up in the zoomorphic figurines, the monkey, the spider, and those are great. But most impressive to me are the triangles and what looks like the runways that are literally miles long, some of them. Yeah. What were your thoughts on that? Yeah, well, you know, you and I were in the same plane. I was sitting behind you. So you couldn't see how nervous I was

about flying in a little plane in the middle of nowhere. But I was determined to do it because I really wanted to see what these lines looked like from the air for myself, not look at photographs or other people's opinions. And I agree with you,

the animal-like figures, the spider, the hummingbird, even the astronaut were amazing in themselves. But I really feel like the lines is what drew me, what drew me in, because I felt like they were probably created or drawn at a different time than the animals, maybe by different people, and certainly for a different purpose. I believe that the Giza pyramids were energy generators. I've read Christopher Dunn's book, and I think that's a distinct possibility. So what came to me was that the Nazca Lines may be some kind of either,

creating energy, drawing energy from the earth. It could be some kind of, you know, they could be on a layline or some kind of vortex. You know, I've looked at all those possibilities, and there may be things about the lines which are not there anymore. There may be equipment or something else that's no longer, you know, that has no longer there. That means that the lines aren't activated anymore in the way that they were.

but it was very fascinating to see it. And the other person I was talking to from our group, or one other person I was talking from our group, said that they look very random and haphazard and almost chaotic. And I said, I don't think someone who spent that much time creating these lines, some of them are three miles long, would do it in a random, chaotic way. If you're going to make that much effort in the middle of a desert,

if one of the driest deserts on earth, as I said earlier, I think you're going to have a plan, and there's going to be some purpose behind them. So that was my impression. Oh, well said. Yeah, and I was looking over photographs captured by me and others flying over the lines, and you just start to see the actual order in a lot of it,

like I think it was the spider. Ian from Colorado was pointing out, look at how you've got this spider that's overlaid on top of some of these triangles. Yet one of the spider's legs doesn't finish. It doesn't close and it turns into lines that go into these triangles. So it was like it was all connected. He must have talked to you after he and I talk, because he and I talk for an hour about that very thing.

Okay. And it's true that when you, what I understand, I didn't obviously test out this theory, but what I've read is that when you start with one of the lines for one of those animals, they're continuous. That they're not made piece by piece. They started with one end of the animal, and it just, the line continues and doesn't break. So again, that requires planning, which means you probably have a purpose for doing it. It's not just some kind of, you know, this looks nice. Let's create a pretty image. Yeah.

And one of the more interesting factoid I've researched regarding the NASCAR lines is how scientists from the University of Dresden measured the magnetic field and found that it changes eight feet below the surface of many of the lines. Yes. And they also discovered that the ability to conduct electrical currency was 8,000 times higher on the lines themselves than off the lines. Off the line, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think of a computer chip, you know, one of those motherboards with lines all over it where it represents energy flowing and the resonance of energy flowing around those lines creates signals.

and I wonder if the NASCAR lines are some larger version of that even. And again, there may be some equipment that's picking up that energy or amplifying that energy that's no longer there. But what we're seeing is the foundation of something really amazing. Well said, and I definitely lean towards what Brian Forster states in one of his articles or books on the subject. He believes that the NASCAR lions were created at least by two cultures, one, the NASCAR people, you know, but prior to the NASCAR, the earliest lines were created by

the Paracus who had the elongated skulls. Yes. So I think there's a direct connection between these mysterious lines that looked like they were made to be seen only from the sky, right? Made with advanced knowledge and mathematics. There's a direct link to this mysterious hybrid race of elongated, scold humanoids. Yep. So very interesting.

Very interesting. Yes. So glad we did the pre-tour and we made the effort to go down there. It was a long drive back that night, but it was definitely worth it. So we make the long drive back to Lima. Next morning we catch our flight to Kus. Kusko, the land of lost civilizations, as I call it. And Kusko itself is such an amazing city.

It tucked in the mountains there. But megaliths everywhere. Everywhere. So that first day, we kind of start out just doing the city tour because there's so many megalithic walls just to see downtown, and then we went to the Kori Kancho. Any thoughts about Kusko and the Kori Kancho? After I went to Egypt last year, I began to hear and look for what was going on in Kusko

because of the fact that you had multiple architectural styles in one place, not only just in the same city, but also in the same building in some cases. And I hadn't heard too much about Kusko before. So as I started to dig into, you know, after seeing things like the Valley Temple and the amazing structure that that is and some of the other temples down in Luxor and Hathor and places like that, it really went my appetite for seeing other megalithic structures in other places. And Kuska was the first place that really caught my attention because of the multiple different kinds of architecture there.

So when we were walking around and looking at Korikansha and those other places, it's like in that downtown core, everywhere you're, walked, there was evidence of really ancient stonework. Just in regular buildings, the colonial Spanish built on top of Inca stonework, and that was built on top of these bigger stones. And it was just fascinating for me to walk around. I'm interested in architecture as well. And seeing how that had been blended together, never seen anything like it. And the lower levels of the lower levels obviously very mysterious because we really don't know what happened in that area prior, or too much anyway, prior to the Inca. And that really, really fascinated me to just walk around.

In fact, I'm pretty determined I'm going to go back to Kusko in the not too distant future and just spend time looking around the city and trying to examine and understand all of those different structures. especially the 12-sided stone and some of those other structures like that. A lot of people call that the Inca or Roka wall. Yes. But it way predates the Inca, in my humble opinion. But that's one of the greatest superstructures to see downtown Kuska with the 13 and the 12-sided stones. Interlocking and perfect precision can't fit a hair through the joints. And you look up and you see the multiple layers of civilization.

You see the Inca small rough stone and clay mortar on top of that and then the Spanish architecture on top of that. Yes. But at the bottom, the megalis have withstood the ages of time and the cataclysm. But back to the Cori Concha real quick. I mean, my mind is always blown visiting this. This is the crown jewel of Kusko. It was also known as the Temple of the Sun.

It was the capital of the Inca Empire. And Cori Concha means in Quechua, golden courtyard because even during the time of the Inca, its walls were literally lined and played in with gold and silver. That's what I heard, yes. In that beautiful, you know, courtyard that's inside and in the green, grassy garden outside, legend says there was literally life-sized figurines of animal and people cast from pure gold and silver.

And so, I mean, imagine seeing that even in the 15th, 30s when the Spanish are arriving and they're seeing this, the Spanish are losing their minds thinking, man, we've got to take this over. But like you alluded to, there is legendary tunnels under this megalithic structure that run from beneath the Cori-Cancho all the way over a mile up to Saqse Waman. And when the Spanish were coming to invade, this is where the Inca Priests ran down there with their most valuable possessions, especially there are Malkis, the mummified humanoids,

with elongated skulls, and they would hide them in the tunnels. And there's even a Spanish researcher named Anson P. Rambla. He miraculously got permission in the 90s to do a little bit of excavation under the Cori Concha. And he basically asked the leader

of the parish there, the church, there's literally a Catholic church built over it, right? On top of the hands. So he asked the parish priest if he can go under. He gives him permission and takes him down to a secret door into Crips where he saw an old inkawall and ruins. And Anson states that he could peer through. And he saw not just some crude earthen tunnel, but an amazing artificial,

megalithic lined tunnel with huge precision blocks. And he was so pumped, he told the priest that he'd like to get his team to go in, and then the priest ends up freaking out and says, you can't go back down. But that was the last guy to apparently in the 90s have been down there and seen what was really there.

But I want to make sure we save time to talk about Easter Island. Was there any other thoughts you had, Simon, about like Soxie Waman or Machu Picchu? Yeah. So Saxo-Waman was, to me, was kind of the crown jewel, probably even more than Machu Picchu. Just simply because the entire, well, 90% of the structure, and I know a lot of it is probably damaged and has been damaged beyond repair or missing. But what we could still see was amazing because there were so many megalithic stones

tightly fitted together, like you alluded to earlier with some of the other stuff, it's fitted together so you can't fit a human hair through it. And these are megalithic stones of 20, 30 tons, some 80 tons, up the side of a mountain. And then these three zigzag walls, now I haven't not seen any zigzag walls anywhere before. So that was fascinating. And then at the top with the remains of the towers, that must have been quite a sight when those walls were fully formed

and the towers were there. And I can only imagine what the Spanish felt when they saw that. And that was really, you know, from an ancient stone structure, for me, that was the crown jewel of the trip. Everything was great, of course, but I really enjoyed that. And I was happy that we had to spend time just walking around, just, you know, giving some free time to experience that. And what I didn't realize was that there's other parts.

of that site, like that big circle where they would fill it with water as a reflecting pool to look at these constellations. So, you know, these are astronomical, mathematical tools that the ancients are using to understand about their universe around them. So for me, that was also very interesting. One other thing, on the way to Machu Picchu, we stopped at that cave that's on the side of the hill, Nalpa Iglesia. Yes. And we had to clamber up about three or four hundred feet, some steep stairs, and then inside the entrance to that cave.

And unfortunately, it looks like the cave had been kind of closed up to some degree. There were, there was lots of debris in the cave. So we could only stand in the entrance. But the entrance had that carving in the wall, like a false door, what I might consider a stargate, potentially. and then that big black rock. I don't know what the rock was, but it was a deep black

where there are seats or thrones that being carved right into the rock. And it just makes me wonder what that was about because there was so much, such a powerful energy, a resonance there of a sacred place. And I'm sure there were other carvings and structures that would have been associated with it,

which are no longer available because the caves being blocked off. So that was also a, very much a highlight. And I thank you and the tour guy for taking us there because it seemed like it was off the beaten path a little bit and maybe not something that everybody goes to see. And it took an effort to climb up. It was quite tiring to get there. Yeah, I would wager that 90% of tourists who come to the Sacred Valley to see Machu Picchu and these sites, they have no idea about this cave. To me, that's one of my most favorite

megalithic sites on earth that I've seen. Is it really? Yes, I can see why. I can see why. Yeah, because it's so remote. Like you're in this mountainous ravine hiking along these old railroad tracks. I mean, imagine what it was like even during the time of the Inca with no road in there, no railroad tracks. You're literally in a remote ravine hiking up a mountainside to a triangular cave. nobody was bringing power tools up there with long cords right it's so remote that's what makes it so

special it's so high up you know like you said it quite a challenging hike and you get up to this cave and you see the most incredible megalithic precision um forget 3d it's like 5D layers that faux door and how it's inset into the protruding cutout. It's just you have to see the pictures to understand it. And if you're watching by way of YouTube or Spotify, you should be seeing photos or video of this now. But yeah, you not only have the faux door, but you have what looks like the altar or console at the front entrance.

Sadly, the top has been blown off by the Spanish or someone looking for treasure inside of it. And it seemed very out of place. because there was nothing else that color anywhere in that area that I could see. It was as if somehow it had been brought up the hill and placed there. Although it seemed to be sticking or embedded in the side of the mountain, it did not look like a stone that had been transported there, but it looked very out of place with the color and the shape and everything. Very astonishing, to be honest with you.

Yeah. So this, again, this site is called Napa Iglesia. some call it Napa Waka, but it's basically a megalithic cave in the middle of nowhere, high in the Andes. And some of you who follow me for a while, you've probably heard my story about the first time I visited this cave in 2017 with Brian Forster. And I'll just give a super quick nutshell version. But basically we're up in this cave. And Brian and our Incan shaman who was there, were explaining how this was the most holy site to the Inca, which I fully believe.

And so we're all marveling at these megaliths. But then this Incan shaman pulls out a drum and he starts to kind of play meditation music. And he's telling everybody to sit down and meditate. And I think he might have even said something like, welcome the spirits. And it was peaceful for a few minutes until we hear this blood-curdling scream. And one of the guys in our group, we look up and he's just going mad, flailing everywhere. Well, long story short, when he settles down, he tells us that a Puma or a Jaguar, one of those two, came through the portal Stargate. And it literally freaked him out of his mind.

So that was kind of an eye-opening experience. connecting these megalis with ancient spirits. So I always tell people, know what you're dealing with. Be cautious in these situations. But it reinforced that this was a holy sight to the Inca who would come there during the solstice times, June 21st and also during the winter solstice. And Simon, what did you think of what I shared how they would pull out? again this is in the 1500s their malchies the elongated scold mummies they would put them in the portal

and according to the Incan's own legends on the solstice these mummies would become animated and would speak to them well I'll be honest I didn't believe it before my first heard about it but when I was standing at the edge of that cave and looking at the structures that had been created and realized that this spot had been very sacred for many centuries, obviously not the last few centuries, but probably for a long time prior to that. And there was definitely a sense of, like I said, a sacred energy. And I could believe that. I mean, it was such a powerful energy. I think of all the places, that was one of my favorites, too, Derek, because it was so unusual, how it was carved in the side of the hill. And I sense that there was a lot of

ceremony or worship or something that had gone on there. You could definitely feel the resonance of that. Two other nuggets to share about the set before I move on. When I was there two years ago, we were up there during the evening as the sun was setting. And so as the rest of the group was going down to the bus, Renato asked the official that was up there, hey, can we go up into the back of the cave? And we might have, let's just say, blessed him with a little bit of currency. But we got to go back up and there. And I crawled around and I could see down below some Inca-looking walls.

you could see what looked like a cave entrance that had been sealed off. But again, according to legend, this is where they would hide and bury their Malkies, the mummies, and then bring them out to the portal. But it was wild to be back there. And from the back of the cave, looking down towards the train tracks, I have a picture of it, and you should be seeing it on screen, it's a perfect triangle. Yeah.

So I'm even convinced they might have shaped the roof of the cave to give it a perfect pyramid look. It's what it looked like to me, Derek. It looked like a pyramid, but the pyramid was made up of space and the rocks around it formed a shape, as opposed to the rocks forming the pyramid with space around it. And yes, it definitely looked like the deliberate shaping of somehow, some way that that had been done. So that was definitely a highlight of the tour. You mentioned Machu Pichu. I mean, isn't it crazy to consider in 1911 Hiram Bingham

with just donkeys and a little, I think it was like a teenage boy scout. Yeah. Helping him literally hike all the way up those hills to find the lost city. Yeah. I read his book on the train going to my. Machu Picchu so I could get prepared and understand what it was like to explore when there were no roads, when it was just jungle. Because Machu Picchu is actually on the other, beginning anyway, the other side of the Andes

into the rainforest. So it's a lot lower than Kusko, which is why it rains there. And it's a lot closer to the actually the Amazon basin. So it's jungle all around there. And I tried to understand as an explorer. what it would have been like. So reading his book was fascinating. And then his description of what he found, as he cut away the jungle and saw the stones and the temples and the structures that were up there, and as he slowly realized what he had discovered, and I don't think he really fully understood for at least a year

until he came back and it would be more cleared. So that was amazing. And I had less expectation, to be honest of Machu Picchu because I didn't, I thought it was all kind of Inca, didn't see too much megalithic structure being there, but when I actually arrived, there's a lot of fascinating structures there that could be much older than Inca, hard to say, but the location definitely has this energy being surrounded by the mountains, specifically mountains that had, as our tour guide was telling us to have very specific meaning and energy and I did not have the energy to climb to the top of the that one mountain at the end. Wanapechu.

Yeah, Wanda Picchu. So, but I know that some of our group did and had an amazing experience looking down. And I was really impressed with, to be honest with Machu Picchu much more than I was expecting. I think not so much the structures, you know, with the, you know, but the terraces and the typical Inca structures that they because we had seen some of those or actually quite a lot of those all around Cusco area but the energy of the location itself and the fact it was so remote and so hard to get to and yet people eat out of living there and it clearly was a place of very high importance within the Inca culture and I suspect earlier too.

did you get to do the two different circuits? Yes. That was a big bonus on this tour because the last two times we've been on tour, we've only got to do one circuit. And what I mean by that is back in the day when I first went to Machu Picchu in 2017, you could basically explore all over the whole site for a couple hours. Now it's so controlled, there's three circuits, and most groups only get to do one of the three.

And so last year I got mad enough about it, I told our company, I want to do two circuits, which is the max you can do with a big group. And so it was pretty awesome to just not feel rushed, multiple hours, see two-thirds of the whole site. But I'm just always just blown away

by seeing the megalithic core of Machu Picchu. Yes. The temple of the three windows, as they call it. I mean, just, again, the precision mortarless, megalis made of this white granite, that you look at that and then you look at the Inca, which is small rough stone and mortar, and you're going, there's a lot more going on here than we've been told. Built by different people at different times. At least that's what it looks like to me.

And I was especially grateful that we got up at 5 o'clock and got up there early. so we could see it in the mist and then see the mist clearing. That was very special. And for anybody that wants to go, I definitely recommend doing the two circuits. The first circuit two was the first one we did, and we spent almost four hours doing that circuit. And then we took a half an hour break and then did the circuit three as our second circuit. We were on that one for over two hours as well. So we, although we couldn't wander.

around we had to follow the circuit and follow the guide, we definitely were able to take our time and really take everything in. So it was truly special. Did you happen to see any of the, what I call the megalithic cylinder components? I did. I did. I took lots of photos of those. I had fascinated by that. That was, I mean, built right into the wall. Yeah, to me, that's one of the most amazing things you can see in Peru and we saw a couple of them at P-SAC yes in some old gates um we kind of went off the beaten path to find those so a lot of our group didn't see them but then we saw a couple of them at machi-pec and you should see them if you're watching this on a video now but basically when you come to these megalithic core areas of the site you see like this trapezoidal gate and on the

left and right there is a niche a square niche and in inside are cylindrical, you know, vertical cylinders going down. Some of them spin. Some of them are like hardwired in. But to me, this is an actual, we're seeing a piece of the component for a gate system, right? Or something. Yeah. That attached to it, which is incredible because we not only have the walls that we're seeing, but it's like at the Cori Concha on the high side of the temple, you could see the megalithic components in that trapezoidal gateway as well. So it's almost like we have a glimpse into how the hardware was working. I suspect that that was more there than meets the eye. What we're seeing is just a small fraction of what was left. Let's end this talking about Rappanui, otherwise known as Easter Island.

This was my first trip to this incredible dot on the map, and it was your first time as well. So just flying in and seeing it, it was just an epic experience. I was taken back by how small it actually is. I was in Maui last year, and I thought that was small. I mean, Easter Island is this tiny little dot with this little village. give me your first impressions of this incredible island. Yes, I was amazed at how small it was as well. And when we climbed to the top of the volcanic crater, you could see the entire island.

And I was wondering if perhaps when the sea levels were a lot lower, like during the ice age, if there might have been a significantly larger population that might have been living in the lower part of what was then the island. and that the moai, all of those structures that they created, would have been essentially on the top of the mountain, kind of a holy place where they have to climb to the top of the mountain. That was my first impression of landing there. And I was also surprised that there were three different volcanoes there. It definitely would have had quite a cataclysmic history,

probably prehistory before man got there, of course, but definitely a very interesting place for sure. Yeah, it's so incredible. Again, this tiny dot of an island out in the middle of the Pacific. There's over a thousand of these megalific moai on this remote rock smaller than Washington, D.C. Most of them are lining the coast facing inward. And then all these other ones are seemingly placed randomly as if a massive project had been abandoned midway through, right?

Yes. And according to legends and many historians, the real name for the Moai is the living faces of our ancestors. So, so interesting. Well, I was really happy that they were, so what I learned, I didn't know this, because growing up, all I saw was pictures, this is what fascinated me, of the Moai's heads sticking out of the ground. And that's still true with the quarry. And I was shocked to find out that almost half the

moai on the island is still in the quarry in some form or another, you know, being carved out of the bedrock or standing up and was being worked on. But yeah, so that was very interesting to see them in different states of creation, as it were. Yeah. Yeah. And especially looking at their hands, right, and how they've got these long-looking fingers. Some say it's representing fingernails, but their hands

are extended down below the belly. Just like you see it, go Becli-Tepi. Yes. And Erfaman statue in Turkey and all these other places. It's an interesting connection. Very interesting connection. And very interesting learning about

the legends of the Moai channeling a sacred, spiritual power called mana that apparently doesn't start flowing until after the moai is set in place and properly finished and the eyes are there and i'm so happy that they restored one of them at least with the eyes with the coral and the obsidian and i took an amazing photograph of that one at night uh well actually it was sunset and it really brought it to life of the of that manna the energy that you just talked about of how that must have been because they were living in a village underneath the platform or adjacent to the platform looking up at the moai looking up at that of that ancestor and yeah so it was

very interesting the tradition they had was the the moai was created to represent the chief who had passed on and they would bury the skull of the chief on the platform and then they would use the rest of the bones for to create fishing hooks or some other task because they felt that would bring good fortune and then as each chief in the family eventually passed on they would create more moi on the platform so there was then several of no eye on that platform and that was amazing to me that they were able that they left the eyes because all the other moai have just eye so with no no eyes so that was a it was a little eerie to be honest

But you could sense that power when they had the fully completed structure or statue. The Moai are deeply sacred to the Rappanoi people. But as Graham Hancock points out in his latest ancient apocalypse show, does that still mean that the locals originally carved the Moai? or did somebody else before them? What are your thoughts on that? Well, I was very curious about the 13 statues that were carved from basalt, that were not on platforms, but were scattered around individually.

One of them ended up in the British Museum, which I planned to go see next time I'm in London. And that's the only one with pyroglyphs or carvings at least on the back. I wondered if the rock that they carved, the big moai out of, which is quite soft, was carved later to copy the original 13 basalt ones. And maybe there's more than 13, but that's all the ones which we know about. And I wonder if those were carved using different skill sets, different tools, you know, in this harder rock. So I wonder if there isn't two generations, and by generations I mean eras. of people carving these things. So that was my thought.

Just like in Egypt, there's different eras that created the temple. There's much older structures it looks like, and then there's definitely dynastic structures. Yeah, in Egypt, it was, you know, one of my most favorite things to do is look for the megalithic statues versus the dynastic statues.

Yes. Or the megalithic pillars versus the dynastic pillars. And you might remember at Luxor Temple is this prime example. Kind of in the center area, you see a dynastic Egyptian pillar made of sandstone, a very soft material. But it's made in sections that are each about three feet high, you know, basically glued together. That's the best the dynastic Egyptians could do with soft sandstone. Yet right next to it, literally a foot away is what I've been.

believe an older megalithic pillar precision cut from one solid piece of rose granite extremely hard like a eight on the most scale of hardness with diamond being a 10 when the sandstone's like a two so it's two different builders two different epochs two different sets of tools and i think you're onto something here because i saw the basalt moai statue at the the British Museum last year. And you should be seeing video of this now on screen if you're watching by way of YouTube or Spotify. But this thing is precision carved.

You can see the features, what looks like muscle tone on the back of its head and back are detailed faces carved in, which looks like body tattoos. And it's interesting, isn't it, Simon, that for some reason you can't see any of the basalt statues without going through a lot of extra hoops. Yes. Yes. They were not available on the regular tour. Yeah, they're not available to any normal tourist.

There's one in a museum there, but that just happens to be closed down. Yes. And so if you ask, well, we want to see the other, you know, eight basalt statues, oh, that's in a really remote area that you can only get to by horseback. By horseback, yes, which we didn't have time for. Yeah, so by the time we figured that out, we didn't have time to do it, but man, was I tempted to go pay someone to get me a horse. So I think there's a story there that hasn't been told, and a lot more research could be done on that, to be honest. Yeah, it's so interesting. When you look into the oral traditions and legends of this island, you know, the legends speak of this primeval homeland called Heard.

where this king named Hota Matua came from and he had visions of a great cataclysm. And so he sent out his explorers, seven of them, and eventually landed on Easter Island. And so then Hota Matua and his people come later. And so the mainstream narrative basically says, well, these were just Polynesians, you know, who came not too long ago. their timeline do you remember so from around 400 or 800 AD yeah I forget the exact number but about 1500 years ago and up until about 1500 AD 1600 AD when when the Spanish came and invaded the island as it were and took everybody away the island population was as low as

was 111 people after they took everybody away, which unfortunately meant they lost a lot of their tradition. And you know, the story is no longer passed down because it got lost. Very interesting. So we've, as Graham Hancock points out, we have this legend and tradition of a great flood and exploration like we find all over the world in other civilizations and areas. And so we have to ask ourselves, did such an event happen? And Graham points out that you'd really have to go back to the last ice age to find that kind of flood that would submerge an entire land. And so the point is, does this island go back way further than this mainstream timeline of 400 AD? I would say 100% yes. I would agree. And I mean, there's just so much

much regarding the mysteries. It was interesting to see the stone sphere that Hottamatua basically brought to the island, which is supposed to represent the naval of the world. But in my research, I read Thor Heyerdahl's book on this, East Island. And I think it was in his book. He states that when, according to legend, when Hottomatua arrived, they actually found a graveyard at that Akana Beach or whatever it was called proving they were not the first inhabitants to arrive. Yes, yes. There have been people living there before.

And so the mainstream talks about the long years and the short years. You know, this is a legend. And they say, well, it was just the older Polynesians with, you know, extending their earlobes, warring with later Polynesians who didn't extend their earlobes. I would argue, There's way more going on. I would argue that the long years are the early master builders

who had lost technology and probably came from Peru where they made the same megalithic walls in Kusko like we saw on Easter Island at... Vinapu, yes. Almost the same megalithic wall made of basalt that looks eerily similar to Kusko, doesn't it? It really does. And it's the only one that's still there anyway. And it was very, very similar to what we had seen at Saksa, Haman and other places in and around Kuska. It was eerily similar. And very different from the other platforms that had been built from more the softer rock. So I would argue that the long years were this earlier epoch of civilization who had some form of lost ancient technology were probably, building these older first basalt statues and then the Polynesians came and that was the battle it was the Polynesian humans versus the long-yeared master builders

but very interesting you know many early explorers to the island reported about the unusually shaped skulls in large bumps found on the back of the necks of the necks of the island's inhabitants. This is in the 1600s. And a number of these highly detailed carvings that depict this can still be seen in museums. I've got a couple of photos of these wooden carvings. And these humans that they're depicting look a lot like the Moai. And they all have a weird bump on the back of the neck.

It's really strange. And then one of the craziest things I think I uncovered about Easter Island and my studies is how Dutch explorer Jacob Brocavine recorded their observations in the 1700s when they arrived. In fact, they arrived on Easter Sunday, and that's why they called it Easter Island. Yes. And so in their own journals, these first Dutch explorers, they talk about how the giant Moai statues were served by a priesthood, a very large looking men who had remarkably white skin, long ears, and get this, red hair. Red hair.

So again, they said remarkably white skin, long ears, and red hair. And they said they made a distinction. They said the rest of the population appeared to be of a mixed descent and did not venerate the statues as the priest did. And there was also a missionary there in the 1800s named, father, Gaspar, Zumbome,

and he documented that in former times, these strange high priests, eight children in the name of their God, make me. So we've got

cannibalism, Simon. Wow. I did not know that. So much to Easter Island. I know we're out of time. Any closing thoughts on Easter Island,

the tour, anything you wanted to say that you didn't say? No, I think we, covered everything. It was a fantastic tour. I'm very happy I went and like I said, I think I came away with more questions than answers, which was the same as last year in Egypt, but I feel enriched by having gone and having the experience. You can read about it in books, but going to see these

places and actually experiencing them is truly an experience of a lifetime, to be honest for me. Wasn't it an incredible group of people that we got to hang out with for two weeks? We did. Yes. I have an incredible group of people. Everybody was thinking, was curious, was willing to share what they thought. And there were no holds barred. There were lots of great discussions that we had over dinner every night with the different groups of people. Yeah, you mentioned Hank and Ian.

They joined you with me last year in Egypt. So it was so cool that we're getting all these repeats like you guys all hanging out in Egypt together, really connecting and now doing Peru together. But I want to read a few names here. It was so cool getting to know Orlando from Texas. We were calling him Chief because he was a fire chief. Matt from the UK was awesome. Chris from Ohio. He was our geo-polymer theorist.

And he had a lot of great, he spent his whole life doing that in real life. So we had a lot of great theories. We had Kate from Florida. Chris from Seattle, otherwise known as Lady Chris. We had a couple of Chrises. We had three Chrises altogether, yes. We had Mirla from Romania.

Blavia from Portugal. Claude and Laura from Portugal. You guys, I told them they need their own reality show. They were so hilarious. Ian and Molly from Colorado, amazing couple. Ian and I had some deep conversations. Troy and Elena from Puerto Rico. You guys rock.

Had so much fun. Troy was like Mr. Positive. It was like having our own Tony Robbins on the tour. Ron and Andy, from Idaho, great couple. A lot of couples. We had Chris and Annie, brother and sister from the Seattle area. Annie lives in Berlin. Bob and Evelyn from Idaho. They were amazing. John and Ashley from Georgia. Great people. Tanner and Katie from Montana. Amazing couple. They were like, they were like mountain goats. I mean that in a good way. Like, I'm struggling to like go down these steep

megalithic cliffs and i would have tanner just galloping down like in seconds um two more tim and scott from portland father son you guys were awesome fellow northwesterners and then we had alana and tom from australia what a riot they were i was laughing so hard eating dinner with them they were nonstop laughs So an amazing group of people And of course Michael Who runs Kusko Native And Renato We love you guys

Thank you for all your hard work And Rumi Isn't he the best tour guide In all of Peru It's the best tour guide He was awesome So much knowledge And he grew up in the shadow

of Machu Picchu So he told me he'd be up there a thousand times That's crazy Yeah every once in a while He sends me videos of UFOs dancing over Machu Picchu. Wow. Like he sees crazy stuff.

Well, Simon, it was a pleasure being on tour number two with you. Thank you for all your time, your insight, and for doing this episode with me. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully we're going to hang out on another tour in the future. You bet. Thanks, Derek. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Simon. Please consider joining me and many friends.

for our Israel and Petra Tour March of 2026. This is going to be the adventure of a lifetime. We are going to explore the vast mysteries and histories of the Holy Land. We are going to experience the Bible come alive literally in 3D as we walk where the great heroes of the Bible walked like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Elijah and David himself, John the Baptist, Christ, We will be visiting many of the most important biblical locations such as the Sea of Galilee, Copernum, the Jordan River, Nazareth, the Dead Sea, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall,

Jerusalem, Gassimini, Galgotha, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Bethel, and much more. Yet this will not be your typical Holy Land tour as we will go off the beaten path to explore the area where the legendary watchers are said to have descended literally on Mount Hermon. We will be right there. We will also go off-grid to visit the habitation of the watcher's nefarious giant offspring, V. Nephalim, as we discussed in this episode, we're going to go in search of their ancient archaeological ruins, such as Nimrod's fortress near Mount Hermon.

We're going to go to the gates of hell near Caesarea Philippi. which was known by some as a literal portal to the underworld. We're going to go find what's known as Gilgal Raphaim or the Wheel of the Giants, which was this ancient archaeological structure that's a massive circle with the dolman in the center. We're literally going to go find this and go deep inside of it. And speaking of David versus Goliath, we are going to venture off trail to go find the very valley of Elah, where David is slew the giant Nephilim Goliath. We're going to find this battlefield.

And then we're literally going to follow the path that David took the 16 miles to Jerusalem, where he took the skull of Goliath. We're going to go to Skull Hill Galgotha and see this giant skull-like hill and consider what might be buried inside it. Then we're going to go into the western wall underneath it in Jerusalem to behold the massive megalithic foundations of the first temple,

where there are megalithic blocks down there that are some of the biggest in the world, that I don't think a lot of people realize are in Jerusalem itself. And then for those who have chosen the Jordan extension, our journey will continue three more days and take us to one of the seven wonders of the world, the mysterious rock city of Petra. Here we will explore its mysterious chambers and consider the lost civilization and ancient technology used to engineer it. This will be an Israel and Petra tour for the ages. Again, please visit Stargatevojord.com slash tours or click the link in the show notes below to learn more and lock in the super early bird price.

Again, I hope you really enjoyed this episode. If you did consider sending it to some friends, to some family. And until next time, keep exploring.