Megalithic Marvels - Ancient Apocalypse 2: Episode 4 Review

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

The second season of the much anticipated and highly controversial Ancient Apocalypse docuseries has been released on Netflix featuring author and explorer Graham Hancock. This season focuses on ancient sites located in the Americas, and Graham opens the season asking “Could the key to discovering a lost civilization of the Ice Age lie here in the Americas?” In this episode, I recap episode 4 which finds Graham in Peru visiting several amazing ancient sites such as Sacsayhuaman, Q'enqo and the Snake Temple. Having visited each of these sites myself, I share my thoughts and other enigmas concerning them.

Stargate Voyager. All right, so in this episode, I'm going to be breaking down episode four of season two of ancient apocalypse featuring author, explore researcher Graham Hancock. If you haven't been watching it yet, you are missing out. It is a great show on Netflix. And I would say it's worth the subscription, even if it's just to watch this show. And then you can always answer if you need to. But you can also go back and watch season one.

which I would recommend. And in this episode of season two, it finds Graham mostly in Peru. So in this episode, I'm going to break down all these sites that Graham was at because I also have been at all these sites within the last two years. So this is going to be a lot of fun. Before we jump into all the details of this episode, again, a quick reminder to subscribe to this podcast from wherever you are watching or listening, whether that's YouTube, Spotify,

Apple Podcasts. Hit the subscribe button if you can. Give me a five-star review, even better. Also, in case you haven't heard, registration is now live for our 2025 Peru and or Easter Island tours. And right now you can get $500 off by using code Stargate,

which really brings the prices down to a very competitive price. It brings the Peru tour down to $2399 and it brings the Easter Island tour down to $2899. So I want to personally invite you to join me and renowned Peruvian tour guide, Rumi Allegria, on this captivating journey. We're going to have an optional pre-tour to the Nazca Lions and to see elongated skulls. So you can add that if you want.

Then we've got our main tour in the Kusko, Peru area, which includes Machu Picchu. And then we're going to end with our extension tour to Easter Island for several days. It is going to be incredible. I hope you can join us. Go to Stargate Voyager.com slash tours or click the link in the show notes below. So in episode four of ancient apocalypse season two, Graham starts out in Peru in the Kusco area

at a site known as the Temple of the Moon. And this is literally a subterranean labyrinth. And Graham points out that upon entering, you see the serpent protruding from the rocks. And if you're watching on video, a version of this podcast, you'll see photos or videos of this from my travels. And it's as if the stone has been cut away revealing this high relief serpent. Now, sadly, it's been defaced, likely by the Spanish that later came. But this is literally also known by the locals as the serpent or snake temple.

It's also known as Amaru Markawasi, again, which means like the house of, the serpent. Now Graham breaks down how it's believed that the Inca used this site for fertility rituals or the hopeful would come inside this subterranean labyrinth. They would leave offerings to the goddess of the moon, which they called Mama Kia, who was apparently the daughter of Veracocha. Being that I was at this site last year, it was really cool watching Graham on video go through this site. And just take his time in there and see the high quality video production. Obviously, Graham Hancock pulls some weight, and so he had all access to the site it looked like for probably as long as you wanted. When I was there, we had literally just like 10 minutes to get in this. I think one of our

guides, let's just say he made a donation to one of the ministries of tourism there who allowed us inside, because normally big tour groups wouldn't be allowed in this place. Graham made a profound statement when he was inside this temple of the moon, he said, it's as if the Inca who venerated it built the outer walls to mark it off and thus respect something they found, not something they created. Which I think is a great point because in no way do I believe the Inca originally created this strange temple. I think they found it and they retrofitted it into a place of worship. into a place of fertility purposes and even sacrifice, which I'm going to get into. So then Graham makes the comment, are we looking at the work of someone else here,

the older culture that understood how to mold stone in fantastic ways? Now, when I was visiting this site again last year, I was with renowned tour guide, Rumi Allegria, who I believe is one of the best in all of Peru. who gets the real history, he knows all the ancient legends, and he's not afraid to tell you what he believes is in the real history. But as we approached this temple of the moon or this snake temple, as it's called, Rumi had us just pause for a moment and look at the hill from distance away. And he pointed out that it's likely the whole hillside was once carved into an animal,

whether that was a Puma or I think he might have even mentioned a lizard, but it might have had a reptilian or zoomorphic look to it, which we see at other sites like at Oiante Tombo, what's known as the Temple of the Condor. They literally took this rock outcropping and carved it into a giant condor. It's incredible. And again, I remember as we went down

and descended into this subterranean chamber, you see the snakes along the walls as you enter, you see total precision, trapezoidal cuts, and then you see this incredible-looking altar inside. And there is a hole in the top of the ceiling where the moonlight would shine down right on that spot. And so you just do get this otherworldly vibe inside. And one thing our guide Rumi showed us,

which I was surprised wasn't in this episode, was he removed this large stone that was in the floor. And as he pulled it back, a pretty strong gust of air was blowing up out of this hole. And he even sprinkled cocoa leaves on top so we could see him fly up. It was a strong wind. And the point was that stone was concealing these underground chambers literally underneath the site. Now, Rumi, our guide says originally there was like a stairway that went properly down to these underground chambers. That's all been sealed off now because there's been all kinds of people that have disappeared in sites like this in these underground chambers.

But even to the Inca, it was known as the underworld. This was known as the snake temple or the serpent temple or the house of the serpents. And it was known as a basically a portal to the underworld. And Rumi, our guide says they would do even human sacrifices inside this, likely on this altar looking a spot. What's more, though, is that our guide Rumi, again, who I believe is a descendant of the Inca and knows all these legends, he says this wasn't just a mystical spot that went to the underworld. They believe literally there was serpent-like entities that lived underground in these subterranean chambers. And that's why the Inca would come into it and do sacrifices to please the entities.

So pretty strange lore there to consider. The next stop we see Graham traveling to in episode four is not far from the snake temple to a site called Kenko, which is right by the giant side of Sox-Saiwaman, which we'll talk about in a minute. But Kenko is a Ketuan word for labyrinth. And as Graham points out, it's a complex network of sculpted tunnels, sub-training galleries, and what appears to be altars carved out of bedrock. So just like the altar-looking spot we saw on the Snake Temple, you see another one in this cave portion at Kenko, which looks very similar.

looks like an altar that's precision carved underneath this site. Graham then interviews local historian, researcher, author, Jesus Gamara, who's really known as one of the foremost knowledge keepers when it comes to the lost history of Peru. And Graham asks him if the Inca were responsible for building any of the architecture here, to which Jesus answers, no. And he basically says, basically all the Inca did here at this site and basically at all these other sites was respectful repair work

to the older existing structures. And Jesus and his father are the ones who basically coined this phrase Hanan Pacha, or the Hanan Pacha theory, which I'm going to break down in a little bit. Now, in this episode, Graham wasn't at this site long at all. So before we move on to Sokso-O-Mond and in there, I just want to share a few thoughts from my trip to Kenko the last couple times. One almost gets the sense that this was some sort of like prehistoric playground for the ancient architects to craft and create with ease using whatever form of ancient technology they had. Again, Kenko means labyrinth or zigzag, which literally speaks to the endless, crooked zigzag canal-like cutouts that you see everywhere. There's also this infamous spot at the site, which some call the

stairs to nowhere. Now again, most academics consider this site and many others like it to have been created by the Inca. But that's where we got to bring up, according to the archaeological record, the Inca only possessed bronze chisels and hammers. On the Moes's scale of hardness, bronze ranks about a three, I believe, yet the granite and andesite stone at Kenko is much harder ranking a six or seven. So how would the Inca have been able to precision craft this stone with softer tools? According to Spanish chroniclers, the altar-shaped stone that you see Graham walking by at this portion of the episode,

in the ink of times it was covered in pure gold back when the Spanish arrived and sought. They saw the gold on this altar. Now in the upper part of the chamber you see, again there's a hole like at the snake temple in the cave ceiling right over the altar or the so-called altar. And apparently the light from the moon would penetrate through the hole and irradiate upon the golden layer, thus illuminating the underground enigma. So the bulk of episode four finds Graham next going to Saksa-Waman, just above Kuska, one of the greatest megalithic wonders of the world, where I don't know if there's a site that has bigger or more colossal stones than you see here.

Some of them are upwards of, I believe, 150 tons, interlocking stone walls, where you still can't fit a hair through the joints from the ones that are still in their most perfectly preserved state. And by the way, these stones go 20 plus feet underground as well. So at this site, Graham connects with a researcher named Jan Peter Dejong, who shares some clues onto how this rock, how these walls might have been crafted. And they go down into the tunnels at Sox-Sewa-Man,

known as Chunkana Chikki. which means the place where one gets lost. And I've been in these exact tunnels. And now these are the ones they let you go in today. All the lower levels are sealed off. But in their original state, these tunnels that you see Graham in went down even lower. And legends have it that these tunnels connect all the way to the Cori Concha in Kusko and elsewhere. And literally over the decades, there's been all kinds of.

of people that have gone into these tunnels and apparently never come out, which is why the government and the Ministry of Tourism has sealed them off. So inside these tunnels, researcher Jan Peter De Jong is pointing out to Graham one of the characteristics of this Hanan Pacha style. And again, Hanan Pacha is a term that means the oldest first civilization. I believe that this is the megalithic engineers that could have been here 10,000 plus years ago. or even further back, who predate the Inca. And one of the markers of their engineering is that the stone is modified into a mold-like technology where it's as if the stone was softened, to where it's as if these ancient engineers were

working with the stone when it was soft at the moment of its construction. And he points out how especially in the dark tunnels, you can see the reflection of shining like a metallic sheen on the walls and all over the ceiling of the tunnel, and it's very smooth to the touch, almost like a mirror, as if it's been treated with severe heat, which caused a layer on the stone to get shiny, which geologists call this vitrification, which means to turn to glass,

meaning you would have needed like 1,400 degrees Celsius to get it this hot. Graham then makes a great point that when you look at it closely, You have to ask yourself, is that heat source the explanation for the peculiar melted-together appearance of the gigantic, megalithic walls? We also see it, Sox-e-O-Mond. Graham then presses this researcher, De Jong, who says he believes the only viable explanation is that we're looking at the results of some kind of ancient scientific process, once perfected by a civilization that predates the Inca. And then Graham makes the great point. And he says that at a certain point, we have to just accept that we are looking at an impossible engineering task. Impossible in our terms requires us to be more open-minded of the ancients than we presently are.

Graham ends his thoughts on Soxu-a-man by sharing a local tradition, legend, of the area that was recorded by the Spanish conquistadors that says that advanced techniques of working with stone were part of a legacy of knowledge passed down from the creator god of the Andes, Veracocha, who could cause stones to be consumed by fire, making large blocks as light as feathers that could be floated into place, which sounds a lot like the extreme heat theory. So there we have an ancient oral tradition that includes varicocha using fire to make large blocks and floating them into place. So the legend of the Hanan Pacha, or the three worlds, as we get it from Jesus Gamara, the author and researcher,

states that, number one, you've got the Hanan Pacha. This refers to the first civilization from prehistory, who had the ability with lost technology to precision shape the bedrock and the portal-like cutouts we've seen in the caves. and I believe even engineer the largest cyclopian megaliths, like at Soxeywaman. Hanan Pacha also refers to the highest of the three worlds and levels of consciousness, which is represented by the Condor, which you can see embedded at various sites like at Oiante Tambo.

Number two, I believe, is the Uran Pacha. This refers to the second civilization who came later after the Hanan Pacha, but who still possessed some of this ancient knowledge and lost technology, which was likely left behind from the Hanonpacha. And it's believed that this second civilization engineered some of the smaller-sized mortarless walls and sites that you see around Kusko. I'm thinking of like the Kori Kansha and some of the walls you see downtown Kusko, which are still mortarless, but they're more just square and are not polygonal.

The Urenpacha refers to the mid-level of consciousness whose animal representation is that of the puma, which you see embedded everywhere as well. And then lastly, you've got the Ukanpacha or the third culture who came away later and built on top of the previous two civilizations. This culture was likely the Wari or the Inka cultures, or both of them. They tried to replicate the previous works, but because of the tools they had, they could only build on top of and around them. Okunpacha is considered the underworld whose symbol is the serpent, or Amaru, and Ketua. Well, I hope you're enjoying Ancient Apocalypse Season 2 as much as I am, and I hope you enjoyed this kind of recap of the episodes

and maybe even learn some stuff that wasn't in these episodes. So until next time, keep exploring.