UNEARTHING THE INCA'S LOST SUN PATH

ISLAND OF THE SUN HOLDS THE ANSWER

The chronicler Bernabé Cobo recorded two Inca origin myths and both took place on Lake Titicaca on the Island of the Sun. In the first myth the ancient people of the province were said to have been without light for many days and Inca Manco Cápac, son of Inti the sun god, emerged from a large sandstone outcrop known as Titi Qala which they believed to be the Sun's dwelling place thereafter.

Titi Qala, on the Island of the Sun is one of the Inca's most sacred sited.

In the second version a great flood hit the region and the sun was said to have hidden under Titi Qala. The Island of the Sun was the first land to appeared from the flood waters and the people watched the sun emerge from Titikaca to illuminate the sky once again.

With the conquest of the southern Titicaca region by the Inca, the Titi Qala area became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the Inca state, or par with the famous oracle at the Temple of the Sun at Pachacamac, about 25 miles south of Lima. The Inca's built a vast Temple of the Sun on the western side of the Island of the Sun, so that the astronomers, priests and worshipers could watch the setting solstice sun across the lake.

Created with The GIMP

Colonial sketch of the Temple del Sol, on the Isle del Sol

Over several months I had been consumed with understanding Inca cosmovision. I had become conscious that within every Inca creation myth a common theme exists, a golden thread if you will. They are all structured around the creation event of the solstice sun rising from beneath the Island of the Sun, and setting far to the northwest.

THESE INCA CREATION MYTHS ARE METAPHORICAL FOR THE SOUTHEAST TO NORTHWEST PASSAGE OF THE SOLSTICE SUN.

From the Temple of the Sun, on the Island of the Sun, on Lake Titicaca, on the June Solstice, the rising sun is observed at 65 degrees east of north, and it sets at 295 degrees. I plotted the Temple of the Sun onto my map and drew in the 295 degree northwest solstice alignment. I was following the footsteps of Viracocha who from Lake Titicaca "journeyed northwest until he reached the Pacific Ocean".

The result was crude as I was drawing freehand on a paper map at Inca Wasi, 14'00 ft in the Andes, but the primary result of my speculation was astounding. The 295 degree June solstice alignment precisely locates the sacred sun complex at Pachacamac (pronounced: pah cha kamak) 25 miles southeast of Lima.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE PACHACAMAC TEMPLE IS THE DIVERSITY OF COMPARTMENTS DEDICATED TO VARIOUS SEPTS WITHIN THE CULT OF THE SUN.

Was this 295 degree, June solstice alignment, seen as a solar spinal column supporting the Inca's entire cosmovision? And as far as a ceke lines go, this alignment could be compared to a national highway.

There is no doubt that a physical Golden Sun Disk existed, but the Incas lived in an Imaginarium where metaphor and codes underlay every Temple, huaca, and shrine. Legends of the Golden Sun Disk describe an actual disk, but they also talk about its otherworldly secrets, which I believe are related to the discovery presented herein.

"THE WISDOM VIRACOCHA SPREAD FROM LAKE TITICAKA TO THE PACIFIC" IS SEEN MANIFESTED IN THIS 295 DEGREE SOUTHEAST - NORTHWEST SOLSTICE ALIGNMENT.

Had I discovered that the Viracocha creation myth, and his Golden Sun Disk, were metaphorical for the sun cycle as it scratched its southeast to northwest track in the summer sky?

Having turned the Inca's golden key, a flow of subjective evidence presented itself, to support my discovery.

  •  Pachacámac means "Pacha" world, and "camac" to animate - "The One who Animates the World." Therefore, at the northern and southern terminal points of the June solstice alignment, we have the 'creator of the world' at one end, and the 'animator of the world' at the other.

  •  The image of Viracocha carved on the Tiwanaku's Gate of the Sun shows him holding two staffs. Albeit these are most often interpreted as thunder and lightning, is it possible that they represent surveyors measuring staffs? Therefore Viracocha founded The Temple of the Sun on the Island of the Sun, travelled to the northwest and founded Pachacamac at the opposite end of the solstice alignment which defines the entire Inca Empire from north to south.

  •  Built centuries before the time of the Incas, Pachacamac was considered one of the most important religious centers of the indigenous peoples of the central Andes. Noted for its great pyramidal temples at the time of the Spanish conquest it was a major Inca religious centre of worship and learning. The Temple of the Sun is located on a rocky promontory overlooking the Pacific ocean and has four pyramidal bodies truncated to superimpose one another.

295 degree southeast - northwest solstice alignment between the two Temples of the Sun.