A long time before the Inka reigned, there were in those parts men in the manner of giants, as grown as they showed the figures that were sculpted in the stones. Pedro de Cieza de León Crónica de Perú (1553)

A Surprising Account

On a recent journey to Bolivia and Peru, searching the traces of the primeval civilization of Tiahuanaco and of the Inca, engineer Celso García Vargas heard perhaps one of the most amazing accounts that resounds with a remote pre-Hispanic tradition.

In fact, this account is a contemporary echo of the original substrate of the gods of the Americas.

A few years ago, Celso García Vargas travelled to the Andean highlands. Near the sacred site of Ollantaytambo (about 90 km northwest of Cuzco, the capital city of the Tahuantinsuyo or Inca Empire) he met a descendant of an indigenous Peruvian, who after a series of conversations, spoke of an extraordinary expedition.

The indigenous informant spoke about a pilgrimage that a group of locals undertook to a sacred mountain associated with a lake where “the lights fall from the sky” and “before dawn they leave the lake and return to the stars” (donde “las luces caen del cielo” y “antes del amanecer salen del lago y regresan a las estrellas”). At this mountain site, they held certain rituals. While developing this activity the pilgrims found a “large tomb” in which they were able to see the “body of a giant”.

Astonished, I asked Celso García Vargas what word his informant specifically used. “Giant” he replied undisturbed.

The informant also explained that they saw the skull of the “giant” having “two protuberances”.

If artificial, technically this skull would be an extreme tabular erect modification in its bilobal modality.

And, amazingly, they also found the ring, supposed of this giant.

An example of an Andean pre-Hispanic “lateral distortion” skull. What was the original model? (Author Provided)

The Tradition of the Giants in the Americas

To most, just the mention of “giant” would invalidate and even ridicule this report. Strikingly, from the beginning of the so-called Discovery of America in 1492, Europeans of different nationalities elaborated records of the presence of “giants” practically throughout the geography of the continent. Thus, the “giants” are part of the writings of Américo Vespucio, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Pedro Cieza de León, Fernando de Montesinos, Fray Diego Durán, Joseph de Acosta, Francisco López de Gómara, Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando de Alba Ixtlilxochitl, Fray José Mariano Rothea and Fray Andrés de Olmos among other chroniclers and explorers.

But were the “giants” the product of the European mentality of the time? Were these reports a simple invention of the historians then? If so, what could have been the reason or purpose? Would the most prestigious scholars of the time, in many cases affiliated with the Catholic Church, dare to ‘invent’ something of this nature? Or, more disturbingly, were these records the result of authentic observations?

Against all modern concepts and prejudices, pre-Hispanic traditions from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska record the existence of the “giants”. The tradition of the Selk’nam of Tierra del Fuego spoke of the giants Cásquels, Kawtcho and the ‘giant of the Hoste Island’.

In Patagonia, the locals and visitors have recorded “giants” and their settlements, such as the Reino de los Gigantes –the “Kingdom of the Giants”– and the Volcán de los Gigantes –the “Volcano of the Giants” (Melimoyu).

The epithet of these giants were “Viracochas”. This is, the Castellanized version of “Huarijochas” –formerly Huari-Huarijochas. The etymological meaning of this concept is associated with the huaras or smelter, being Viracocha thus “metallurgist”.

Fretum Magellanicum. A map of Patagonia by Petrus Bertius of 1606 where it was consignated the Patagonum Regio (“Kingdom of the Patagones”) and the Montañas de Gigantes (“Mountains of Giants”) as well as the illustration two bearded giants with bows and arrows. (Author Provided)

Details from the above map, shows the name ‘Montanas de Gigantes’ and supposed representations of giants. (Author Provided)

In the sacred pre-Hispanic tradition, the Viracochas were the White Gods that spread the civilization in the Americas from South to North. Over time, the Andean myths that were recorded by the conquistadores and the chroniclers, and even by the explorers during the 20th century refer to the existence of these inhabitants.

In relation to these “giants”, explorer and colonel, Percy Henry Fawcett, determined that the city of Tiahuanacu was built, like Sacsayhuamán and much of Cuzco, by a race that manipulated cyclopean rocks, and that sculpted them to fit so perfectly, that it is impossible to introduce even the leaf of a knife between the joints, without the use of any mortar. Contemplating these ruins, it is not difficult to believe in the tradition which relates that they were built by giants; indeed, it is said that skeletons of giants have been discovered in the stone tombs in the vicinity of Cuzco.

What’s more, the portentous city-port of Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku in the highlands of Bolivia was built according to the tradition by “giants”, that is, the Viracochas. This is one of the reasons why Jesuit historian Bernabé Cobo expressed in relation to Tiahuanaco that its buildings are from before the Flood, since it must have been a city built by giants.

In his well-founded study Das Sonnentor von Tihuanaku und Hörbigers Welteislehre (“The Gate of the Sun of Tiahuanaco and the Doctrine of Universal Ice of Hörbiger”, 1937) archaeologist Edmund Kiss wrote that Tiahuanaco was built by a race of giants or Viracochas.

Left: A detail of the map of the New World of Diego Gutiérrez (1562) where the Gigantvm Regio or “Kingdom of the Giants” appears in Patagonia. (Public Domain/Author Provided) Right: Detail of the map of Juan de la Cruz Cano and Olmedilla of 1775 where the Volcán de los Gigantes [V. de los Gigantes] (“Volcano of the Giants”) is recognized in continental Chiloé, in the south of Chile. (Author Provided/Public Domain)

The discovery of a tomb of giants in Puerto Deseado in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, according to the information of the map America of 1615 by Theodor de Bry. The text of this map consigned with the letter H, indicates: Tombs of skeletons of very tall human beings, with bones of 10 to 11 feet [3.48 to 3.63 m], their skulls, once opened, could be placed on our heads as if they were helmets. (Author Provided)

As pointed out, the presence of the “giants” for Europeans has been recorded since the 15th century. In this regard, Mercedarian chronicler Fray Martín de Murúa reproduced the descriptions of the Amautas about the succession of the great suns, or eras, preserved in the temple of Mama Oclio in Cuzco.

This related to some remarkable accounts and notable fables, claiming that since the creation of the world until this time, four suns have passed, not including this one that illuminates us at the present time.

The first was lost by water.

The second falling from the sky to Earth and killing the giants that lived then – the bones that the Spaniards have found in different places belong to them.

The third sun disappeared by fire. The fourth by air.

About the fifth sun they had a great account and they painted it and marked in the temple of Curicancha and placed in their quipus [the Andean mnemonic knots] until the year of 1554.

Left: An 18th century engraving of a Patagonian giant with his family. Note the similarity with the petroglyphic representations of the Viracochas or Chiles. Right: A petroglyph group in Atacama, in the north of Chile, with the representation of the Viracochas –the tallest anthropomorphic figures with a kind of halo around their heads– along with men and animals. (Author Provided)

Yet, the tradition of the “giants” is not restricted to South America, nor to the records of Europeans, as in Mesoamerica there are also abundant myths, legends and accounts about them. One of the most significant is found in the pre-Hispanic tradition about the first Sun according to the Códice Vaticano Latino 3738:

First Sun, Matlactli Atl: It lasted 4008 years. Those who lived then ate water corn called Atzizintli. In this age called Tzontliiztac, “Head or White Hairs”, the Tzocuiliceque giants lived. The Sun was destroyed by water in the sign Matlactli Atl “10 Water”. It was called Apachiohualiztli, “Flood, Deluge”, [this is] art or spell of permanent rain. The men were transformed in fish. Some say that a couple was saved, Nene and Tata, who were sheltered in an Ahuehuetl “an old tree that lives next to the water”; while others comment that there were seven couples who hid in a cave from which they left when the Flood was over and the waters descended. They repopulated Earth and were worshiped as gods in their nations. The goddess who presided over this Era was Chalchiutlicue, “the one with the jade skirt”. (Códice Vaticano Latino 3738)

Thus, while the giants were known in the Andes as Viracochas they were acknowledged as Tzocuiliceque in Mesoamerica!

Another chronicler of the history of the Americas, Fernando de Montesinos, in his fascinating book Memorias antiguas historiales y políticas del Perú (“Ancient Memories of History and Politics of Peru”, 1570-1572), talks of the origin of the giants in Pirú in the chapter entitled ‘ What happened in the time of this King in Cuzco’. He talks of – still with the Christian filter – the surprising arrival of this group on the Peruvian Pacific coast, and also has partially glimpsed their destiny:

While King Ayar Tacco Capac was very quiet in Cuzco, the ariolos and fortunetellers told him how, wanting to appease the Illatici’s wrath, they found a very bad prognosis in the entrails of the sheep and rams that they had sacrificed. The King took care of this, and a few days later it came to him how in the Llanos they had disembarked, of rafts and canoes that made a great fleet, many strange people, and that they were populating, especially on the shores of the rivers; and that they were men of great stature and had passed forward…

…The spies also said how the great and tall men had reached the point we now call Santa Elena, and controlling that land of Puerto Viejo, and that the natives were fleeing them because they used their bodies badly. And it was not, in my opinion, to flee from sin, because they too were given to sodomy but because of the damage that their instruments received of their faith that they use to take away their lives. But it was so much the excess of these giants that the punishment of the divine justice took place which punished them in an instant by sending fire from heaven that suddenly consumed them. The Amautas pretend here, that their father the Sun, with very hot rays, burned them, because otherwise they will finish the world.

From this there are bones that God preserved as an example for those to come. A bone looks from the knee down, from the height of a man. There are also some wells on the very tip of Santa Elena that were made in a rock where very fresh and very good water is taken; a work of great admiration.

King Ayar Tacco, suspicious of these people who were populating in some places in the mountains, as in Caxamarca and Huáitara and in all the Llanos, left Cuzco with a large army with the intention of holding and enforcing them. He came to Andaguailas, and there he had news that the opposing people were many and very misshapen. He changed his mind and contented himself with placing a garrison in Vilcas and in Lima Tambo, giving straight orders to the corporals not to let these strange people pass through Cuzco; but trusting little in others’ diligences and revealing the impact of the enemies he wanted to be present in Lima Tambo, in front of them, because he knew that they made gatherings and forts in the Llanos against him. He arranged his people in this way: By the hills he disposed many soldiers who with gauges and big stones hindered the enemy’s passage, forcing him to go by the road, that by Lima Tambo is narrow, and in it he put the strength of his people .

Memorias antiguas historiales y políticas del Perú, 1882

Where did the “giants” come from? What was their origin? Was it Patagonia as suggested by archaeologist Adolf Bandelier?

Concerning their destiny, and as it has been shown in several studies, the fire from heaven as referred by Fernando de Montesinos was in fact the consequences of the “Clovis Comet Impact”.

The last Great Catastrophe!

Left: The destruction of the giants according to historian Pedro Cieza de León in the Crónica del Perú. El Señorío de los Incas (“Chronicle of Peru. The Lordship of the Incas”. 1550). Just as in the chronicle of Fernando de Montesinos, Cieza de León consigned the destruction of the giants by the fire from heaven. Right: A relief in the city of Quito of the year 1650 where two bearded giants with clubs have been represented (Photo by Rafael Videla Eissmann).

Fragmentary Evidence

As explained in the preceding paragraphs, the records of the “giants” in the pre-Hispanic tradition of the Americas are a substantial fact. Even more, the “giants” –beyond the Christian prejudice of chroniclers and missionaries– were in fact the god-men of the pre-Diluvial age (see the First Sun, Matlactli Atl of the Mesoamerican Volkskunde: ‘They repopulated Earth and were worshiped as gods in their nations.’) This is of the time that precedes the last world catastrophe or “Clovis Comet Impact” – 12,000 BP – a cosmic event that not only smashed the megafauna in the continent but also generated a significant decrease of the original population, the so called Paleo-Americans, the Dolichocephalic skull group that preceded the Brachycephallic-Indigenous people.

Was the Dolichocephalic skull substratum descendants of the “giants”? Were they their offspring? It is quite possible. All the species that developed after the World Catastrophe became smaller –while those before 10,950 BC were larger and generally more robust than today’s. To mention some examples, just in the continent of America: The American lions, horses and camels, mastodons-mammoths, short-faced bear, dire wolf, giant beaver and giant tortoises.

Is it just a coincidence?

What factor generated this biological modification? Was it the ‘new’ dynamic of Earth’s and Moon’s gravity, as promoted by the Glacial Cosmogony of Hans Hörbiger and Phillip Fauth?

Fundamental information that would reinforce this idea was given by historian Pedro Cieza de León in his Crónica del Perú. El Señorío de los Incas (“Chronicle of Peru. The Lordship of the Incas”, 1550) which refers that after the world was in darkness (the catastrophe), the Sun arose in Titicaca Lake and that from the south came Tici Viracocha, a white man of grown body, who was of great authority and veneration. This point is essential, because the information given by Cieza de León was based on the traditions collected among Amautas and informants clearly states the migration from the south of the giant Tici Viracocha, a “white man of grown body”, who after carrying out his civilizing role went north to never be seen again. According to the record of Cieza de León, the indigenous usually named him for the most part Tiseviracocha although in the Province of Collao they called him Tuapaca and in other places Harnava.

Along with the records in chronicles there are interesting engravings that describe the giants as well as their tombs.

And So We Come to the Giant’s Ring

Although hard to prove, the ring would be a peculiar artifact that echoes the existence of this group. Of a quite rustic style, it presents the figure of a condor with a large three-feathered tail. Next to it, the broken remaining legs of what should be another condor. The alloy – gold, silver and copper – is known as Champi.

The internal diameter is 2.7 cm, or just over an inch. The projection of the size of this ring in an individual would be of 2.30-2.50 meters or 7 foot 7 inches to 8 foot 2 inches.

The extraordinary ring of a ‘giant’. The existence of this group, known as Viracochas in the Andean world is remote. (Photos courtesy of Celso García Vargas, 2019, Author provided).

(Photos courtesy of Celso García Vargas, 2019, Author provided).

What was the meaning of this rare piece of metallurgy? What significance did it have? What is its antiquity? Are there other similar pieces?

Cóndor is in fact, the castellanization of Kuntur, being in the Andean tradition originally Apu Kuntur –Sacred Condor. The Kuntur is the “Messenger of the Gods” and therefore related to Hannan Pacha or the “World of Above”, Kay Pacha the ‘surface’ of the World, and Uku Pacha the “World of Below”.

The symbolic importance of the condor in the pre-Hispanic world can be observed in the presence of sixteen figures in the portentous Sun Gate of Tiahuanaco –the Metropolis of the Viracochas– as one of the divine beings that constitutes the calendar.

A detail of the Sun Gate of Tiahuanaco. In the second row there is a sequence of men-condors carrying the Saturri or power staff of the Andean tradition. The central figure of the gate is Huirajocha Tauapácac and he carries in his left hand a staff with two condor heads. (Author supplied)

Left: A Tiahuanaco censer. The usual white collar of feathers of the condor is here represented by an eight pointed star, this is, a symbol of Venus â , and related therefore to Hannan Pacha or the “World of Above” (Photo by Ernest Amoros / National Museum of the American Indian). Right: A high relief with the figure of the Apu Kuntur of the Gran Pajaten Cultural Complex in Peru. (Author Provided)