Foreign Writers and Marcahuasi

It isn't as simple as just trawling through the books of Erich Von Daniken, Rodolfo Benavides, Charles Berlitz and Peter Kolosimo. These writers gave a lot about their investigations and publications that, despite their age, continue under the classification of esoteric, unexplainable mysteries, disappeared civilizations, mysticism, and the presence of extraterrestrials on Earth; topics that hold us hostage due to the mystery of the unknown. In many works these writers do however mention Marcahuasi.

From August 1952, when Daniel Ruzo travelled to the plateau of Marcahuasi for the first time, he described this place throughout Peru and in many parts of the world through conferences, and in leaflets and books written by this pioneer of the plateau. Due to this diffusion of information, many foreign writers mentioned Marcahuasi in their books.

The Mexican writer Rodolfo Benavides, in his book "Dramatic prophecies of the big pyramid" (34th edition), in page 33, "chapter II - The fantastic that is confused with the real" says
"In the altiplano of Marcahuasi, in the peaks of the Andes at 3800m above sea level, there are figures of humans and animals (some the predecesors of mammals) sculpted into the rocks, corresponding to the second age. And not just that, there are also statues of lions, camels and tortoise. All of that, in a context where they believed that such species were unknown in America. It has been impossible to say the age of these monuments by carbon(14) dating*."

* Carbon(14) dating is a method designed to determine the age of rock, though not the only method known.

They mention in their books that in the plateau of Marcahuasi there are lions, camels, tortoise and elephants. Why don't they publish photos?

Erich Von Daniken, polemic and well-discussed writer about the extraterrestrial phenomenon, in his book "Memories for the future" on page 123 says "At an altitude of 3800 metres above sea level, in some rocks of the deserted plateau of Marcahuasi they found some drawings of animals that didn't exist in South America 10000 years ago; camels and lions"*

* The information about Marcahuasi is here in the petrified sculptures, Mr Daniken, you still have the opportunity to grapple with this mystery, "we await you".

The Monument to Humanity, the principle sculpture on the plateau, and they don't mention it. The sculptures of animals and humans are of the same age!

"Memories for the future" was published in more than 44 editions and in different languages, mentioning that they found "drawings" in Marcahuasi, an error that not even the aliens would forgive. In other books by the same author he mentions the sacred mountain.

In 1979 Charles Berlitz published the book "The Bermuda Triangle"; an investigator of UFOs and mysteries, and often criticized for this book. On page 223 of the book, chapter 8 "Surprises of the prehistoric" cites "In the plateau of Marcahuasi, near Kenko, Peru. There are huge rock workings, and in some cases there are slopes that have been changed by the carvings. The preincan works, despite finding themselves crumbling from uncountable centuries, can be identified as lions, horses, camels and elephants, none of which are known to have existed during the ages of civilisation in South America".

Millions of people that read "The Bermuda Triangle" have erroneous information due to Charles Berlitz, by writing that Marcahuasi is found "near Kenko" (Cuzco)! There is a property called Marcahuasi, in the district of Mollepata (province of Anta) with Inca ruins, but there are no carvings of lions, horses, camels or elephants!


The book "Spaceships in Pre-history" by the journalist Peter Kolosimo, that in the 1970s was a revelation for his investigations, publications and exploring of the mysteries, in page 92 chapter III "The children of the moon" writes this of Marcahuasi :
"In Marcahuasi, the enigmatic deserted plateau, at an altitude of 3800 metres in Peru, at the west of the Andes mountain chain, Daniel Ruzo has found sculptures that represent extinct species that lived up from 195 to 130 millions of years ago, figures of elephants, oxen, and horses, animals that didn't exist in America in the times of Christopher Columbus' discovery."

Anfichelidia, as it was named by Daniel Ruzo, an animal that disappeared thousand of years ago, but not millions. You can find it near the five lakes.

To cite that Marcahuasi lies to the west of the Andes mountain range, knowing that this goes from the south to the north of Peru, lacks precision and that Daniel Ruzo found extinct species that lived 195 to 130 millions of years ago is nothing fantastic, not even a millionaires realism. Rest in peace, in some spaceship Peter Kolosimo.

The plateau of Marcahuasi is located in the district of San Pedro de Casta, in the province of Huarochiri, 90 kilometres east of Lima, the Peruvian capital. It is at an altitude of 4000 metres above sea level. Charles Berlitz ... please inform yourself, in the next life!

There are many foreign writers that mention Marcahuasi, like Jacques Bergier, Louis Powell, Reais Pire etc, but they don't go further than the well known fact. Consequently the sacred mountain continues being a mystery, and the reader continues seeing through a small Peruvian hole a series of sculptures that survive the inclemencies of the weather, defying human intelligence.

Daniel Ruzo, in his book "Marcahuasi, the fantastic history of a discovery" (the Marcahuasian bible) thanks Jacques Bergier, Louis Powell for the praise that they heaped on him in their books. But what of the other writers ?

Rodolfo Benavides, Erich Von Daniken, Charles Berlitz and Peter Kolosimo, ... lovers of mystery, disappeared civilisations, and the presence of aliens on earth, ... they all need to become reconciled with the petrified forest for writing about Marcahuasi without even having visited it! Knowing, as they do, that here the mystery is so strong. What happened? without them all being explorers of ... of what exactly? Didn't they want to visit, or weren't they able, or was it the ambition to publish book after book with titles that are each time more suggestive, they got confused in the nebula of their own vested interests.

We arrive at Marcahuasi in search of "something", and we return without knowing why. This photography, that the writers of the mystery ignored, and Ruzo never saw, but he did predict it.

The truth is that these authors published millions of books, in many languages, with citations about Marcahuasi and about Daniel Ruzo, but they never made any observation of their own. Why was that?

Conclusion : There is so much charm and so much mystery in Marcahuasi and they wrote nothing of note, just a citation re-worded or cloned.



Next Post: An English "Lord" in Marcahuasi.
Photos : John Ysrael Guevara

An ex-President and I in Marcahuasi

I've still not digested totally the coup of the 5th of April 1992. Similarly I've still don't understand totally the acts of the terrorists, military forces, and the Peruvian government ... but I'm not going to write about that, but instead about my meeting with a Peruvian president on the 28th of June 1992 on the plateau in Marcahuasi.


The 90's was when I most visited the sacred mountain. I went up with the hope of meeting Daniel Ruzo, Rosario Olivas Weston or his sister Marcela, who I did actually meet. I never imagined I would find the Peruvian head of state.

San Pedro de Casta was ready to celebrate another anniversary, and the preparations for dancing, eating and drinking were well received by the happy people who arrived, and by the tourists also. Very few backpackers went up to the plateau and we were amongst the few. We camped in the Hut (of Ruzo) alone; when I say alone obviously we always had the company of the Monument to Humanity with us.

The day after (28th of June) I got up very early to take in some of the views near the Hut and, when the photographic search was over, we started to prepare a delicious breakfast-lunch, and then we went to rest alongside "the Chinese", "the Llama" and "the Soldier" (petrified sculptures) ...

This aircraft perhaps scared Soctacure and the Monument to Humanity. For us it raised the question "who is it?"



The morning was warm, clean and quiet. The astral god slowly warmed the rocks, the peace was infinite ... when suddenly we heard a noise that was growing, encircling the plateau. A rowdy noise that seemed to be nearing, and then leaving, or that is how it felt from the position where we found ourselves. The peace that Marcahuasi freely gifts us was broken.

"There!, there it is! It's a helicopter!" we shouted in unison, while it overflew the Hut and returned to the south of the plateau, repeating this several times. They gave us time to arm our cameras, and to ask "Who is it?"

The aircraft made many passes over the plateau, a new way to visit and to arrive at Marcahuasi, and to view it from the sky was a real privilege for whoever was aboard. I've seen the aerial photos of the plateau, published by Daniel Ruzo, but there are no photos of sculptures taken from above.

At one point I thought it may be some military mission, that possibly the terrorists had been in Marcahuasi. I believed also that it maybe was an informative exercise due to the parties of San Pedro de Casta. The thing I never expected was that this craft had aboard the Peruvian President!

After a short walk, past the tortoise and the African lions, the president prepared his food here. A few rocks and a top chef in Marcahuasi

After bathing Marcahuasi in that presidential noise, the helicopter was quietening, and started to descend and, to my amazement, was welcomed by "The Monkey", "The Monument to Humanity", "The Tortoise", and "The African Lion" ...

It is 10:30am and I left the place I was at, running to the Hut, and grabbed the recorder. These were instants that my periodistic sense of smell activated. I wanted to know who really had landed there.

I went down, just like someone returning to San Pedro de Casta, and the went up the path behind the tortoise, agitated. I don't know if I walked or ran, but to my amazement she stepped out of the shadows. In front of me was Sachi; of course I knew who she was. With this agitation typical of the altitude, I asked "do you think your father would give me an interview?". She looked at me for an instant, and said "of course, go ahead". The distance between her and the others was almost nothing, but was enough to organise my questions, and in that fight I was in front of 2 adults, 2 children and a spoilt dog.

"One goes sometimes to Marcahuasi, with wind behind you,
you meet good friends, beautiful sculptures ...
But on this occasion I met the Peruvian president.
A blessing from the mountain gods"


A welcome broke the protocols, and a forced presentation that Marcahuasi's silence only knows. Now relaxed, sat on the rocks, looking towards the Monument to Humanity, the cyclops that is most discussed in Marcahuasi. The president asked me point blank "to what medium do you belong". "To none. I'm writing about this place, because I find it very interesting" I replied.

The president, perhaps tired of questions and answers in the capital came here for refuge, without thinking that at 4000 metres of altitude I was waiting for him! I don't know if this meeting was work of the mountain gods, or a prize for my continual returns here. Whatever it was for, I was now interviewing the Peruvian president, Mr Alberto Kenji Fujimori Fujimori, at the sacred mountain on the eve of the San Pedro de Casta anniversary.

This photo marks the end of the interview, and an eternal memory that was lived in Marcahuasi. In this sense, the Monument to Humanity was witness to this meeting.

The complete interview with Alberto Fujimori will be published in my book.




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Next Post: Foreign Writers and Marcahuasi
Photos : John Ysrael Guevara

The Cliffs of Marcahuasi

I've no idea how they formed, nor when it happened, but there it is. The beautiful cliffs will be there, defeating time and our admiration.

These are lovely amazing scenes, in the morning, and better still when the sun is setting. They are an abyss to make us nervous, immense precipices that delight us right down to our being, that to be over them is to extract the mystery, the loneliness, the wind and the freedom.

We are anxious to know what is beyond the cliffs ... this is something that we ask ourselves every trip.


Extended rocks playing with the light ... waiting to crumble, unique cliffs without comparison, immobile and sleeping like angels or demons protecting the sacred mountain for millions of years.

Nobody looks for truth here - a magic game of shadows and sculptures.

How did these cliffs start? What happened here? Is this a punishment or a prize given to us by the plateau? Which theory should we believe? The esoteric? The mystic? The geological? or the extraterrestrial? All I know is that the cliffs signify a place to live and remember, to ask and ask.

We all arrive here, to enjoy the beauty of the cliffs, of the capricious cliffs, refugees, imprisoned and forgotten.

There is always a perfect instant to see something in Marcahuasi.

The majority of the sculptures that there are in Marcahuasi you will find near or within the cliffs, at the side of the plateau, besides which these precipices are very high that together with the rain, the clouds and the sun form beautiful landscapes that to contemplate is to enliven a strange happiness.

I have no proof to say how these monstrous petrified rocks rose, but they know how they arrived and when they will go, and while they exist they will continue enchanting us every time, a little more each time.

This is a picture made by the rain, the cliffs huddled wrapped in lichen, a landscape that paralyses the emotions.

To contemplate these cliffs we don't need the same language to understand each other, to be here is a constant motive, to be asphyxiated with admiration, because Marcahuasi always challenging us.

Who sculptured these rocks in Marcahuasi, here where time and space is everything and nothing. The cliffs are the formations of largest emotional impact, in a place where we need to protect the peace, where in every visit we consume the fruits of mystery, without losing sight of Marcahuasi as a whole.

Cliffs that divide the silence of the wilderness; to the visitors to Marcahuasi they will continue signifying the search for something.

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Next Post: An ex-President and I in Marcahuasi
Photos : John Ysrael Guevara

Interview : Manuel Olivares Bautista

"An inhabitant of San Pedro de Casta, loyal to Daniel Ruzo and Marcahuasi"

There are many reasons to interview Manuel, from San Pedro de Casta, who worked during 9 years alongside Daniel Ruzo in Marcahuasi. His experiences and his anecdotes keep on coming, never ending, and those of us that had the opportunity to travel with him to the plateau to get to know the petrified sculptures know what a privilege it is (was).

Tourists that arrive at his guest house, whether Peruvian or from further afield, can enjoy his stories, his emotions and sadnesses, but sadly it is now impossible for him to accompany us to climb up to the sacred mountain. His hearing and vision are not what they used to be and bit by bit reduce further. This interview that he gracefully conceded me is a gift for all visitors that keep on asking for more and more about Marcahuasi


Don Manuel says : "When I go up to the plateau, it brings back many memories of Ruzo" (Photo by Andy Jefferson)

What did Daniel Ruzo say about what is Marcahuasi?
He said "Marcahuasi, for me, is a relic". He was amazed, until at night when he wanted to take some photos, he had a mule that walked all day, and he always repeated "With time, many tourists will come", and I didn't believe it. Now I realise that it will happen.

With respect to the Monument to Humanity, what did he say?
We know it as the Inca's head, but for Ruzo it was Monument to Humanity. He said that this isn't a natural rock formation - "Man has worked here" - He even brought French archaeologists to help him declare that his theory was correct.

Were the rock formations and the ruins important to Daniel Ruzo?
No. The ruins were not important to him. The rock formations, and the stones certainly were, because all day, travelling across every stone, with him mounted on the mule, and me leading it, from 6 in the morning, until 6 at night. We ate a cold lunch, only half an hour to rest, and then ready to continue!


The hut
"Here the doctor lived, and only I have the key. During the 9 years that I worked with him, and when he returned to Lima I remained here as guardian" Manuel remembers with nostalgia.

How was he with you?
At the start he treated me well. Once he took the French archaeologists, and in the hut where he lived he kept everything, and only I had the key. The driver walked in and took an apple, and for that he called me and released me without saying why. That night I left them and came to the town leaving him with the archaeologists.
Later the driver said to me "after listening to everything he just said to them 'go, go ...'". Ruzo said to him that if I leave him, then he loses all of his work "Manuel is the only person who puts up with everything I ask"

How was the behaviour of the tourists that arrived at your guest house?
They behave well. When they are peruvians they grab things, they take the blankets, and I have to be there to keep control. They're not tourists, better to call them backpackers. Not the foreign tourists, they take care of things.


The street where his guest house is (green)
When Julio Heart came (Argentinian), contracted by Daniel Ruzo, I worked with him for two years and because of that I have this guest house here. He guided me.

Of his book, of the photos of Daniel Ruzo, did you appear in any?
No, not one. Only in some photos do I appear, and after that he didn't give me the opportunity. Of course the figures I know, because I saw where he took the photos, I know the place, and the the exact time of day.

The cold starts to beat down on San Pedro de Casta, the darkness of autumn, and we say our goodbyes, and Manuel Olivares will continue arranging the hats of the people of San Pedro de Casta, and waiting for the tourists. With the desire to tell us everything, everything that he learned there on the sacred mountain, everything that he wisely inherited from Daniel Ruzo.

In the complete interview there is a lot more about Daniel Ruzo, about his relation with the rocks, San Pedro de Casta, and the relation with Manuel. The full version will appear in my book.

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Next Post: The Cliffs of Marcahuasu
Photos : John Ysrael Guevara