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The masonry of Tiahuanaco reveals some of the most skillful workmanship in South Amer-
        ica, along with the earliest use of metal for structural purposes ever found in the Western Hemi-
        sphere. Then, suddenly, certain structures were left uncompleted when all work SUDDENLY
        CEASED.


               Dozens and dozens of huge building blocks lay scattered in all directions around the site --
        tossed like matchsticks in a terrible disaster that overtook Tiahuanaco no later than the 11th mille-
        nium B.C. by the reckoning of imperfect dating methods. Professor Arthur Posnansky, a German-
        Bolivian scholar who has been investigating the ruins for almost fifty years, writes in his book Ti-
        ahuanaco   that this catastrophe was caused by an overflow of the waters of Lake Titicaca. He
        states:


               It is also possible that the temporary increase in the level of the lake may have been caused in part by the
               breaking of the bulwarks on some of the lakes further to the north and situated at a greater altitude...thus
               releasing the waters which descended toward Lake Titicaca in onrushing and unrestrainable torrents (I, p.
               55)


               What caused the lakes to overflow and release water into Lake Titicaca with such awe-
        some ferocity? The 15 cubits of water that descended upon the unfortunate land!


               Posnansky's evidence that a flood of tremendous proportions had been the agent of the de-
        struction of Tiahuanaco included,


               The discovery of lacustrine flora, Paludestrina culminea, and Paludestrina andecola, Ancylus titicacensis,
               Planorbis titicacensis, etc., mixed in the alluvia with the skeletons of human beings who perished in the
               cataclysm...and the discovery of various skeletons of Orestias, fish of the family of the present bogas, in
               the same alluvia which contain the human remains...(ibid., I, p. 39).


               In addition, according to Posnansky, fragments of human and animal skeletons have been
        found lying

               in chaotic disorder among wrought stones, utensils, tools and an endless variety of other things. All of this
               has been moved, broken and accumulated in a confused heap. Anyone who would dig a trench here two
               meters deep could not deny that the destructive force of water, in combination with brusque movements
               of the earth, must have accumulated those different kinds of bones, mixing them with pottery, jewels,
               tools and utensils...Layers of alluvium cover the whole field of the ruins and lacustrine sand mixed with
               shells from Titicaca, decomposed feldspar and volcanic ashes have accumulated in the places surrounded
               by walls...(ibid., III, pp. 142-143).

               The fact that the shells discovered in the flood debris at Tiahuanaco were all FRESHWA-
        TER varieties indicates that sea water never reached this altitude during the Flood -- another proof
        that the mountains of the world were NOT covered (submerged) by waters of the Genesis account.

               After the rains ceased and the flood waters subsided, the culture of the area never again
        gained a high point of development but fell into a total and definitive decadence. As the years
        passed, the lake continued to drain -- marooning the great city and separating it from the waters
        which had formerly played such a vital role in its economic life. According to Posnansky --



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