310: Chapter 310: Did people transport a 100-ton boulder to an altitude of 3800 meters 17,000 years ago?

Jiang Zhe's gaze fell on Xiaoyu. "Xiaoyu, when you think of super-ancient civilizations, what's the first thing that comes to mind? It can be anything."

Xiaoyu's brow furrowed slightly as she had a sudden realization. "The Pyramids, the Sphinx, Ancient Greek Temples, the Maya Pyramids, and so on."

Suddenly, something occurred to her. "It's stones, brother! It's stones!"

"Mm, and why stones?"

"Because for many ancient civilizations, the most common artifacts and ruins unearthed are made of stone."

"Moreover, some stone objects are particularly incredible; it's completely illogical for them to appear in that era. I don't know the specifics and can't quite put it into words, but I just feel that stone seems to be a very crucial element."

Jiang Zhe grinned and nodded with satisfaction.

"Yes, it is precisely stones."

"Next, I'll tell you about another civilization even more miraculous than the Pyramids. Once its secrets are unlocked, all the illogicalities will be resolved!"

In Kyoto, at the Qingfeng Temple.

Hearing what Xiaoyu said, Zheng Ming couldn't help but look at Wen Jingqiu.

"Professor Wen, why stones? What's so special about them?"

Wen Jingqiu began to explain.

"According to current research, ancient people worked with stone even better than we modern people do."

"Many wonders and miracles were created by those civilizations that 'played' with stones."

"Modern people, on the other hand, are unable to replicate that kind of divine craftsmanship."

"They say the Great Wall is a wonder of the world, but in our circles, the number one wonder has always been the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, followed by the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt. Our Great Wall and Terracotta Army are ranked seventh and eighth."

"Building long isn't as impressive as building high, and building high isn't as impressive as building heavy. The Pyramids are both high and heavy, far exceeding that era."

"It was once rumored in our circles that only the seventh and eighth—our country's Great Wall and Terracotta Army—were man-made. The first through sixth were all made by aliens or super-ancient civilizations."

Speaking of this, she couldn't help but smile slightly. "Of course, this might be a joke because it's so inconceivable, but that's truly how it feels."

"For example, the cutting of giant stones for the Pyramids, the stone wall joinery of the Inca Empire, the transport of the Easter Island statues... with the level of technology at the time, it should have been impossible to complete. Yet, they exist; they are right there."

"Stone is the most honest evidence left to us by ancient civilizations!"

Celestial Master Zhang's eyes lit up. Seeing Professor Wen praise those grand wonders so highly, he said, "If even the Great Wall and Terracotta Army can't compare to those massive wonders, does that mean there really are secrets hidden within the stones?"

Wen Jingqiu nodded. "Yes, and this secret might be deeper than we imagine."

Zheng Ming and Celestial Master Zhang were instantly intrigued, their eyes fixed intently on the large screen.

On the big screen, Jiang Zhe was holding a tablet, researching information.

He pulled up a set of pictures.

"Xiaoyu, the place I'm going to talk about now is called Puma Punku. It's also known as the Gateway of the Puma."

He handed the tablet to Xiaoyu.

Xiaoyu took it and browsed carefully. The screen showed a desolate plateau ruin. The grassland was in a moist state, half-desert and half-green grass. Countless massive stone blocks were scattered on the ground—some stacked into walls, others lying alone—with straight lines and sharp, distinct angles.

"Puma Punku is located at the border of Bolivia and Peru, in the Andes Mountains, at an altitude of over 3,800 meters."

"This site is one of the most miraculous stone ruins on Earth!"

Xiaoyu looked closely at the pictures and couldn't help but ask, "Brother, these stones look both new and ancient. How many years old are they? They couldn't be man-made, right?"

Looking at the features on the stones, they gave her the impression of technological creations rather than something made by ancient people.

Jiang Zhe shook his head slightly. "They weren't made by modern people."

"Currently, archaeologists believe this is a 2,000-year-old ancient site. Because this area was previously under the jurisdiction of the Inca Empire, archaeologists speculate it was built during the Inca period, around a few hundred years AD."

Then, his tone shifted.

"However!"

"The local people living near these ruins completely disagree."

"In their local legends, this is a city from 17,000 years ago, which is around 15,000 BC."

Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes instantly widened. "17,000 years ago? How is that possible? That's much earlier than the Pyramids. How could people back then have built something like this?"

Jiang Zhe didn't answer directly. He wanted to say that the Pyramids and Puma Punku were actually built during the same period.

However, since it wasn't helpful for the current topic, he just took the tablet back and zoomed in on the pictures.

"Look at these stones!"

Huge, regularly cut stones appeared on the screen.

They weren't naturally formed but were clearly manually polished. The right angles, flat surfaces, and grooves—the geometric precision was incredibly impressive!

"What do you see through these stones?"

Xiaoyu browsed the screen and spoke with some uncertainty, "This... how is it possible? How can they be so regular? It's like they were cut by machine tools. But where would machines come from 17,000 years ago?"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly. "Yes, archaeologists have the same doubts as you. In fact, this is called Andesite, a type of volcanic rock formed by rapid cooling. It's very hard, with a Mohs hardness of about 8."

"The hardest natural substance known to us humans is diamond, with a hardness of 10."

"In other words, theoretically, only our modern diamond tools could process these stones."

Not just Xiaoyu, but countless viewers were instantly intrigued.

How could there have been diamond processing tools 17,000 years ago?

The two photos shown were eerie in every detail. No one broke the strange atmosphere; everyone was listening intently.

Jiang Zhe continued to swipe through the pictures. "Xiaoyu, take another look at these H-shaped stones."

Stone blocks with grooves and protrusions appeared on the screen, fitted together as tightly as giant stone building blocks.

The surface of each stone was as smooth as a mirror, the lines were straight, and even a razor blade couldn't be inserted into the joints.

"Holy crap!" Xiaoyu couldn't help but exclaim. "Brother, this joinery is too precise. Even modern machine processing is only at this level. Is this really not a modern forgery? Could it have been faked by some artist?"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and shook his head. "It's just that miraculous and incredible!"

At this moment, the viewers in the livestream began to lose their cool.

"Damn, so exquisite? So smooth?"

"You're telling me this was made 17,000 years ago?"

"Modern machine processing is only at this level, right?"

"Modern machine processing can't even do this! Why? Because I work at a museum. We have a 1:1 replica, and even modern tools don't cut as well as these primitive stones from 17,000 years ago. When we cut stone, there are always textures; the texture on those stones is extremely smooth. Anyway, in a word: [We modern people can't f*cking do it either]!"

"Are these mobile phone models? Each one looks exactly like a modern LCD phone..."

"..." (Ps: True.)

In Kyoto, at the University of History faculty housing.

Chen Runzhi, Qian Mingyi, and Liu Guangyi were huddled around the screen, their eyes bright.

Wang Shouren looked at the three of them and couldn't help but ask, "Why have you stopped talking? Is there something special about these stones?"

Chen Runzhi said with a serious face, "Shh. In history and archaeology, these are very miraculous ruins."

"If you keep listening, you'll see that Jiang isn't joking, because these things really are from 17,000 years ago."

"The problem is, according to archaeological speculation, people at that time were still in the late Stone Age, using tools made of chicken bones. How could they have carved such exquisite and massive boulders?"

Qian Mingyi added, "Moreover, even the smallest of these stones weighs several tons, and the largest over a hundred tons. Never mind 17,000 years ago—even today, to transport a hundred-ton boulder, we'd have to cut it or use heavy machinery. Not to mention a single, massive block from 17,000 years ago. They transported the whole block up there without almost any cutting. It's like a feat of the gods!"

Liu Guangyi nodded. "Puma Punku has always been an unsolved mystery in the archaeological world."

After hearing this, Wang Shouren was struck dumb. He hadn't expected Puma Punku to be so impressive.

He hurriedly moved forward, simply sitting on the small tea table in front of Old Liu. He adjusted his glasses and looked closely at the screen.

Old Liu: "You're blocking me!"

On the big screen, on the sofa.

Jiang Zhe continued to swipe through the pictures, zooming in on a massive stone.

"Among these stones, the largest weighs a staggering 100 tons. The largest stone in the Pyramid of Khufu, which I didn't go into detail about before, is only 60 tons. The largest one here is 40 tons heavier than the heaviest in the Pyramid."

"And these H-shaped stones are all carved from a single piece of rock; they aren't built up from small pieces like the Pyramids."

Xiaoyu couldn't help but ask further, "Then where did these stones come from?"

The corner of Jiang Zhe's mouth curled slightly. "Good question."

He pulled up a map and pointed to a spot in the Andes Mountains.

"According to geological surveys, the source of these stones is a place a hundred kilometers away called the Copacabana Peninsula."

"The rock composition there is identical to the stones of Puma Punku."

Xiaoyu listened with a look of confusion, as if saying, 'Brother, are you kidding me?'

"Brother, you're not joking, right? 17,000 years ago, they transported a hundred-ton stone from a hundred kilometers away to a mountain over 3,800 meters above sea level?"

"But brother, how did people 17,000 years ago transport them?"

Jiang Zhe said meaningfully, "Note that you've overlooked a key point: the location of these ancient ruins is over 3,800 meters above sea level, where oxygen is thin and the terrain is steep."

"17,000 years ago, the local people... according to archaeologists, they were still wearing animal skins, using chicken bone tools, and hadn't even invented the wheel. How did they transport these stones up the mountain?"

"At least with the Pyramids, which are in the desert, modern experts can use the buoyancy of the Nile and water transport to explain it."

"But what about here?"

"The Andes Mountains have no large rivers and no plains, only steep mountain slopes. Seventeen thousand years ago, using human labor to move a 100-ton object from the plains to a mountain over 3,800 meters high—how did they do it?"

Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes suddenly widened, and her breathing couldn't help but quicken.

In the livestream, all the viewers were suddenly struck with amazement, snapping out of their quiet listening.

A thought surfaced in everyone's mind!

A civilization with no clothes and using chicken bones 17,000 years ago moved stones ranging from a few tons to a hundred tons from a hundred kilometers away up a 3,800-meter mountain?

Reasonable... very reasonable...

Reasonable my ass!

Is this even possible?

This... this is clearly a miracle, isn't it?

...

Ps: Totally true.