Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-05-24
AN AMERICAN CITY
 OLDER THAN THEbES
Tiahuanacu Was Old When Remulus and Remus
 Were Boys

A city so old that even the legen- dary lore of the 1ncas, who traced an unbroken line of kings back to the eleventh century, is dumb concern ing the people who built it; a city which a thousand years ago had been so long dead that even song, story and tradition had forgotten every vestige of it's history when Columbus discovered the New World" Such is the ancient city of Tahuanacu. whose ruins are crumbling surely but very. slowly, into dust not far from the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia.
 "The little present-day village of Tiahuanacu is located on the rail road which connects La Paz. the modern capital of Bolivia, with the port of Quaqui on Lake Titicaca, and may be reached in bout two hours from the former place. The ruins of ancient Tiahuanacu, covering an area of about a square mile, are not over half mile from the village Edward Albes in the Monthly Bulle- tin of the Pan American Union Wash ington, D. c.
 "A traveller stopping in the little town, and ignorant of the proximity of the ruins, would be astounded to observe the number of beautifully cut stones built into parts of abode huts of the most primitive character, and sometimes forming portions of a squalid patio. A doorway to a dilap- idated, thatch-roof hut, may have al lintel or jamb formed by an artisti- cally carved stone. In the walls of the little Catholic church and in those inclosing its yards, and even in the paving, may be seen these smooth stones. The pedestal on which is mounted the stone cross in front of the church is made up of them, while on either side of the gateway to the inclosure stands a carved stone idol whose lines, marred by the ravages of time, still show the artistic skill of the ancient sculptors who.s wrought them."
 Thus the ruins of the ancient city have furnished much of the material to build the village of today, and while the strict ultilitarian may find no fault with this work of destroy ing the artistic monuments of hoary antiquity to cater to present needs, to the students of archaeology it seems almost like dissertation. The Bolivian government has recently en- acted a law which forbids the carry ing off or wilful destruction of that portion of the ruins which vandal hands have left intact.
 l The ruins themselves include the ! gl eat structures of what once must have been large and densely popu-
 lated city, Not vestige remains of
 the dwellings and less pretentious houses in which this population must have lived These were naturally of
 a more temporary character and the lrelentless agents of destruction. working through countless centuries have obliterated all traces.
 The question which cOnfrOnts the iarcheologisis is-how could popula-
 tion sufficiently numerous to accom- plish the building of such a city have maintained itself in this region? The ruins are located 13,000 feet above the level of the sea on a vast plateau
 where the constant cold prevents the maturing or COIu UT OllcT SIdiu. A present potatoes, coca and some other Il edible roots are grown, but the re- zion sustains only scanty mountain
 population. The city once covered z large area, the great structures were
 built by skilled masons. One stone is
 36-feet long and seven feet wide
 weighs TO tons, another is 26 feet by 16, and feet thick. Only the mono. liths of ancient Egypt equal those
 found in Tiahuanacu. The movement
 and placing of such monoliths point
 to dense population, to an organized government, and consequently to g
 large agricultural area with means o1 transportation from various directions
 The only tenable explanation is that
 at the time when Tiahuanacu flour. ished the Andes were from 2000 to
 5000 feet lower than at present. Geo. logists hold that in the Jurassic and
 eve min the Cretceous period there |were no Andes and that through a |gradual upheaval they have been formed in more recent geological times. The bones of mastodon have been discovered in Bolivia at an alti- ltude of 13.o00 feet above the sea. and