Soon after arriving in Peru 23 years ago, I heard about a strange, mystical place in the Andes Mountains, where there were hundreds of stone statues. It was said that Markawasi was ancient, beyond living memory, existing before the Incas, and the pre-Incas. It was related that there were heads and faces of human beings of different races, both male and female, and animal figures unknown on this continent. There were stories of dinosaurs and strange inscriptions carved into the rock; all this on a plateau located 4,000 meters above sea level, less than 100 km from the city of Lima. There was only one problem: nobody knew how to get there. Read more...

When I was first invited to visit Markawasi by Peter Schneider during the summer of 2005, I had no idea what was in store for me. “Oh, another remote geological site with some interesting stone formations” I thought to myself. “Well, after all, I have a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics, and I am rather fond of rocks, so what is the harm in looking at a few more? Besides, the Peruvian Andes are spectacular and always wonderful to visit.” Little did I realize the profound and life-altering experiences that were in store for me there, and that are in store for anyone who visits Markawasi with an open mind and a willingness to be moved by the power of the place. Read more...

There are many important facets of Markawasi, all pieces of an incredible, complex puzzle. There are twenty-two energy vortexes called ‘cruzes’, or crosses, made up of three distinct types of energy. There are three of the first type which are found in areas of limited access on the plateau--limited to those prepared to be near such powerful energy. The second type of cross, of which there are seven, are crosses that betoken the days of the week. There are twelve crosses of the third type, which have to do with the phases of the moon. Each cross has a specific healing power. The crosses, which are easily visible on the plateau, have an undeniable energy that can be felt without any special preparation or sensitivity. Carlos Seclan, a Peruvian student of Daniel Ruzo, had an extraordinary experience at one of the vortexes of Markawasi. He had been studying Markawasi for fifteen years when he had a car accident that left him paralyzed in bed for eleven months. With the finest doctors in Peru unable to treat him, he was told that he could not be healed, and would never walk again.

After having studied the energies of the stones and vortexes of Markawasi, he knew that there had to be some way to cure his broken back with the profound forces of the mountain. He knew that on a certain day, at a certain hour, at a certain vortex, there would be the appropriate energy to heal him. He convinced his friends to carry him up the mountain to the designated vortex, where they left him alone for seven days. Read more...

The Incas used older sites such as those of Sacsayhuaman, and Kenko, near Cusco. The principle stone in Kenko is encircled by cut stones pointing out an immense boulder that appears to be the remnant of a puma. Why would you mark a stone that has almost no form? This would be because you want to leave it as a ritual element, an offering, to the remains of prior epochs, to convey a mystery, or a truth. It was most probably a stone used long before the time of the Inca, and related to the existing sacred cave.  All Inca sacred places have tunnels and ritual caves; all over the world we find the same story: the Mountain with the inner cavern; a burial place where you were 'reborn' in the purifying essence of the Mother earth.

The entire area above Cusco near Sacsayhuaman is a place with labyrinthine forms, caves with entries and exits, including markings like snakes, which show the underworld as a symbol. All of this cave culture, of underground water, of the universal virgin, is also related to Markawasi in that there is a devotion to a sacred place in the two elements of the Universe: as above, so below; the virgin with her different names: Pachamama, the earth mother, the European black virgins, and various other themes, having tremendous relation with the prayers to the mountain, the prayer to Mother Earth. Read more...

Hardcover by Kathy Doore

176-Page
Photo Travel Journal

Available in Bookstores
April 2008

$29.95
ISBN 978-0979171352

Distributed by IPG

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