Deep in the mountain region of Hayu Marca in southern Peru, there is an area that has long been revered by local natives as the “City of the Gods,” although no actual ancient city has ever been discovered there. In the middle of a boulder field near the western shore of Lake Titicaca, there stands a cliff face with a single gigantic square carved out of the rock, 23 feet in height and width, with a 6-foot doorway-shaped alcove at the bottom in the center. The site, which is called the Puerta de Hayu Marca, or “Gate of the Gods,” was discovered in 1996 when Jose Luis Delgado Mamani stumbled across the structure during a trek through the surrounding foothills. “When I saw the structure for the first time, I almost passed out...” Mamani said in an interview, claiming he had seen it before in his dreams.
Archaeologists have labeled the site as an abandoned Incan construction project, but cannot say why there wasn’t more building activity in the area. The natives of the region have a legend that dates back to when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived in Peru, and were looting gold and other valuables from the Inca tribes. According to this legend, an Incan priest named Aramu Muru fled from his temple with a sacred golden disk known as “the key of the gods of the seven rays,” and hid from the Spanish in the mountains of Hayu Marca. He came upon the stone doorway, which was being guarded by shaman priests. Together, they performed a ritual in which the golden disk opened the doorway, and a blue light appeared from a tunnel inside. Amaru Muru handed the golden disk to a shaman and then passed through the portal, “never to be seen again.”
Other local legends tell of an ancient inter-dimensional gate that led to the “lands of the Gods,” where heroes were witnessed leaving through a magical doorway to join their deities, as well as re-entering through the same gate with their gods, to check on people they’d left behind. Modern visitors to the site have claimed to feel a pulsing energy by placing their hands on the stone door, some hear strange rhythmic music, while others claimed they saw visions of columns of fire and things beyond this world. Could these ancient sites hold a mysterious energy that once allowed for inter-dimensional travel?