Tiahuanaco


 * [[image:viracocha.jpg]]||Lord Con Ticci Viracocha, the creator and prince of all living beings, emerged from the void. He first created animals and giant-like humans in the darkness of the eternal night. These humans angered Viracocha, so he appeared from Lake Titicaca and swept the land with a great flood to destroy all living beings.||

With his supreme power, and barren land, he created day and all heavenly bodies by causing the sun, the moon, and the stars to rise out of Lake Titicaca. With a trivial wave of his hand and a simple command he raised the mountains, sank the valleys, and carved the rivers and streams.


 * Viracocha then formed new animals and a new race of humans by first making birds to fill the silence of the land with sweet song and animals of all kinds to fill the land. Then he shaped humans out of stone and created communities for them to live within.||[[image:tiahuanaco-1.gif]]||

After dividing these people into groups, Viracocha allocated each group its own food and language and sank them into the ground until his helpers came to summon them. Once summoned, Viracocha commanded the people to multiply and populate the land while he walked amongst them and taught them the ways of life.
 * [[image:viracocha_05.jpg]]||One group did not recognize Viracocha and therefore attacked him with rocks. Viracocha punished these people by allowing fire to rain upon them from the heavens until they kneeled to his feet in surrender. To worship him, this rebellious group constructed a stone monument in honor of Viracocha where offerings of gold and silver are presented to him. When his work was done, Viracocha created a ruler for the new land he called Cuzco and walked upon the ocean with his demigods; he was never seen again.||

__**Similarities**__
 * The creator destroys all forms of life by summoning a great flood in both the Bible and the Tiahuanaco Creation.
 * The creators punish human beings for making them angry in various different ways in all three creations.
 * A person or a group of people construct a place of worship for the creator such as an altar (Bible), a throne (Enuma Elish), or a stone figure (Tiahuanaco).
 * In the Bible, the Tiahuanaco Creation, and Enuma Elish, each creator is viewed as having supreme power over all.
 * Communities or cities are begun such as Babel (Bilble), Babylon (Enuma Elish), and Cuzco (Tiahuanaco) for the humans.
 * In all three creation stories, the creator commands the humans to prosper and multiply.

__**Differences**__
 * Humans are created from nothing unlike the two other creation stories.
 * Unlike the Bible and Enuma Elish, humans don't have a specific purpose.
 * Viracocha emerges from the void unlike in Enuma Elish where the gods are created from water.
 * Viracocha's physical presence is never seen again after he disappears.
 * Birds are the first animals created, and they do have a purpose: to fill the air with song.
 * Light was not created first, it was created after living beings had been put on Earth.
 * Men and women are created at the same time and viewed as equals.
 * Unlike both creation stories, Viracocha creates the heavens from Lake Titicaca.
 * Mankind is not given dominance over animals unlike the Bible.
 * Unlike the Bible, Viracocha does not let chosen people survive, he destroys all living creatures.
 * Unlike Enuma Elish, humans are not created as servants to the gods.
 * Viracocha divides the people into groups, unlike the other creation stories.

Picture Bibliography
 * 1) http://www.thelibraryofhope.com/viracocha.jpg
 * 2) http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/tiahuanaco/tiahuanaco-city.htm
 * 3) http://www.jzine.com/Trip/Cuzco/cuzco2.jpg