Chakana - The South American Connection

Recently, I've received a souvenir from Mel who just came back from South America. The souvenir is a necklace with a Chakana symbol. Interestingly enough, I had very little idea what it is. However after a brief explanation, I had a better understanding now. Chakana or also known as an Inca Cross is an Andean symbol.

To digress a little, the Inca civilization begins in Cusco or our present day Peru between 13th-16th century. Unfortunately, the civilization was devastated when the European settlers started plundering them. The only remains left from the Inca civilization is the world famous Machu Pichu.
Back to the symbol, Chakana is a three stepped cross which represents the snake, puma and condor. Being almost godly, the Incas decided to construct something for these symbols / animals to show their large (in fact very large) respect for them.

If you look at the photo above closely, you should be able to spot the shape of a condor. This place is known as Nazca. By any chance that you're not convinced that this is really big, the photo is actually taken from an aerial view on a plane. Whilst all this is extremely intriguing, I can't help but to feel that I have seen this formation before when I was young. So I did a little digging and lo and behold, I found my clue. Hehe this snapshot was taken from Shining Force II, a game that I used to play on Sega Megadrive when I was much younger and what an enjoyable game it was. Who says you can't learn anything from playing games!!!? For those who still insist it is true I have three words for you.....

Hello!

Bugger Off!

By the way, that's a Llama - pronouns as ya-ma. Beware, they'll spit on you if you're not careful.