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14 Mankind’s recollection of landmark events in its past—‘‘leg- ends” or “myths” to most historians—includes tales deemed “universal” in that they have been part of the cultural or reli- gious heritage of peoples all over the Earth. Tales of a First Human Couple, of a Deluge, or of gods who came from the heavens, belong to that category. So do tales of the gods’ de- parture back to the heavens. Of particular interest to us are such collective memories by the peoples and in the lands where the departures had ac- tually taken place. We have already covered the evidence from the ancient Near East; it also comes from the Americas, and it embraces both Enlilite and Enki’ite gods. In South America, the dominant deity was called Viraco- cha (“Creator of All”). The Aymara natives of the Andes told of him that his abode was in Tiwanaku, and that he gave the first two brother-sister couples a golden wand with which to find the right place to establish Cuzco (the eventual Inca capital), the site for the observatory of Machu Picchu, and other sacred sites. And then, having done all that, he left. The grand layout, which simulated a square ziggurat with its cor ners oriented to the cardinal points, then marked the direc- tion of his eventual departure (Fig. 118). We have identified the god of Tiwanaku as Teshub/Adad of the Hittite/Sumerian pantheon, Enlil’s youngest son. In Mesoamerica, the giver of civilization was the “Winged Serpent” Quetzalcoatl. We have identified him as Enki’s son Thoth of the Egyptian pantheon (Ningishzidda to the Sume- rians) and as the one who, in 3113 B.c.E., brought over his THE END OF DAYS