Cieza de León's 1553 chronicle records his firsthand visit to Tiwanaku/Pumapunku and indigenous oral tradition that the structures were built "in a single night" by bearded men who arrived before the Incas, alongside his own bewilderment about the tools used.

Cieza de León (via Markham 1864) on Tiwanaku: pre-Inca attribution and bewilderment about tools, as quoted by the proponents

what the source states

The source quotes Markham's translation of Cieza de León (visit 1549): 'For myself I fail to understand with what instruments or tools it can have been done', that in all the district 'there are no quarries whence the numerous stones can have been brought', and that the natives laughed at the question, "affirming that they were made before the Incas ever reigned", but could not say who made them.

what we infer

Mine: the quoted passage supports the pre-Inca oral tradition and the chronicler's puzzlement in GEO-C585; it does not contain the 'single night' or 'bearded men' elements, which must be sourced separately. Second-hand and a nineteenth-century translation.

limitations

• Markham's translation quoted by proponents; the Spanish original not consulted.
• Supports only part of a compound claim.