Pillars of the Past 2025 Expedition

Intro

Help support a 2025 expedition to Peru to document and preserve the legacy of newly discovered and forgotten ancient sites.

My name is Raul Bilecky. I am a researcher, explorer, and the creator of Pillars of the Past. The over-arching goal of this crowdsourced fundraiser is to help with the preparation and execution of an expedition to Peru in 2025; to put together a team including a local archaeologist, other researchers, and a professional documentary crew to be better suited to investigate, document, research, and preserve ancient forgotten locations and newly discovered sites.

Your contributions will help with better equipment to record and capture these sites, any permits that might be needed for various work, compensation for the time of professionals in their respective fields (as well as any locals whom may help with these endeavors), and I would love to actually utilize a drone equipped with lidar (but that depends on how well the crowdsourcing goes).

Additionally, contributions will also help with some of the logistics like lodging, gas, food and tolls - as I can personally attest to these things adding up (as I somewhat irresponsibly eviscerated my savings to make the solo expedition happen earlier this year). Those close to me might suggest removing "somewhat" from the prior sentence, but I had to follow my dream believing in its importance and value.

I did something similar, but on my own in May of 2024, with nothing but a gopro and consumer drone (which, 100% was an epic trip and had been a dream of mine since childhood), but the foundational truth is that these sites deserve so much more than those solo efforts of mine. There are links below directing to my social media channels which showcases that journey, but also, importantly, the current conditions most of the sites are sadly in, and lack of attention and protection they receive.

My Story and Why This Is Important

I grew up visiting Peru often to visit my mother’s side of the family where I fell in love with the history, culture, and became fascinated by the ancient architecture of long forgotten civilizations. When I was 12, we took a trip to Machu Picchu. Exploring the site was a lot more relaxed then, and I remember wandering off into some caves where I saw something small gleaming in one of the walls. Investigating further, I scraped out seashells embedded into the wall. At 8,000 feet above sea level.

(actual 1997 home video screenshot)

This blew my mind. I’d come to learn of the exchange of goods between ancient cultures in Peru and of the many geological changes and cataclysmic events our planet has experienced. This fueled decades of independent study and research, resulting in the acknowledgement that there is so much of our history left to be discovered, especially as new findings continue to update and broaden our understanding of the past.

During those frequent trips to Peru, I remember visiting obscure ancient sites, wondering why more wasn’t being done to excavate, uncover their history, and protect them from looting. 30 years later, not much has changed.

(example of structures still buried and unexcavated)

(the holes on the ridge line are looting pits)

In May of 2024 I embarked on an epic 3 week journey, solo, into some of Peru’s most remote and uncharted territories; visiting locations I believed were ancient ruins I had seen on Google Earth that did not have any labels or place markers identifying them. Driving over 3k kilometers, I’d make it to over 90 locations in 23 days. I’d hike for countless hours, traversing through fertile valleys, forging through rivers, conquering mountain peaks, and enduring arid deserts, on a search for lost ruins and forgotten pieces of history; additionally verifying my satellite surveying with 100% accuracy.

I would come across locals who would recant stories and help guide me on my journey. I’d discover ancient cities reduced to rubble, sites revealing foundations buried over millennia, fortresses strategically perched on mountaintops, and geoglyphs etched into landscapes far from their known locations.

I’d navigate to places not listed on maps or official records, exploring undocumented temples and complexes, investigating un-excavated sites in ruin, examine mysterious construction methods, and analyze anomalies which would appear to indicate catastrophic events and environmental changes suffered by the civilizations that inhabited these areas.

In regions surveyed but barely explored since the 1970s, I would be the one of the first to travel to and document a hidden unexcavated complex consisting of over 15 platform pyramids and discover a surrounding necropolis with undeniable astronomical alignments.

I would chart a course through several savagely looted burial sites, and in shock stand amongst ancient mummies whose dismembered skeletal remains were left scattered along with ripped apart cotton and textile that were once their funerary wrappings. In the pilfered debris I’d find elongated skulls, beautiful and detailed pieces of pottery, and an abundance of trash that made much of these sacred burial sites seem more like landfills. How was this possible, in this day and age?

Satellite imagery indicated there were once structures at several locations I ventured to, which over the last few years appear to have been leveled over to make way for corporate agricultural expansion. Archaeologists confirmed that this is a growing concern amidst non-existent oversight and relaxed regulation. At these locations, it is clear there are man-made structures still buried, and although the untapped potential for real excavation and study could produce valuable historical information, the ability to do so seems to be becoming more and more compromised.

For some of these sites, this journey produced some of the only digital media that exists documenting them. Imagine what could be done with the proper resources. Imagine the advancements that could be made for archaeological surveying, the history that lay buried waiting for acknowledgment, and the discoveries to be made piecing together the narratives of our human past.

Summary

I aim to be able to bring awareness to the current threats these ancient locations face, capture and document them while the chance to do so is still available, and investigate them further to see what secrets and history can be extracted. The goal is to do this with a team this time: researchers, archaeologists, and a professional film crew allowing us further access and better equipment. Again, these sites deserve so much more than just me, a couple of GoPro’s, and a drone. And with your support, we can make that happen!

I believe there is an explorer in all of us, and I hope you join me in supporting and becoming a part of this important work to document and preserve these pieces of our ancient past!

For continued footage of the last expedition, please check out the social media channels at:

Instagram

Youtube