Tiwanaku Archaeological Site
Pre-Inca ceremonial capital on the Altiplano, with the Kalasasaya platform, monoliths and two site museums.
Tiwanaku stands at about 3,850 metres on the Altiplano south of Lake Titicaca and was the centre of a state that dominated the southern Andes for several centuries before its decline around 1000 CE. Its builders raised a monumental core of stepped platforms and sunken courts in sandstone and andesite, cut and fitted without mortar and held in places with copper cramps. The main groups are the Akapana mound, the walled Kalasasaya platform reached by a broad stairway, the semi-subterranean temple, the Putuni enclosure and the separate complex of Puma Punku.
Carved stelae are the site's best-known works: the Ponce Monolith inside Kalasasaya, the Gateway of the Sun with its central staff-bearing figure, and the tenon heads set into the walls of the sunken temple. The tall Bennett Monolith is displayed in the lithic museum beside the entrance, while a second museum shows ceramics from the excavations in chronological order. The site is administered by the CIAAAT research centre and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000.
Highlights
- Kalasasaya platform and its monumental stairway
- Gateway of the Sun and the Ponce Monolith
- Tenon heads in the semi-subterranean temple
- Bennett Monolith in the site's lithic museum
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