What was Tiwanaku, the ancient city by Lake Titicaca in Bolivia?

Tiwanaku on Lake Titicaca

Tiwanaku, junto al lago Titicaca

between 200 and 1000. Near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, at 3,850 metres, stood the highest city of the ancient world.

Where: Bolivia, Tiwanaku

What happened

Near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, at 3,850 metres, stood the highest city of the ancient world. Tiwanaku grew from about AD 200 and was at its height between roughly 500 and 1000, with 30,000 to 70,000 inhabitants, raised fields fed by canals, and a ceremonial centre of sunken courts, the stepped Akapana mound and the Gateway of the Sun, carved from one block of andesite with a staff-bearing god at its centre. Its state reached from the Peruvian coast to northern Chile. The precision of its stonework amazed the Inca, who believed the human race had been created at Titicaca and brought masons from the lake region to build Cusco. Why the city was abandoned around 1000 is uncertain; a long drought is one suggestion.

Say it

Tiwanaku está en Bolivia, cerca del lago Titicaca.

Tiwanaku is in Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca.

Why it matters

Tiwanaku is Bolivia's great pre-Inca site and the origin, in Inca myth, of the world; the Aymara language of the Titicaca region is still spoken by over a million people.

There today

See

At Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca, you can see the Gateway of the Sun, the stepped Akapana mound and the sunken courts.

Read about it

• El lago Titicaca — Lake Titicaca

Connected

• The Nazca draw on the desert (between 200 BC and 600)
• The rise of the Inca state (c. 1400–1533)
• Pachacuti and the rise of the Inca (c. 1438–1471)
• Pachacuti and the rise of the Inca (c. 1438–1471)

• After: Columbus reaches America

Sources

1. Tiwanaku — World History Encyclopedia
2. Inca Civilization — World History Encyclopedia