Tiwanaku Page Content Page Name (for URL) Page Title Breadcrumb Text We used part of our second day in La Paz to do a tour of nearby Tiwanaku ruins. Tiwanaku (alternatively spelled "Tihuanaco") is a pre-Inca ceremonial center which in many ways served as a pre-cursor to the Inca empire. More precisely, the Tiwanaku culture (200-1100 C.E.) centered around lake Titicaca, provided strong influence for the later northern Wari state (500-1200 C.E.). The Wari state later fractured into a multitude of warring domains and remained divided until one of those domains - Cusco - united all the Wari and Tiwanaku domains into the Inca empire ("Tahuantinsuyu") in the 15th century C.E. Unlike many of the ruins in Peru, Tiwanaku is in somewhat sad state even though much work has been done over the past 4 years to remedy this. This is now a covered museum where many of the exhibits are being moved, and two of the 3 temples seem to be fully excavated. The third and largest one is still just a hill. <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_031_0393 Middle temple (Kaipacha) 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_048_1115 Entrance to the middle temple 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_032_0138 The sunken temple (Ukupacha) with an idol in the middle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_052_1231 The Sun Gate 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_053_5826 The face of Viracocha on the Sun Gate 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_057_1593 Sun Gate detail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_037_7910 The idol in the middle of the lower temple of Ukupacha 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_043_3978 A face on the wall of the lower temple 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_049_9870 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_041_8150 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_062_9190 Exorcised idol with a cross on the shoulder 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_050_9600 Stairs into the middle temple 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_065_6578 2005-12-12-b-tiwanaku/20051212_045_1371 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> The three temples of Tiwanaku are supposed to represent the celestial world (hananpacha), surface world (kaypacha) and underground world (ukupacha). Consequently, one of them is a pyramid (now just a hill), another one is raised about 3 meters above the surface, and another one is sunk lower than ground level. Advanced Fields Category 2002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014E. AsiaE. EuropeL's FamilyL's FriendsN. AmericaN. EuropeS. AmericaS. AsiaW. EuropeY & LY's FamilyY's Friends Prototype Redirect Permissions0 Actions Config Markup Module HTML/Meta/Keywords HTML/Meta/Description Save Hook Don't put anything here HTML Fields Main Head Body Header Menu Logo Page Content Template Sidebar Footer Tags Allowed for XSSFilter HTTP Fields Cache-Control Expires Guru Fields Templates Translations Fields Edit UI Admin Edit UI Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Don't put anything here A summary of your changes Edit Summary Don't put anything here save preview cancel
