Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku, on the high plain south of Lake Titicaca, was the centre of one of the great civilisations of the Andes. The city grew in the first centuries AD, flourished from about 375 to 700, and at its peak covered some 4 square km with a population of well over 10,000. Tiwanaku imagery and trade spread across the southern Andes. Its society collapsed around 1000 AD, probably helped by a long drought. The people left no writing, and even the city's original name is lost; according to one 17th-century chronicler, local Aymara tradition called it the "stone in the centre", the middle of the world. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, administered by the Bolivian government.

The ceremonial core is a group of platforms and enclosures. The Akapana is an artificial stepped platform about 16.5 m high, and excavations there have uncovered offerings of human and llama remains; a deep looters' pit still scars its top. Next to it, the Kalasasaya is a large rectangular enclosure. Inside stands the Gateway of the Sun, carved with a front-facing figure holding two staffs. It was probably moved there from somewhere else, and like other gateways at the site it was never finished. The sunken Semi-Subterranean Temple beside it is aligned north–south, and its walls are studded with carved stone heads in many different styles.

Pumapunku, another platform, is T-shaped and faced with megaliths, with a stone terrace containing the largest block at the site, estimated at 131 tonnes. The cut stones scattered around it are so complex that they have made Pumapunku a favourite of fringe theories, which archaeologists reject outright; 3D modelling has shown how the blocks fitted together as standard elements. The 7.3 m Bennett Monolith, the largest stele found in the Andes, was discovered in the Semi-Subterranean Temple and is now in the site museum.

Visitors should be aware that much of what stands is reconstruction: the Kalasasaya walls were largely rebuilt in the 1960s on thin evidence, and adobe cladding added to the Akapana was halted in 2009 after UNESCO objected. Centuries of looting, quarrying for railway ballast and even army target practice have also taken their toll. A guide or a visit to the site museum helps to make sense of the stones.

Getting there

Tiwanaku is about 70 km west of La Paz by road; the nearest town on the way is Laja, about 30 km away. Minibuses leave from near the La Paz general cemetery, which you can reach by taxi, minibus or the red cable-car line, and take about 90 minutes via El Alto. Many tour operators in La Paz also run day trips. El Alto International Airport (LPB), which serves La Paz, is about 50 km from the site.