Tiwanaku, La Paz | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 The village of Tiwanaku as seen from south | |
| Country |  Bolivia |
| Department | La Paz Department |
| Population (2013) | |
| • Total | 860 |
| Time zone | UTC-4 (BOT) |
| Climate | Cwc |
Tiwanaku is a village in the La Paz Department, Bolivia with a population of 860 people. Towards the south of the village, there's the archaeological site of Tiwanaku.
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay to the southeast, Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest and Peru to the west. The seat of government and executive capital is La Paz, while the constitutional capital is Sucre. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales, a mostly flat region in the east of the country.
Tiwanaku is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilometers and include decorated ceramics, monumental structures, and megalithic blocks. The site's population probably peaked around AD 800 with 10,000 to 20,000 people.
Ingavi is a province in the La Paz Department in Bolivia. This is where the Battle of Ingavi occurred on November 18, 1841 and where the World Heritage Site of Tiwanaku is situated.
Taraco is a peninsula jutting into Lake Wiñaymarka, the southern branch of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. It is located in the La Paz Department, Ingavi Province, Tiwanaku Municipality, Taraco Canton. There is also a town of the same name on the peninsula.
The Gate of the Sun, also known as the Gateway of the Sun, is a monolith carved in the form of an arch or gateway at the site of Tiahuanaco by the Tiwanaku culture, an Andean civilization of Bolivia that thrived around Lake Titicaca in the Andes of western South America around 500-950 CE.
The Kalasasaya or Stopped Stones is a major archaeological structure that is part of Tiwanaku, an ancient archeological complex in the Andes of western Bolivia that is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Pumapunku or Puma Punku is a 6th-century T-shaped and strategically aligned man-made terraced platform mound with a sunken court and monumental structure on top that is part of the Pumapunku complex, at the Tiwanaku Site near Tiwanacu, in western Bolivia. The Pumapunku complex is an alignment of plazas and ramps centered on the Pumapunku platform mound. Today the monumental complex on top of the platform mound lies in ruins.
The Mollo culture existed in Bolivia's altiplano area after the collapse of the Tiwanaku culture during the period of AD 1000 to 1500; it predated the Inca civilization. While the Mollo showed a continuity with Late Tiwanaku culture in both domestic and village architecture, they left no pyramids. Mollo worshiped the jaguar.
Tiwanaku Municipality is the third municipal section of the Ingavi Province in the La Paz Department, Bolivia. Its seat is the village of Tiwanaku located near the UNESCO World Heritage Site Tiwanaku.
Calamarca or Qala Marka is the fourth municipal section of Aroma Province in the La Paz Department of Bolivia. It is located on the Altiplano and its seat is the town of Calamarca.
Qhunqhu Wankani is an archaeological site in Bolivia located in the La Paz Department, Ingavi Province, Jesús de Machaca Municipality. It is situated south of Lake Wiñaymarka, the southern part of Lake Titicaca, and south of Tiwanku, near the village Qhunqhu Liqiliqi.
Kimsa Chata, also spelled Kimsachata, is a 4,735-metre-high (15,535 ft) mountain in the Andes in Bolivia. It is located in the Chilla-Kimsa Chata mountain range south-east of Wiñaymarka Lake, the southern part of Lake Titicaca. It lies in the La Paz Department, Ingavi Province, Tiwanaku Municipality, about 15 km south of the archaeological site of Tiwanaku and the village of the same name. Kimsa Chata is situated between the mountains Nasa Puqi in the north and Chuqi Ch'iwani in the south.
Tiwanaku River or Wakira River is a Bolivian river southeast of Lake Titicaca in the La Paz Department, Ingavi Province, in the municipalities of Guaqui and Tiwanaku, and in the Los Andes Province, Laja Municipality. It empties into Wiñaymarka Lake, the southern part of Lake Titicaca, north of Guaqui (Waki) near the villages of Jawira Pampa and Uma Marka. On its way along the southern slopes of the Taraco range it flows along the archaeological site of Tiwanaku.
The Pucará culture was an archaeological culture which developed in Qullaw, along the north-western shore of Lake Titicaca. It was characterized by a hierarchy of sites made up several smaller centers and villages scattered throughout the northern basin of the Titicaca, ruled from its nucleus - the town of Pukara with an approximate extension of 6 square kilometers, constituted the first properly urban settlement in the Titicaca basin. Its sphere of influence reached as far north as the Cuzco Valley and as far south as Tiahuanaco. The culture had two phases of development within the Formative Period: the Middle Formative, and Late Formative.
The Tiwanaku Polity was a Pre-Columbian polity in western Bolivia based in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. Tiwanaku was one of the most significant Andean civilizations. Its influence extended into present-day Peru and Chile and lasted from around 600 to 1000 AD. Its capital was the monumental city of Tiwanaku, located at the center of the polity's core area in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. This area has clear evidence for large-scale agricultural production on raised fields that probably supported the urban population of the capital. Researchers debate whether these fields were administered by a bureaucratic state (top-down) or through a federation of communities with local autonomy. Tiwanaku was once thought to be an expansive military empire, based mostly on comparisons to the later Inca Empire. However, recent research suggests that labelling Tiwanaku as an empire or even different varieties of a state may even be misleading. Tiwanaku is missing a number of features used to define these types of polities: there is no defensive architecture at any Tiwanaku site or changes in weapon technology, there are no princely burials or other evidence of a ruling dynasty or a formal social hierarchy, no evidence of state-maintained roads or outposts, and no markets.
Sonia Alconini Mujica is a Bolivian anthropologist and archaeologist specializing in the socioeconomic and political development of early states and empires in the Andes. She has studied the dynamics of ancient imperial frontiers, and the ways in which Guarani tropical tribes expanded over these spaces. She has also conducted work in the eastern Bolivian valleys and Lake Titicaca region.
The Ch'alla Jawira is a river in the La Paz Department in Bolivia. It is a left tributary of the Tiwanaku River which empties into Wiñaymarka Lake, the southern part of Lake Titicaca.
Pre-Columbian Bolivia covers the historical period between 10,000 BCE, when the Upper Andes region was first populated and 1532, when Spanish conquistadors invaded Inca empire. The Andes region of Pre-Columbian South America was dominated by the Tiwanaku civilization until about 1200, when the regional kingdoms of the Aymara emerged as the most powerful of the ethnic groups living in the densely populated region surrounding Lake Titicaca. Power struggles continued until 1450, when the Incas incorporated upper Bolivia into their growing empire. Based in present-day Peru, the Incas instituted agricultural and mining practices that rivaled those put in place many years later by European conquerors. They also established a strong military force, and centralized political power. Despite their best efforts however, the Incas never completely controlled the nomadic tribes of the Bolivian lowlands, nor did they fully assimilate the Aymara kingdoms into their society. These internal divisions doomed the Inca Empire when European conquerors arrived.
The Wankarani culture was a formative stage culture that existed from approximately 1500 BCE to 400 CE on the altiplano highlands of Bolivia's Oruro Department to the north and northeast of Lake Poopo. It is the earliest known sedentary culture in Bolivia, as after circa 1200 BCE camelid hunters of the altiplano became camelid herders and sedentary lifestyle developed. The Wankarani culture was little researched before 1970, when Carlos Ponce Sanginés defined all the mound sites in the area as belonging to one culture that predated Tiwanaku and was contemporary with the Chiripa culture.
The architecture of Bolivia is closely related to its history, culture and religion. Bolivian architecture has been constantly changing and progressing over time. Subject to terrain and high altitudes, most of Bolivia's Pre-Columbian buildings were built for housing, mainly influenced by Bolivian indigenous culture. The arrival of Spanish settlers brought many European-style buildings, and the Spaniards began planning to build big cities. After Independence, the architectural style became Neoclassical and many churches and government buildings were built. In modern Bolivia, like many countries, skyscrapers and post-modern buildings dominate, and of course there are special styles of architecture to attract tourists and build.
Coordinates: 16°33′S68°42′W / 16.550°S 68.700°W
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