Oct. 24, 2016.  Hostal Ananay, La Paz, Bolivia.

• Took the tour of Tiwanaku, about an hour and a half northwest of La Paz, close to Lake Titicaca, with a view east to Illimani, the most important mountain god in the altiplano, and aligned with Illampu and Sajama, the second and third most important peaks.  

• The Tiwanaku civilization was first established around 1500 BC, with an economy based on potato cultivation and llama herding.  By 400 AD the state controlled the whole Titicaca basin, an area of some 57,000 square kilometers.  By 700 AD in controlled an area comprising much of modern Bolivia, southern Peru, northeast Argentina, and northern Chile.  The secret was their remarkable system of raised fields, known as sukakullo.  Today the Altiplano, the plain surrounding the ruins of Tiwanaku, provides a marginal living for just over seven thousand campesinos; fifteen hundred years ago the harvests produced enough to feed over one hundred thousand people.

• The platforms stand over 1m high, with planting surfaces up to 200m long and 15m wide, each with a base of stones followed by a layer of clay to prevent salivation by the slightly brackish waters of Lago Titicaca.  Above this was a layer of gravel, followed by one of sandy soil, and finally a coating of rich, organic topsoil.  The raised fields ran in parallel lines, with water-filled ditches running between them, providing irrigation during the dry season and preventing flooding when the level of the lake rose.  By storing the heat of the sun during the day and releasing it at night, the water in their ditches also protected crops from frost, extending the growing period considerably.  Whereas present-day farmers produce about three tons of potatoes per hectare, research suggests that the sukakullo produced yields of up to twenty tons a hectare.  Projects are now underway to help local campesinos reintroduce these techniques.

• Some time after 1000 AD, Tiwanaku fell into a rapid decline, most likely due to climate change.  Tiwanaku civilization collapsed by 1200 AD.

• Most of the destruction of the remains of Tiwanaku occurred relatively recently: the Spanish in the sixteenth century; dynamite to provide gravel for a nearby railway in the beginning of the twentieth century; and early archeological excavations  poorly and haphazardly done later, stripping the site of its most beautiful statues to adorn the museums of Europe and the U.S.  

• The museums had some lovely pieces, including an amazing ceramic seahorse so accurate it looks like the real thing.  Also outstanding is the  7.3m high "Bennett Monolith", or Pachamama, covered in intricate carvings, which I sneaked an illegal picture of.

• The ruins are extensive, with a seven tierred pyramid that was being worked on by a large number of indigenous laborers, many of them women.  The Templete Semi-Subtlerraneo is a sunken patio whose walls are studded with 175 carved limestone heads, representing the gods of different ethnic groups conquered and absorbed into the empire.  

• The Puerto Del Sol is an elaborately decorated portico carved from a ten ton block of andresite.  The central figure is the best-known image of Tiwanaku, the supreme creator god, from whose arms hang severed heads, probably trophies of war.  Sixteen headless bodies were found during excavations.

• Pumapunku, set apart from the main complex, has steps carved from blocks of stone weighing over 100 tons, and somehow excavated and moved from at least 11 kilometers away.  

• So Tiwanaku isn't Machu Picchu, but it is an amazing place nonetheless, and I am glad I had a chance to see it before I leave for Chile tomorrow morning.

Pumapunku wall carvings