Tiwanaku

The Tiwanaku (called Pucara in Peru) are the earliest civilisation found in South America and date from before Christ. I visited a site where there are ruins of a Tiwanaku settlement. There was a museum where they showed distorted skulls. The Tiwanaku built with enormous stones that no-one understands how they moved them from so far away. The mountains are quite some distance from this settlement. Civilisations following the Tiwanaku thought it was the Gods or extraterrestrials. The Tiwanaku believed that elongating the skulls created greater intelligence. They certainly seem to be very intelligent. It makes you wonder whether we have improved all that much since.

Me in front of the Altiplano landscape on the way to the Tiwanaku ruins

The elongated skulls

Some interesting animal creations made from ceramic. They had a lot of imagination!

A 3d map of the site

You can just see one of my case study houses in the distance, unfortunately I couldn´t get a closer look. They are becoming quite popular and springing up all over the Altiplano area.

Irrigation channels sticking out of the wall and flowing below, just like the Inca civilisation afterwards.

One of the many statues found. The hands are funny because the right one is always twisted around the wrong way which would be physically impossible. There are always 12 symbols on their belts as well.

A hole shaped in the form of an ear. It works as a loud speaker when you talk behind it and also if you put your ear to it you can hear people really far away as if they were right next to you.

The Tiwanaku used metal joints in the shape of an ´I´. They made the mold in the stone and filled with liquid bronze. The indentations are still there.

The tour group. A group of Bolivian doctors from Santa Cruz and an Argentinian couple were very interesting and funny company.

The Puerta del Sol it shows 12 months on it with September being the one larger symbol at the top. This is the most important month because seeds are sown then and also it is the equinox.

Looking from the East towards the Puerta del Sol, its exactly in line. The Tiwanaku understood the number pie and used this to work out the path of the sun.

Me next to some heads. These are all original.

Here is another one of my case study type houses, not quite quick enough with the camera as the bus went past.

Here is a typical rural settlement in the Altiplano, spied through the bus window. This shows how they have different buildings for everything, one building will be for sleeping, another for bathroom and maybe kitchen (although you can see an outside stove here) and the other for animals and food storage.