At 3640m La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, and just above on the valley rim is the highest commercial airport in the world at 4058m, El Alto...
La Paz a crowded polluted city of...
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| narrow Streets.... |
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| Open Plazas.... |
Where...
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| traditional meets modern... |
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| ...in everysense... |
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Despite the dense traffic, the crowds of people, the fumes from traffic congestion this feels like a friendly open place, yes its a little worn, yes it needs money to modernise, but it still has a charm of its very own.
About 90 kms outside of La Paz, on the cooler Altiplano is a site of great archaeological signinficance, Tiwanku...never heard of it we hear you say. Well it was the predecessor to the Inca empire and emerged about the same time as the pyramids were being built 40 centuries ago (about 2000 BC, before you get the calculators out).. These people evolved into a complex culture and built a city to support between 20000 - 50000 people, this is Tiwanaku.
The reason you may never heard of it is because everything in S.A. is focussed on the Incas, and Bolivia is so poor that little money is available for excavating, or promoting it. There is reconnstruction work going on but progress is slow.
we took a tour bus...
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| ...not as slow or unmanoueverable as our driver proved to us... |
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to Tiwanaku..
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| Corner of the reconstructed Akapana Pyramid, has the same dimensions as the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt... | |
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| ...Section of the outer wall of the Kalassasaya...the big stones are about 3m high. |
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| Not going to win any beauty prizes, but this is an important stela.. | . |
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| Detail of "writing" from the above stela..what does it say? nobody knows... | |
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| ...the Tiwanakan equivalent of a loud hailer...the hole has been shaped like the human ear canal and can amplify the voice... |
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| ...close up of said ear hole.... |
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| ...the Ponce monolith....found by Mr Ponce... |
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| .The Gateway to The Sun... carved from a single block of andeasite, weighs 40 tons... |
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| one of the four walls of "heads" in the sunken temple... |
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| ..detail of the precise stone carving on a section of stone from Puma Punku... |
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| this sandstone block a temple platform weighs an estimated 135 tonnes... |
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The builders of these monuments used only two types of stone, sandstone which is local, and andeasite (like granite) that had to be shipped across Lake Titiqaqa from 100kms away.
They also created a network of raised beds surrounded closely by wide canals of water. the water acted as a solar heat store during the day which kept any crops grown in the beds warm at night. Recent studies have shown that the temperature of these types of beds is upto 8 degrees warmer than that of the open ground. This is a significant benefit especially when growing food at 4100m where night time temperatures drop to zero and with the chill factor on te Altiplano taking that even lower.
The site at Tiwanaku was robbed by many people and the Spanish conquistadors were the last in a long line. Much of the original stone work has been used in buildings in the local town and taken for the railway .
The excavated site is small but the stonework is impressive not only in its scale but also int the precision of its carving and use of metal clamps to tie blocks together.
The people left no written record and only the pottery and stoneowrk remains to create a story, a story that predates the Inca by several hundred years.
Interested in more take a look at
Tiwanaku
Next stop Sucre, but we need an overnight bus, what could possibly happen next.........
Hi,
ReplyDeleteBolivia is a beautiful country that is full of culture. To find out how beautiful and amazing, simply take a tour, Andes mountains to taking an adventure through the Amazon and spotting the diverse wildlife. Thanks a lot...
Bolivia Travel