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Tiwanaku Cultural Remains

Type Object Region Andes Time c. 300–1200

Tiwanaku, on Bolivia's Altiplano, was a major pre-Columbian Andean highland center famed for the Gateway of the Sun, the Akapana pyramid, and fine st…

Timeline

  1. c. 500–900Tiwanaku · BoliviaThe Tiwanaku Empire controlled large areas of the Altiplano, building the Gateway of the Sun, the Kalasasaya temple, and raised-field agricultural systems, becoming a model center of political, religious, and economic integration on the Andean highlands.
  2. c. 1000–1150Altiplano · BoliviaClimate change and internal turmoil led to the collapse of the Tiwanaku Empire and a sharp decline in the capital's population, but the grand stone structures and religious imagery survived; local communities continued to regard the site as an ancestral sacred place and symbol of power.
  3. c. 1171–1180Tiwanaku site · BoliviaAround 1175, Tiwanaku's function as an imperial capital had passed, but its architectural complex, Gateway of the Sun carvings, and terrace remains were still the most important cultural remains on the Andean highlands, providing material and mythic foundations for the later Inca recognition of the 'place of creation'.

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