Tiwanaku

by Margaret Young-Sánchez

Introduces the striking artwork and fascinating rituals of this highland culture through approximately one hundred works of art and cultural treasures. Publisher description: By the shores of Lake Titicaca, the largest body of water in the South American highland, rose the city of Tiwanaku. Its megalithic structures were constructed between AD 100 and 300. By 500 Tiwanaku had become the capital of an expanding empire in the Andes that endured until approximately AD 1000, when extended drought caused water levels to fall and agriculture to fail. After European colonization many of the buildings were raided for their stone, which was used to construct churches, rail stations, and houses. Less than a day's trip from La Paz, Bolivia, Tiwanaku remains one of the most impressive archeological sites in South America. Despite its fame and its economic, political, and artistic importance to such later peoples as the Incas, the Tiwanaku civilization has never been the subject of a comprehensive