Today I visited the very important pre-Inka site of Tiwanaku, a UNESCO world heritage. This culture developed around 600 before Christ and had its height between 700 and 1200 after Christ, when it finally disappeared because of internal conflicts due to the change of climatic conditions and the dramatic decrease of harvests. It had around 20.000 inhabitants at its best time. Around 1400 the site was rediscovered by the Inkas, who decided to stay there.. A lot of the site is however destroyed as the Spaniards used most of the stones from the pyramids and temples to build churches in the surroundings, notably the Church of Tiwanaku village, but also the San Francisco Monastery in La Paz... There are huge carved monoliths representing Tiwanaku rulers, up to 7 meters high, which the Spaniards "baptised", meaning that they carved the Christian cross as well as the triangle as a symbol of Trinity over the very precious ancient carvings in order to destroy the magic power, which the locals attributed to them. This helped them to christianise the local population.
The probably most famous monument there is the Gate of the Sun, which is made out of one single block of andesite stone and weighs around 44 tons. The most heavy monoliths, which were found there, weigh more than 440 tons.. The gate is oriented in such a way that the sun shines through on the 21st June - start of summer and equinox - at midday... all the temples are arranged in such a way, that the sun, on the specific dates of 21st March, June, September and December, respects a specific constellation compared to the temple.. this is quite impressive...
We also witnessed an offering with an Aymara priest on the archaeological site, as it seems to be a tradition that an offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth, takes place before a new excavation starts or if something important has been found.. the ceremony not only invloved the priest, but also several people from the archaeological team.
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