Monday, June 11, 2007

Tiahuanaco

About an hours drive from La Paz is a town called Tiwanaku. This town is the site of the ruins of an ancient civilisation called "The Tiwanakun People" according to the guy sitting next to me who has just looked it up.

In keeping with the current theme of the trip this town is about 3,800 meters above sea level...






This is us standing on top of the burried pyramid.



There´s not a great deal to see of the pyramid, but some of the other temples have been uncovered and reconstructed.


Also from the pyramid you get quite a nice view of the modern town with it´s church and main square.



The underground temple contains some interesting walls with a large collection of heads:










The above ground temple seems to be all to do with the solstices - various statues, doors and walls line up with the sun at different times of the year.








Translation of the sign: "Come back soon!"



Back in La Paz again, wondering what to do next...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh, those heads are creepy. Was it a crypt?

Amy Y.

Chris said...

Some kind of semi underground temple for communicating with ancestors I think... Not sure though, the guide only spoke spanish.