Tiwanaku – the centre of the pre-inca culture

Before traveling to Bolivia I was looking for trips which would bring the Bolivian culture closer to me. This is when I found out about Tiwanaku, a little village just about 50 km from La Paz. It used to be the center of a pre-inca culture. Pre-inca? – was I asking. I had never heard about the times before the Incas. And seems like that the Tiwanakus already built totems and churches, and had complex beliefs about the reason of life.


Our tour started in the Tiwanaku museums where we saw the Pacha Mama monolit totems, the ceramics they produced between 1500BC – 1200AD, and the rich symbols they used: the colours, the animals, the religious sculptures. Everything had a meaning. Everything had to do with the connection between the sky-earth-underground levels and the movement of the sun.

In front of the Tiwanaku Museum - the Bolivian and Andine flags

Little man at big altitudes
The tour continued in the open air space. We saw the ruins of a pyramid, a church and an underground hall. Of course they all represented one of the levels. Pyramid the sky, church the earth and the hall symbolized the underground level. 

The model of the sacred park

Gate of the Sun
Pacha Mama
The Tiwanakus were great observers. They already found out when the sun was the highest or when the days were the shortest. Every 21 June people gather together from all over the world to celebrate the sun. The new year in the Tiwanaku culture. If you are fast you can meet the Dalai Lama who visits the ruins this year and celebrates the new year. 


Leo, our guide explaining the relation between church and the sun
Ruins of the pyramid - 5 levels exclavated
I was also there, yes!
My favourite wall decoration from Tiwanaku
The 3-dimension Andene cross
Ruins of an old gate

About Tiny Girl With Big Bag

Hobby writer and autodidact photographer whose passion is to travel and get to know new people and cultures. She has been on 4 continents and 30 countries, and the outcome is this travel blog where she shares travel stories, thoughts, tips and photography always through a subjective eye.

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