Just 12 miles (19 miles) southward of the southernmost tip of Titicaca Lake lay the
remains of Tiahuanaco, the site of a technologically advanced culture. The site is at an altitude of 13,300 feet (4,000 meters), which places it some 800 feet (245 meters) above the present level of Lake Titicaca.
Most archaeologists agree that in the distant past Tiahuanaco was a flourishing port at the edge of the lake. The Tiahuanaco culture, as it is called, is unique in its sculpture and its style of stone construction. The figures depicted in the statuary have a rather square head with some covering like a helmet; they have square eyes and a rectangular mouth. The stone works at the ruins consist of such structures as the Gate of the Sun, a portal carved from a single block of stone weighing 15 tons. The stone steps of the Kalasasaya, each of which is a rectangular block of stone about 30 feet wide; the so-called "idols," which are giant about 23 feet tall representatives of unusual looking beings with typical Tiahuanaco head and trace; and the enormous monolithic stone blocks, many of which appear to have been cast rather than carved, are some of these unusual features.
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