Tiwanaku (redirected from Tiahuanco)

Tiwanaku

 or Tiwanacu Spanish Tiahuanaco

Major pre-Columbian Andean civilization known from the ruins of the same name near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. The Tiwanaku civilization spread throughout large areas of Bolivia and Peru and parts of Argentina and Chile. The main site's earliest remains may date from c. 200 BC–c. AD 200 and its major buildings from c. AD 600 to c. 1000. Surviving artifacts include stelae, decorated pottery, and the famous Gateway of the Sun (Puerta del Sol), an ornamented doorway carved from a massive stone slab. Much of the culture's success derived from its raised-field farming technique, in which elevated planting surfaces were separated by canals that retained the sun's heat during the cold nights and kept the crops from freezing. Algae that grew in the canals was used for fertilizer. The Tiwanaku culture vanished by 1200.