ENTRY 37 TIAHUANACO,MISTERIES ON THE ANDES.

At 3846 metres of height, in a deserted landscape in the Andes, there exist the remains of an ancient pre-Incaic empire of warriors plenty of legends and mysteries, it is one of the most controversial archaeological sites all over the world.

When I looked at the monuments of Tiahuanaco, I got impressed by the perfection and majesty of these monolithic buildings that have resisted to wind and ice over thousands years. Archaeologists agree about the fact that the monoliths of Tiahuanaco have been built by the same culture in the period around 1200 b.C., but their opinions are different about the origins of this culture. Since the nearness to the Titicaca Lake, people ate fish . Tiahuanacotas warriors developed ceramics, with incisions and motifs, pictures in red, grey and white.I was told that the Tiahuanacotas warriors covered their heads with puma or jaguar skins wanting to achieve the agility and the savagery of these felines.
The central figure on the Sun Gate is the image of a face in tears.The most suggestive part of Tiahuanaco is the temple of Kalassasaya. There are three important monuments inside: the Ponce monolith, the monolith of the devotee and the famous Sun Gate, a huge arc cut in only one andesite piece. On the face are the most elaborated expression of the Tiahuanaco art. Up to today nobody has succeeded in explaining the origin of this population, able to build a metropolis on a sterile tableland. A theory involves Celtic navigators (that would explain the beard of the monolith). Other theories even more daring, take into consideration vanished continents and antediluvian cultures. But the mystery is still there.