Tiwanaku - Bolivia

This is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia.
It was discovered in 1549 by Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León.
It's near Lake Titicata.

 The Gate of the Sun. This megalithic solid stone arch is constructed from a single piece of stone. The weight is estimated to be 10 tons. The inscriptions found on the object are mysterious. They are believed to be either of astronomical and/or astrological significance.
The Gateway is 2.8 metres high and 3.8 metres wide. 
 

The lintel is carved with 48 squares surrounding a central figure. Each square represents a character in the form of winged effigy. There are 32 effigies with human faces and 16 with condors' heads. All look to the central motif: the figure of a man with his head surrounded by 24 linear rays that may represent rays of the sun.
Some historians and archaeologists believe that the central figure represents the “Sun God”, while others have linked it with the Inca god Viracocha.
(Wikipedia).

Most archieologists appear to date the site to around 300BC to AD 300.
The area around Tiwanaku may have been inhabited as early as 1500 BC.

                        Ponce Monolith.

Such statues perhaps represented the race of stone giants which first populated the world in pan-Andean mythology. Gold pins and traces of piant indicate they were once clothed in textiles and decorated with bright colours. The statue is 3.5 metres tall and dates to c. 300 CE.

 The figure holds a kero (qero) or tall beaker in one hand and a staff-like object, perhaps a sceptre or coca snuff tablet, in the other.

Another mega statue.

Kalasasaya, Tiwanaku. This walled compound of sandstone blocks creates a sacred space used for public and religious ceremonies. It measures 130 by 120 metres.   Standing in the precinct is the Ponce Monolith.

 It has stone heads protruding from the interior of its sandstone perimeter walls

Pumapunku.

Kantatallita is one of the most destroyed ruins of Tiwanaku, where we see huge blocks of cut stone in great geometric detail.

Kantatallita Lintel, Tiwanaku, Bolivia

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La Paz - Bolivia - The Cholas of Bolivia

Some pics of La Paz in Bolivia.

 La Paz, in Bolivia, is the highest administrative capital in the world, resting on the Andes’ Altiplano plateau at more than 3,500m above sea level.

 It's a crazy city... jostling pedestrians, honking, diesel-spewing minivans
.

Full of ladies wearing bowler hats.  Whats with the hats.???

..

The first thing that will strike you when you visit Bolivia are these bowler hats. They are everywhere, and most of the women wear them. 

It seems that this fashion started in the 19th century. The story is that the Manchester manufacturers first tried to export the hats to British railway workers in Bolivia but when this failed they turned their attention to the local women, saying that all the fashionable women in Europe were going around wearing these bowler hats.

“Legend” has it that those who were wearing the hats did not have problems with infertility. So it became vastly popular among the women from the Aymara indigenous group.

La Paz also named Chuqi Yapu (Chuquiago) in Aymara, is the seat of government and the de facto national capital of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 789,541 residents as of 2015, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bolivia

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