The next day after my return from Oruro, through the courtesy of Mr. Rankin Johnson, I enjoyed the privilege of visiting the village and ruins of Tiahuanaco on the plains several miles south of Lake Titicaca.
Leaving La Paz at eight o’clock in the morning, we had six hours in and around the village and returned in time for dinner the same evening. It was necessary to take our lunch with us, for there is no inn and the little village shops afford scarcely anything that is fit to eat. The Tiahuanaco station is within a mile of the most interesting ruins. The railroad track passes within a few feet of three of the monolithic images and one of the monolithic doorways.
At the station we secured the services of a picturesquely dressed old Aymará who the station master assured us was a competent guide. He took us across the dusty plain towards a large mound which had once been surrounded by terraces and stone walls. It is popularly known as the “fortress.” Originally a truncated pyramid about six hundred feet long, four hundred feet wide, and fifty feet high, treasure-seekers have dug great holes in its sides and excavated part of its summit in an effort to find the “buried riches of the Incas.” Besides the fortress there seems to be evidence of a great “temple” and also of a “palace.” The “temple,” roughly outlined by rude stone blocks, occupies an area of nearly four acres. For the most part the blocks are from six to ten feet in height and three feet in thickness. Within there is still evidence of a terrace, and from this on the eastern side there leads a remarkable stairway. Scattered about over the mound and all over the plain are many rectangular stones whose purpose has been entirely lost, thanks to the activity of treasure-seekers who have ruthlessly moved them from their original position and left them lying in indescribable confusion. There seems to be evidence that many of the blocks were held in place by strong metal pins, for there are round holes drilled into the stones and insertions made to receive “T” clamps.
The principal ruins are in a broad level part of the plain where the soil is firm and dry. They consist of rows of erect, roughly-shaped monoliths, sections of foundations, portions of giant stairways, monolithic doorways, some bearing carvings in low relief, monolithic statues, and innumerable small cut stones strewn about on all sides.
Great stone platforms, weighing many tons, aroused our keenest curiosity. One looks around the plain in vain for a near-by quarry from which they could have come. The most natural supposition is that they must have been quarried on the spot from ledges outcropping here, for it would seem scarcely possible that blocks twenty feet long, ten feet wide, and four feet thick could have been transported any distance by the primitive methods at the disposal of those prehistoric people.
The ruins were much more complete in 1875 at
