Tiahuanaco the gateway of the sun

1. Tiahuanaco: the Gateway of the Sun
Tiahuanaco, located on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, was a major
religious center of the Huari-Tiahuanaco empire. During the
Middle Horizon (AD 600-1000), the Huari military
organization dominated the Peruvian Andes, and eventually
linked up with the formidable priestly apparatus at Tiahuanaco
to create a powerful theocratic state.
The symbolic relief carvings on the Gateway of the Sun at
Tiahuanaco, often strikingly well-preserved in slabs of
volcanic andesite, were first reported in detail by Ephriam G.
Squier in his 1877 book, Incidents of Travel and Exploration
in the Land of the Incas.
Squier describes the tiers of winged condor-headed and
human-headed figures kneeling toward the central sun god
figure "as if in adoration, each one holds before him a staff or
sceptre..." These winged figures represent the heads of
condors, tigers, and serpents. The central figure in the Sun
Gateway, holding a pair of staffs, is probably linked to the
much earlier Chavin Staff God (from ca. 800-300 BC).
Squier also notes that the islands of Lake Titicaca were
traditionally thought to have produced the founders of the Inca Empire. This
appears to be upheld by modern archaeology, which shows that during the Huari-
Tiahauanaco period, centralized state organization occurred with regional
storehouses, roads, and redistribution of resources and local populations, all
preceding the much better documented Inca empire by hundreds of years.
[Fig.1: Winged figures on the side of the Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco
(Squier 1877).]
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