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| Lake Titicaca |
Back in the blogging saddle again! With the recent release of the Kindle Edition
of Pieces of the Puzzle and the second book of the Timekeeper Series due to be
released this summer, we are busy promoting ourselves! Our Facebook page has been updated, our
Website has been overhauled, and now the blog has been reincarnated.
One of the places you can expect to read about in Book Two
is Lake Titicaca, an Andean Lake that borders Peru and Bolivia, and the cradle
of ancient Peruvian civilization. The Island
is spotted with over 40 artificial islands made by the native Uro people out of
totora reeds. The islands were
originally made for defensive purposes. They
are anchored to the bottom of the lake, but can be moved if necessary. Since they are in a constant state of decay,
a new layer of reeds has to be added every few months. It is not known when the islands were
originally created, so we felt comfortable using them in our story.
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| Totora Reed Houses |
The Andes were home to the Incas. Lacking a written language, the Incas passed
on their creation stories orally. The
story or “myth” that we took license with in the book tells how the god
Viracocha created the eight Ayer brothers and sisters who emerged from a cave near
Lake Titicaca and went on a long journey to find a place to settle. One of the brothers, Ayer Atchi, had powers that
threatened his brothers. They deceived
him into returning to the cave from which they were born and trapped him
inside. The siblings, with the exception
of one other brother who was turned to stone, resumed their travels and ended
up in the Cusco Valley where they built their home.
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| Viracocha |
Near the south-eastern shore of Lake Titicaca, lie the ruins
of Tiwanaku, an ancient temple complex.
A conservative estimate says the place was probably inhabited as early
as 1500 BC, while more liberal archaeologists say it
could be one of the oldest ruins in the world. Tiwanaku used to sit at the edge of
the lake, the subset ruins of Puma Punku are even suspected to be a harbor, but
the lake has receded to such a level that nearly twelve miles separate the two
now.
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| Tiwanaku |
The megalithic stones used to create Tiwanaku stand
as a stark contrast to the reeds the natives built boats and islands out
of. One block is estimated to weigh 440
tons and was quarried a full ten miles away.
It is still a mystery as to how the ancient people transported the stones or even built the complex.
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| Gate of the Sun
To learn more about Tiwanaku, visit the Unesco World Heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/567/
or Archaeology Magazine's Interactive Dig: http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/tiwanaku/
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