LAKE  TITICACA

The highest navigable  lake in the world

    Lake Titicaca lies in the Andes Mountains on the border of Bolivia and Perú at an altitude of 3,810 m. (12506 ft.). It is the world's highest lake that can be navigated by large vessels. The Lake is 177 Km. (110mi) long and has an average width of 56 km (35mi). Covering an area of about 8,300 sq km (3200sq mi), it is fed by more than 25 tributaries and drained by the small Rio Desaguadero. A small southeastern basin called Uinamarca is linked with the northwestern part, Chucuito, by the narrow Strait of Tiquina. Chucuito has a maximum depth of about 280m. (920 ft), which keeps the waters at an annual average temperature of 11deg C (51 deg F). This in turn moderates the local climate to allow cultivation of crops not usually grown at such high altitudes--corn,barley,quinoa and potatoes. Only two indigenous species of fish, killfish and catfish, inhabit the lake. Trout were introduced in 1939.

The shores of the lake was the seat of the important pre-Columbian culture of Tiahuanaco and was occupied from about AD 100 to perhaps 1000. Within Tiahuanaco's extensive fine-cut masonry ruins archaeologists have defined six architectural complexes, all of which were probably used primarily for religious ceremonies. The most important structure, the Kalasasaya, is near the center of the site; the so-called Subterranean Temple lies to the east, and the enclosures of Putuni. Laka Kollu, and Q'eri Kala are on the west. Still farther west, near the lake, is a sizable cemetery.

The Kalasasaya, a large but low enclosed plataform, is the site of the famous Gate of the Sun, which is topped by a relief-work frieze, at the center of which is a figure wearing a radiating headdress and carrying a staff in each hand. At the center of the Subterranean Temple stood the 7.3 m-tall (22 -ft) Bennett Stele (named for its discoverer), which shows a figure in head dress carrying a large beaker in one hand and a strombus shell in the other.

 Afloat on the highest inland sea, Aymara-speaking " UROS ", the island people of Lake Titicaca, fashion their lives around the buoyant "totora reed". Pulled from shallows on the Peruvian side, the reeds are piled up on the lake bed , forming a spongy substrate for island communities. Thickly matted, it forms the "ground" upon which they built reed villages, boats and houses. In the clear and deep icy waters of the 3,200 square-mile lake, the Uros fish from reed boats called balsas. Women of the surrounding 2.5 mile-high Altiplano, one of Peru's poorest areas, earn tourist dollars from colorful fabrics, woven in ancient tradition.

Bountiful and bouyant totora reeds from Titicaca's shallows suply the Urus with material for homes and boats. Reeds even provide the "ground" these fisherfolk walk on, since they live on floating islands. As bottom layers rot, the Indians spread new layers on top.

  Like the Aymaras, the Urus fashion boats of totora.  Norwegian   anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl theorizes that their ancestors may have learned the art from ancient Mediterranean mariners who crossed the Atlantic in similar boats of papyrus. Aymaras and Urus  from Titicaca helped Dr. Heyerdahl construct a seagoing craft to test his theory.

  All the Urus  have Aymara or Quechua blood now. There are no  pure-blooded Urus left.

Everyone, from  the Incas to the Spanish conquerors and all the Peruvian  Governments  has despised and neglected   these people.

Settled since prehistoric times by AYMARA Indians, the shores of the lake  remain densely populated. Modern   steamboats and traditional reed boats (balsas de totora) connect the lake site settlements.

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