Iskanwaya is a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

sacred site, situated on a mountain ridge above the Llica River in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, 325 km north of

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

. In its extension and its age Iskanwaya surpasses

Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain ridge at . Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire. It is located in the ...

in Peru, but it is less well preserved.

Location

The sacred site of Iskanwaya is found on the edge of the Cordillera Real, 250 m above the River Llica canyon and 1,672 meters above sea level. The site is located near Aucapata, a small town in the Muñecas Province, on the northern side of the Andean cordilleras.

Site

The site is considered sacred by the inhabitants of the area, and one of the most important areas in the country; both for its monuments, location, and relationship between the cultures that inhabited the inter-Andean valleys. In March 2022, in order to preserve its heritage and reactivate the economy through tourism in the region, the site was inaugurated as an archeological project of restoration and tourist attraction by Governor Santos Quispe in coordination with the Departmental Secretariat of Tourism and Cultures. The city of Iskanwaya was built on two platforms on an area of 0.6 square kilometers and was notable for its running water provided by a network of irrigation canals. The irrigation system brought water from the Naranjani stream through canals and was distributed to the agglutinated Iskanwaya dwelling groups. Additionally, archeological evidence of water reservoirs located at the centre of the main court square have been discovered. More than one hundred large buildings composed of stone masonry and an average of thirteen rooms have survived. Mollo streets ran in east–west direction. Their houses were rectangular and grouped around patios, they were built with blocks of slate stone, joined with mud trench mortars. Agriculture patterns included terracing and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

. UN-archaeologist Alvaro R. Fernholz Jemio suggests that in its time the site was inhabited by 2,500 to 3.000 peopleIskanwaya: más antiguo que Machu Picchu
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Mollo Culture

The Iskanwaya ruins go back to the

Mollo culture The Mollo culture existed in Bolivia's altiplano area after the collapse of the Tiwanaku culture during the period of AD 1000 to 1500; it predated the Inca civilization. While the Mollo showed a continuity with Late Tiwanaku culture in both ...

which predated the

Inca civilization The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fro ...

and whose people presumably built the constructions as early as 800 BC or in their prime cultural period from 1145 to 1425.

References

External links

Iskanwaya
{Dead link, date=January 2020 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Archaeological sites in Bolivia Former populated places in Bolivia Buildings and structures in La Paz Department (Bolivia)