LAKE TITICACA [PUNO]

The austere highland city of Puno is the obligatory starting point for all those travellers drawn by the legendary crystalline waters of Lake Titicaca. The largest tropical lake in the world, Titicaca covers an area of 8000 square km and is 170 km long and 65 km wide. Along its seemingly endless shores and on its many green islands, Quechua and Aymara inhabitants fish its bountiful waters or farm its fertile soils in the manner of their ancestors - the builders of Sillustani, Tiahuanaco, Chucuito and the countless other monumental sites scattered now in ruins across the region. From Puno one reaches the floating Uros islands, built of totora reeds more than five hundred years ago, and the beautiful island of Taquile, which was isolated from the mainland for centuries. Taquile islanders still dress traditionally and govern their six kilometre-long island with laws which date from the time of the Incas.

Located in southeastern Peru, Puno has a population of over 100,000 and lies on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. Its waters contain many fish and its severe surroundings and the great mountains of the Cordillera Real lend it a mysterious atmosphere. The region's climate is cold and dry, with a four month rainy season.

Puno was the centre of the altiplano's early civilisations, home to the oldest urban centre of the Pucará civilisation, which produced monumental architecture and excellent pottery. It was this culture which was the first to domesticate plants and animals in the area, leading to the eventual rise of the Tihuanaco civilisation.

Tihuanaco began to emerge in what we call the Classical Period, which coincided with the decline of the Pucará, and Puno came under the influence of the Tihuanaco, whose capital lay on the southeastern shore of Lake Titicaca, in present-day Bolivia.

The most noteworthy archaeological remains in the Puno area are the chullpas, or burial towers, at Sillustani and Pucará. The majority of these chullpas belong to the Inca period. The Incas conquered this area at the beginning of the 15th century, and Lake Titicaca is the site of their creation myth.