TIWANAKU A.D. 600-A.D. 900 iwanaku was located on the high plains around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. At 12,630 feet above sea level, it was the highest capital in the ancient world and enjoyed the longest reign of southern Andean civilizations. The rulers of Tiwanaku built an empire more through religious ideology and economics than through military force. Ritual objects, such as ceramic libation vessels dispersed through trade created a common symbolic code that helped build political control. Tiwanaku architecture is marked by monumental gateways and monolithic sculptures. The most famous of the gateways is the Gateway of the Sun which displays a carved diety thought to be a solar deity. Gateways may have marked ceremonial boundaries used in important state rituals.				2 of 3   Middle Horizon