Encyclopedia of the Incas

Entrance to these elaborate buildings and ceremonial precincts was through
monumental gateways, the most famous being the so-called Gate of the Sun. The
gateways were often monolithic, with the uprights and lintels all carved from a
single piece of stone. The lintels were frequently decorated with complex relief
carvings that are believed to depict deities of the Tiahuanaco pantheon. The most
important of these is thought to be the figure on the Gate of the Sun, the
Tiahuanaco interpretation of the old Chavín staff god.
Agriculture and herding of camelids, in addition to conquest and tribute,
contributed to the vast wealth that permitted the construction of the great
ceremonial monuments of the city of Tiahuanaco and its major administrative
centers. Some time between AD 1000 and 1200, however, the Tiahuanaco
Empire disintegrated and the great city and its satellite centers were abandoned.
The causes of the collapse are poorly understood, but it seems probable that a
climatic fluctuation contributed substantially to the demise of Tiahuanaco. The
legacy of Tiahuanaco was profoundly influential. Even in Inca times, the site
was revered as a holy place. The Incas invented an official history to claim their
place of origin as an island in Lake Titicaca and themselves as the inheritors of
the prestigious Tiahuanaco tradition (see Myths, Origin).
The other great culture of the Middle Horizon was that of the Huari. About 965
kilometers (600 miles) to the north of Tiahuanaco, the Huari capital was located
in the Ayacucho valley of the central Peruvian Andes, at an elevation of 2,743
meters (9,000 feet) above sea level. The Huari Empire is represented
archaeologically by large architectural complexes found throughout the Peruvian
highlands. Huari and Tiahuanaco shared some of the same religious iconography,
but they seem to have been separate entities. There is no evidence that one ever
dominated the other, although the exact nature of their relationship remains
unknown.
The site of Huari was first occupied around 200 BC and, like Tiahuanaco, was
only a small settlement until around AD 500. From AD 500 to 900, however, the
site grew rapidly to become one of the largest urban centers in South America.
Ultimately a city of 500 hectares (1,235 acres), it was occupied by a population
ranging from 35,000 to 70,000 people. Unlike Tiahuanaco, the city of Huari has
little finely cut stonework. Although monumental in scale, most of its buildings
were constructed of fieldstone set in mud mortar and were then covered with
smooth coats of clay and gypsum plaster.
A new religion is presumed to have been introduced to the Huari through
contact with Tiahuanaco at the beginning of the Middle Horizon. Little,