The great city of Tiwanaku was laid out to a formal design, the houses of perhaps 40,000 people ranged symmetrically about major avenues.
The city contained workshops of craftsmen producing fine polychrome pottery, stone tools and sculptures, textiles and a diversity of gold objects.
In the heart of the city was its ceremonial centre, comprising many religious structures including pyramids, patios, monumental statues and monolithic gateways. Most famous is the Gateway of the Sun, carved with a central figure of the Staff God, a major deity familiar from the religious art of the earlier Chavin and Moche cultures.
Nearby stood the huge Akapana pyramid, an stepped earthen mound faced with stone. On its summit stood a temple set in a sunken court from which, it has been suggested, water poured down during the rainy season, to be caught in the moat surrounding the sacred precinct.
The Kalasasya was another monumental platform; a nearby palace yielded an architect's model for its construction. Tiwanaku's monuments were built using blocks of stone imported sometimes over tens or even hundreds of miles; these were carefully dressed so that they could be fitted together exactly.
The overall effect of the architecture would have been dazzling since much of it was painted and carvings were often inlaid with gold.
