Pumapunku: plataformas y portales

Abstract

Pumapunku: Platforms and Portals

For the architect, the most challenging area of Tiwanaku is the Platform area of the Pumapunku, so named for the enormous slabs of sandstone that are found there. The shear size of the slabs is simply amazing, and the chaotic scene of innumerable worked stones and their fragments littering the area challenges one's imagination. What might the site have looked like?

Concentrating our investigations on the many construction details and design elements that can still be discerned on the slabs and on the stone fragments, we were able to identify some of the principles of architectural composition used by the builders of Tiwanaku, as well as to reconstruct various parts of the architecture of the Pumapunku.