Environment and Location
The political center of Tiwanaku was in the city of the same name, located on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca in the humid Bolivian Altiplano. This great Andean civilization achieved dominion over a vast territory that included what is now Northern Chile, from the Azapa Valley in the Arica area to the Atacama Slat Flat. Geographically the empire ran from the enormous plains and salt flats of the Bolivian Altiplano to the Pacific coast and valleys of southern Peru and the desert oases of northern Chile.