Semi-Subterranean Temple

E847560

The Semi-Subterranean Temple is a sunken ceremonial courtyard at the ancient Tiwanaku site in Bolivia, notable for its stone walls studded with carved anthropomorphic heads and its role in pre-Columbian ritual practices.

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All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Semi-Subterranean Temple canonical 1

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf archaeological site feature
ceremonial courtyard
sunken court
access open to the public with restrictions
adjacentTo Akapana pyramid complex NERFINISHED
Kalasasaya NERFINISHED
architecturalFeature central sunken floor
embedded carved heads
stone masonry walls
sunken rectangular courtyard
associatedCulture Tiwanaku culture NERFINISHED
associatedPeriod Middle Horizon
Pre-Columbian era
chronology constructed during Tiwanaku expansion phase
occupied before Inca period
conservationStatus subject to erosion and weathering
discoveredBy European explorers in 19th century
excavatedBy Bolivian archaeologists
Carlos Ponce Sanginés NERFINISHED
functionHypothesis space for ancestor veneration
space for elite ritual performance
hasDecoration anthropomorphic stone heads
geometric patterns
zoomorphic motifs
heritageStatus UNESCO World Heritage Site component NERFINISHED
locatedIn Tiwanaku NERFINISHED
locatedInCountry Bolivia NERFINISHED
locatedInRegion Altiplano NERFINISHED
locatedNear Lake Titicaca NERFINISHED
management Bolivian cultural heritage authorities
material andesite blocks
sandstone blocks
stone
orientation aligned with cardinal directions
partOf Tiwanaku archaeological site NERFINISHED
Tiwanaku ceremonial center NERFINISHED
religiousAssociation Andean cosmology
Tiwanaku state religion NERFINISHED
researchTopic Andean ritual architecture
Tiwanaku religious iconography
siteType open-air ritual space
tourism popular visitor attraction at Tiwanaku
usedFor public gatherings
religious ceremonies
ritual practices
wallFeature protruding stone tenons
recessed niches

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Tiwanaku archaeological site hasPart Semi-Subterranean Temple