Crossword-Solution: TIAHUANACO 10 letters, 3 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 15

Then, in a sudden burst of inspiration, I described the Cordilleras to her--that world-long, stupendous chain; its sea of Titicaca, and wintry, desolate Paramo, where lie the ruins of Tiahuanaco, older than Thebes.

The Aymaras, indeed, seem to have possessed a very considerable culture before their conquest by the Incas in the 13th and 14th centuries, evidence of which remains in the megalithic ruins of Tiahuanaco.

Yet there are among them various ages and styles, the Floridan or North American, the Mexican or Anahuac, the Guatimalan or Tulan, the Peruvian or Inca--Series, are all somewhat different, mingled with others of earlier or various ages--in Peru the _Pucaras_ or oldest fortified cities in a stellate form are of earliest ages, the ruins of Tiahuanaco with sculptures of a remote period, the ruins of Chimu of another style yet, all different from the style of the Incas.

But I can positively assert that expressions are not wanting in the Peruvian tongue that bear as strong a family resemblance to the dialects spoken in the Sandwich Islands and Tahiti, where I resided a few months, as the ruins of Tiahuanaco to those of Easter Island, that are composed of stones not to be found today in that place.

When I visited it I was struck with the perfect similitude of the structures found there and the colossal statues, which forcibly recalled to my mind those said by Pinelo to have existed in Tiahuanaco even at the time of the Spanish conquest.