Everywhere: Articles: Isla del Sol

The Sun's birthplace according with the Aymara and Quechua believes.

A man on the pier by Paulo Nunes dos Santos

A man sitting down on a pier in the Isla del Sol, Titicaca Lake, Bolivia.

Isla del Sol is an island situated in the southern part of Lake Titicaca and belongs to the territory of Republic of Bolivia.
Geographically, the terrain is harsh, making it a rocky and hilly island. There are no motor vehicles or paved roads on the island. Many hills on the island contain agricultural terraces, which adapt steep and rocky terrain to agriculture.The main economic activity of the approximately 800 families on the island is farming, with fishing and tourism feeding the subsistence economy.
Around 180 ruins on the island, most of these date to the Inca period circa the 15h century AD, make the island an emerging tourist attraction. Archaeologists have discovered that people has been living on the island as far back as the third millennium BCE. Among the ruins on the island the Sacred Rock, a labyrinth-like building called Chicana, Kasa Pata, and Pilco Kaima. The island has been identified as the birthplace of several deities, including the sun, the bearded white god-king Viracocha, and Manco Capac and his sister/wife Mama Ocllo (the first Incas). Most modern-day Aymará and Quechua peoples of Peru and Bolivia accept these legends as their creation story.
The majority of the island’s 2,500 permanent residents are situated in the north and south parts of the islands that contain the main tourist sites (mostly Inca ruins). Smaller settlements are distributed along the middle of the island.