Pucará

Pucará is a town in the Pucará District of Lampa Province, in the Puno Region of Peru, to the north-west of Lake Titicaca. Its name comes from the Aymara and Quechua word pukara, which means fortress. The town gives its name to a very large archaeological site on its western side, spread over about 4.2 square kilometres and dated as early as 1800 BC, which was the first large urban center in the region and has been declared a National Cultural Heritage of Peru. The site has a ceremonial sector of nine pyramids, the most important being the Kalasaya pyramid, with a large sunken central court holding carved stone stelae, and it lent its name to the Pukara culture, which came to dominate the whole Lake Titicaca region by about 200 BC.