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Lake Titicaca |
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Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake on earth at an altitude of about 12,580 feet. Straddling the border between Peru and Bolivia. The Andean people refer to the lake as “The Sacred Lake” and legends say that the first Inca rose from its depth and went out to found the Inca empire. This is actually two lakes joined by the Strait of Tiquina. The lake spreads over an area of 3,500 square miles and is fed by waters from the melting snows of the Andes.
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| Soaring above the Lake Titicaca is often shrouded by ethereal mists, stand the mystic mountains of Ancohuma and Illampu. These mountain spirits are known by different names. There is IIIapa, the “Flashing One”, who is the lord of storms and lightning and who is supposed to control the forces of wind, rain, hail and snow. The Aymara of the Bolivian altiplano has a similar deity named Tunupa who was associated with Illampu and another great mountain, Illmani. Far below these resplendent mountain is the Lake Titicaca. More than 25 rivers empty into Titicaca and the lake has 41 islands. |
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Lake Titicaca is fed by both rain and melt water from the glacier on the sierras. It is drained by Desaguadero river which flows south through Bolivia to Lake Poopo. This may account for less than five percent of the lake's water loss, however, the rest is caused by evaporation as a result of the b wind and sunlight at this high altitude. The best known of the islands dotting Titicaca's surface are the Uros or floating islands of reed named after the Indians who inhabited them. South America is the fourth largest continent of the world and is mostly situated in the Southern hemisphere. The important attractions include: the Andes, Atacama desert, Lake Titicaca, the Pantanal and so forth.
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