Akapana, also referred to as Aka/Ana, is a large mound that once was part of a set of twin pyramids with Puna Punka. It is roughly rectangular in shape with an oval central depression thought to have functioned to hold water. A stone built drain runs from the water holder through the mound to the south. The mound was enclosed in a stone retaining wall of stepped plan, and is thought to have had a stepped pyramid profile, not unlike the Mayan pyramids of Mexico. When the Spanish came to Bolivia they dismantled the stone structure of Akapana, and used the masonry to build the cathedral at the nearby town of Tiwanaku. While standing on the top of Akapana one can look across the altiplano and see the cathedral steeples looming in the horizon, a reminder of the forgotten Tiwanaku civilization.

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