Located on the Altiplano, in the Andes of Southern Peru, Puno is home to the highest lake in the world, Lake Titicaca (over 13,000 feet above sea level), and to endless archaeological testimonies and ancient cultures which have remained alive despite the passage of time and the encroachment of modernity. Lake Titicaca is and has been a source of life for its inhabitants, and has made its mark on their destiny. Centuries ago, it was home to the Tiahuanaco culture (100 to 700 B.C.), one of the most influential pre-Incan cultures that dominated almost all of what is now Peru. To walk along the shores of Lake Titicaca, or to sail its waters, is to reconnect with an unchanged past, influenced by the countless legends that spring forth from its waters and to which the origins of the Inca Empire are attributed.