Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca lies in the Andes on the border between Peru to the west and Bolivia to the east, at an elevation of about 3,810 metres. It covers approximately 8,300 square kilometres. A narrow channel, the Strait of Tiquina, divides the lake into a larger northern basin and a smaller southern basin, which have different names in Peru and Bolivia. Titicaca is widely described as the highest lake navigable by large vessels; this specific distinction does not mean it is the world's highest lake of any kind.

More than 25 rivers flow into the lake, with the Ramis among the largest. The Desaguadero River is its only surface outlet. Encyclopaedia Britannica reports that this outlet carries away about five percent of the lake's excess water; most of the remainder is lost through evaporation in the dry, sunny and windy Altiplano. Rainy-season inflow normally raises the lake's level, while it recedes in the dry season; Britannica also describes longer cycles of rise and fall. The balance of inflow, outflow and evaporation helps shape these fluctuations.

Titicaca is not only open water: its wetland landscape includes marshes, rivers, high-Andean peatlands and extensive beds of totora, a native reed. The Ramsar Convention's descriptions of the Peruvian and Bolivian sectors note endemic fish and habitat important for migratory shorebirds and Andean waterbirds, including flamingos. These habitats connect the lake's aquatic ecology with the surrounding high plateau and its communities.

People have lived around the lake and used its resources for generations. Aymara communities in the basin practice agriculture on terraces, while Uru communities are associated with floating islands and boats made from totora reeds; fishing and agriculture remain important regional livelihoods. The lake also has a place in Andean cultural memory. Peru's World Heritage tentative-list description records traditions that regard the lake as sacred and associate it with the beginnings of Inca civilization. Such accounts are cultural traditions, not geological claims.

Both countries have designated parts of the lake as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention: the Peruvian sector was listed in 1997 and the Bolivian sector in 1998. Peru submitted Lake Titicaca to UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List in 2005. A tentative-list entry is a proposal for possible future consideration; it is not the same as inscription on the World Heritage List.