Bolivia
Bolivia
Capital: La Paz Official languages: Spanish Location: South America Appearance in games: |
Bolivia is a mountainous country in South America. It is the first area Lara Croft visits in Tomb Raider Legend. The level, also known as Bolivia - Tiwanaku, acts as the tutorial level to the game and introduces the story.
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Background
Bolivia is for the main part a series of high plateaux in the Andean mountains of South America. It is also crossed by several rivers that feed into the Amazon river of Brazil.
Bolivia is consistently known as one of the poorest countries in the Americas, but it is rich in natural resources like including minerals and natural gas. Soybeans are the major agricultural cash crop.
La Paz, the capital, is the highest altitude capital in the world, and the country also features the highest altitude freshwater lake, Lake Titicaca which it shares with Peru.
History
Bolivian history dates back since the Confederacy Tiwanaku-Wari (700 - 1200 CE), which encompassed a similarly sized area of land that the country does today.. That was until the fall of Tiwanaku, and then Wari about a century later. However, the group of people that once composed Tiwanaku (The culture Lara explores) reformed and became a separate Curacazgo (chiefdom), until the Tawantinsuyu conquered them and annexed their altiplanic provinces. The Tawantinsuyu were later conquered by Spanish invaders in 1533.
Bolivia became independent in 1825 and has seen continued fighting between indigenous peoples of Quecha and Aymara and the white or Spanish-derived population (mestizo). This in itself accounts for much of the economic and social instability that still affects the country.
Geography
Bolivia lacks any coastline. For it's weather, altitudinal characteristics, and physiography, the country has a great ecological diversity. Its natural regions ranges from the Altiplano to the Amazon plains, after passing throught dry valleys, Yungas (where the Bolivia Legend levels are most likely to be located), and many other diverse habitats.
Links
Bolivia is the setting for both the first and the last levels in Tomb Raider Legend.
Gallery
The Bolivian Altiplano
The Bolivian rainforest
Lake Titicaca
The Bolivian capital, La Paz
