Kalasasaya is one of the principal structures in the monumental core of Tiwanaku, the pre-Hispanic city on Bolivia’s high plateau. UNESCO describes it as a large, open rectangular temple north of the Akapana platform. Unlike a roofed sanctuary, its defining experience is an enclosure of stone around an open interior. That spatial form makes the building legible from the surrounding site: walls establish a boundary, while the sky remains part of the room.
The wider Tiwanaku property was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. UNESCO identifies a protected archaeological zone called Kalasasaya covering 23.5 hectares; that area refers to the protected zone, not the footprint of the temple alone. The monument belongs to a civic and ceremonial centre that also includes the Semi-subterranean Temple, Akapana, Pumapunku and other structures built or used in different phases.