ideas from smaller nearby cultures that they assimilated, such as the Recuay culture and the Vicús. They made fully sculpted ceramic animal figures, worked gold, and wove textiles. The art often featured everyday images, but seemingly always with a ritual intent. In its later years, the Moche came under the influence of the expanding Huari empire. The Cerro Blanco site of Huaca del Sol appears to have been the Moche capital. Largely destroyed by natural events around 600 CE, it was further damaged by Spanish conquistadors searching for gold, and continues with modern looters. Middle Horizon The Middle Horizon lasted from 600 CE to 1000 CE, and was dominated by two cultures: the Huari and the Tiwanaku. The Tiwanaku (also spelled Tiahuanaco) culture arose near Lake Titicaca (on the modern border between Peru and Bolivia), while the Wari culture arose in the southern highlands of Peru. Both cultures appear to have been influenced by the Pukara culture, which was active during the Early Intermediate in between the primary centers of the Wari and Tiwanaku. These cultures both had wide-ranging influence, and shared some common features in their portable art, but their monumental arts were somewhat distinctive. The monumental art of the Tiwanaku demonstrated technical prowess in stonework, including fine detailed reliefs, and monoliths such as the Ponce monolith (photo to the left), and the Sun Gate, both in the main Tiwanaku site. The portable art featured "portrait vessels", with figured heads on ceramic vessels, as well as natural imagery like jaguars and raptors. A full range of materials, from ceramics to textiles to wood, bone, and shell, were used in creative endeavours. Textiles with a weave of 300 threads per inch (80 threads per cm) have been found at Tiwanaku sites. The Wari dominated an area from northern to central Peru, with their main center near Ayacucho. Their art is distinguished from the Tiwanaku style by the use of bolder colors and patterns. Notable among Wari finds are tapestry garments, presumed to be made for priests or rulers to wear, often bearing abstract geometric designs of significant complexity, but also bearing images of animals and figures. Wari ceramics, also of high technical quality, are similar in many ways to those of the preceding cultures, where local influences from fallen cultures, like the Moche, are still somewhat evident. Metalwork, while rarely found due to its desirability by looters, shows elegant simplicity