Lake Titicaca  Titicaca (; , , "Lake Titicaca"; , "Titiqaqa Lake") is a large, deep, freshwater lake in the Andes on the border of Bolivia and Peru, often called the "highest navigable lake" in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, it is the largest lake in South America. (Lake Maracaibo has a larger surface area, but it is a tidal bay, not a lake.) Lake Titicaca has a surface elevation of . The "highest navigable lake" claim is generally considered to refer to commercial craft. Numerous smaller bodies of water around the world are at higher elevations. For many years, the largest vessel afloat on the lake was the 2,200-ton (2,425 U.S. tons), SS "Ollanta". Today, the largest vessel is most likely the similarly sized train barge/float "Manco Capac", operated by PeruRail. Other cultures lived on Lake Titicaca prior to the arrival of the Incas. In 2000, a team of international archaeologists and divers found the ruins of an underwater temple, thought to be between 1,000 and 1,500 years old, most likely built by the Tiwanaku people. The ruins have been measured to be . The temple was accompanied by a village, some roads, terraces for farming and a retaining wall that ran for 800 meters. The lake is located at the northern end of the endorheic Altiplano basin high in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. The western part of the lake lies within the Puno Region of Peru, and the eastern side is located in the Bolivian La Paz Department. The lake consists of two nearly separate subbasins connected by the Strait of Tiquina, which is across at the narrowest point. The larger subbasin, "Lago Grande" (also called "Lago Chucuito"), has a mean depth of and a maximum depth of . The smaller subbasin, Wiñaymarka (also called "Lago Pequeño", "little lake"), has a mean depth of and a maximum depth of . The overall average depth of the lake is . Five major river systems feed into Lake Titicaca. In order of their relative flow volumes these are Ramis, Coata, Ilave, Huancané, and Suchez. More than 20 other smaller streams empty into Titicaca. The lake has 41 islands, some of which are densely populated.