He Wari Empire was centered at the site of Wari in the Ayacucho Valley of the central Andean highlands of Peru. During the Middle Horizon Period its political and economic control expanded over most of what is today highland Peru, and perhaps portions of the coast, roughly between a.d. 750 and 1000. For many years Wari culture was thought to be directly derived from Tiwanaku, another important and influential Middle Horizon site, located in Bolivia; it was first called Coast Tiahuanaco or Tiahuanacoid. It was not until the 1930s that the Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tello investigated the site of Wari and determined that it was the center of dispersal of the so-called Tiahuanacoid styles.