Inca Architecture & Stonemasonry
Much of Peru's greatest architecture, it has to be said, lies in ruins. However, the civilizations that predated the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors were incredibly sophisticated engineers, stonemasons, and architects. The Moche, Sicán, and other cultures built great temples, including some that were the largest man-made structures in the Americas. But it was the Incas, the best-documented pre-Columbian culture in South America and the one that would ultimately succumb to the Spaniards, who left an astounding legacy of innovative building.
Evidence abounds in Peru of superior Inca building techniques. Chief among their architectural prowess is the massive system of roads that crisscrossed the entire empire. Nearly 32,200km (20,000 miles), of which the Inca Trail from the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu is undoubtedly the most famous stretch, extended from Chile and Bolivia, through the mountainous Andean terrain, and all the way to Quito.
The Incas might not have invented the system of building with huge, mortarless stones or of constructing agricultural terraces on steeply inclined mountainsides, but it is fair to say they perfected it. They also mastered the art of craftily inserting structures -- whether citadels, ceremonial temples, or palaces -- into the nature they so revered. Machu Picchu is perhaps the finest example of this remarkable environmentally sensitive architecture, but it is by no means the only one. Great agricultural terracing can be seen at Ollantaytambo, Moray, and Pisac.
Two of the finest examples of the Incas' ability to construct walls from perfectly integrated, massive stones are the zigzagged defensive walls at Sacsayhuamán and the exquisitely tapered, curved exterior at Qoricancha in Cusco. Visitors who run their hands along the smooth, seamless edges are amazed to discover that such immense and perfectly carved stones, many with beveled edges and some as large as highway tollbooths, simply fit together. Some stones were "female" receptors, others "males" with protruding parts: They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Inca workers moved these incredible blocks with no machinery, of course, and carved them with only rudimentary tools (none made of iron). As stonemasons, the Incas were peerless. Their architectural achievements, at once formidable and delicate, are mind-boggling.
How did they do it? Well, no one is sure, which is why all kinds of fantastical theories -- including the use of magic herbs or the sun to dissolve the stones or even extraterrestrials to raise them -- have long circulated to explain the apparently inexplicable. In his book Exploring Cusco, Peter Frost (Nuevas Imágenes) presents interesting theories (complete with sketches) of how the Incas might have lifted and moved such extraordinary stones. He suggests that the Incas' massive and extremely well-organized work force used inclined planes, levers, and wedges to patiently manipulate stone, dragging enormous blocks of granite over long distances and up ramps. Frost delves into technical discussions of horizontal or load-bearing joints[LJ1], but much of the Incas' technique was ingeniously low-tech. Extensive teams of men used smaller stones to exhaustively pound and smooth the surfaces of the huge building blocks. In addition to Frost's guide, more information is available from Rutahsa Adventures (www.rutahsa.com/incaarch.html) and from Susan A. Niles's The Shape of Inca History: Narrative & Architecture in an Andean Empire (University of Iowa Press, 1999).
