Architectural constructions
Cusco City
Before the founding of Cuzco, a small village called Acamama was located in the place. It was made up of humble stone and straw constructions, and several ayllus were sheltered there. It was divided into four sections, which had to do with the criteria of up and down, left and right.
When Manco Cápac founded the city, it was located between the beds of the Tullumayo and Saphy rivers, from a hill to the confluence of both rivers. This city became the political and religious capital of the State and over time it was necessary to introduce new ways of subdividing the space.
Monumental Cusco
For a long time the city was quite simple, but after the war with the chancas it was very destroyed. Then Pachacutec decided to build the majestic capital that the Spaniards saw with amazement.
Cuzco was a city full of palaces and large courts surrounded by a wall with a single entrance, where the most important lords had their residence. She looked very organized. Its streets were cobbled and had drainage systems. Two main squares stood out, separated only by the Saphy stream: Huacaypata and Cusipata. In the first the most important rituals and festivals were carried out.
The greatest buildings in and around Cusco are: Coricancha, the fortress of Sacsayhuamán, Ollantaytambo, Písac "Písac (archaeological site)"), Kenko and Machu Picchu, which belonged to the imperial era.
The city achieved great prestige as a religious center, in addition to being the political center of the empire. Each of the Incas who died had a house there that was kept for them, with all their belongings inside including the servants and their women.
It is said that the plan of Cuzco had the shape of a puma and that its head was represented by Sacsayhuamán, a fortress planned by Pachacutec. Between the legs of the animal would be the Haucaypata square.
The historian Franklin Pease said that the chroniclers highlighted the symbolic meaning of Cuzco as the center and origin of the world of the Incas. The city itself was revered and it is indicated that it was a symbol of all Tahuantinsuyo. This would explain the symbolic repetition of the city structure in the Inca administrative centers. Some chronicler even said that whoever came from Cuzco should be revered by whoever went to him, since he had been in contact with the sacred city.
Administrative Buildings
As the Tahuantinsuyo expanded, what is now known as provincial administrative buildings or centers were built from which the different conquered regions were administered. State planning involved the use of clay models that represented everything from entire valleys to a building, before starting to build it. On the coast, stone was usually replaced by rammed earth or adobe.
It was one of the most important centers established by the Incas on the coast. It is a set of buildings made with rammed earth and adobe. Although in some areas it has an apparently earlier decoration, the doors and niches have the typical trapezoidal shape of the Incas. It is known as Tambo Colorado because of the red paint, which can still be seen on its walls, although some walls with yellow and white paint are also preserved. Several structures are distributed around a trapezoidal square, including warehouses, homes and a main building known as the Fortress.[6].
Also known as Huánuco Viejo. It is a very important center of more than 2 km² (square kilometers) located on an esplanade at 4000 m (meters) high. It was established there because it marked the midpoint of the road between Cuzco and Tomebamba. Around a large plaza that contains an ushnu or structure on which a type of seat is located, four different sectors are distinguished: one for warehouses to the south, one for making fabrics to the north, one for common housing to the west, and another for the residence of the Inca during his visits to the site. In total there would be about four thousand buildings dedicated to military, religious and administrative functions.
Túpac Yupanqui began the construction of this administrative center, from which the conquest of the Cañaris was affirmed and the northern limit of Tahuantinsuyo was controlled. Its importance rapidly increased so much that it became the second most important city in the empire. This city was a favorite of Huayna Cápac, who constantly beautified it and even preferred it over Cusco itself as a residence.
Also ordered to be built by Túpac Yupanqui, it was the largest livestock center in Chinchaysuyo and the main Inca administrative center on the Bombón plateau. It measures just over 130 hectares, being one of the largest sites in the central Andean mountains.
Place of special importance, because the Inca Atahualpa was captured there, marking the beginning of the decline of the empire. At that time it was a very large town, with a walled plaza in the center. The Temple of the Sun, the Inca Palace and the Aclawasi, reproduced the purest Cusco architectural style. It is said that the founder of the city was Túpac Yupanqui.
Supposedly the capital of Chinchaysuyo as it was the residence of a suyuyoc apu. It is located in the Mantaro Valley, being one of the largest and most important cities in the Andes, whose main square was one of the largest in the entire Inca Empire. It was built during the Pachacutec government.
Other Inca administrative and religious centers outside Cusco were: Samaipata, Incallajta, Tilcara among others.
Religious constructions
It was an administrative and religious center established after the Incas conquered the Chancas and the Pocras. It is located in the province of Vilcashuamán, in the department of Ayacucho, at 3490 (meters above sea level). According to chroniclers, Vilcashuamán must have housed about 40,000 people. The city was made up of a large square in which ceremonies with sacrifices were carried out. Around this are the two most important buildings: the Temple of the Sun and the Moon and the Ushnu. The Ushnu is a four-level terraced truncated pyramid that is entered through a double-jamb door, characteristic of the most important enclosures. On its upper platform there is a large stone carved in a unique way known as the Seat of the Inca and it is said that it was formerly covered with sheets of gold.
It was the main temple of Cuzco. After the war with the Chancas, Pachacútec was in charge of rebuilding it, placing large quantities of gold and silver inside, so much so that from Inti canta (enclosure of the sun) it became known as Coricancha (enclosure of gold). Pachacútec placed the sun (Inti), divinity of the Cuzco Incas, in the main place. This temple is one of the best examples of fine Inca architecture. Its curved wall stands out, made with admirable perfection. Today the Convent of Santo Domingo "Church of Santo Domingo (Cuzco)" stands on the remains of the Inca walls.
Military and commemorative constructions
It is in the Lunahuaná valley, near San Vicente de Cañete. In that area there was a curacazgo known as Huarco, which was conquered by the Incas after four years of tenacious resistance. According to tradition, Túpac Yupanqui decided to call this extensive administrative center Cuzco, just like the capital of the empire, and he wanted its streets and squares to have the same names as those in it. In Incahuasi "Incahuasi (Lima)") the quadripartite distribution of space was reproduced. The Incahuasi Archaeological Complex, whose translation into Spanish is 'Casa del Inca', is located at kilometer 29.5 of the Cañete-Lunahuaná highway.
Corridors and pavilions inside the Temple of the Sun. It was also a center of worship, sacrifice and climatological observation.
In the part of this complex dedicated to the Temple of the Sun, you can see that the rooms have cylindrical columns, there is even an area in which one of these columns is part of the wall. Apparently these columns were part of an Intihuatana (Inca sundial).
On a hill that overlooks Cusco from the north side is the religious site of Saqsaywaman. It is made up of three platforms made with enormous zigzag-shaped retaining walls, on which three towers were located. The walls were made by joining stone blocks of surprising dimensions, some measuring 9 m × 5 m × 4 m.
The historian María Rostworowski speculates as to whether Saqsaywaman was a military fortress used for the defense of Cuzco, since the accounts of the chanca invasion say that they easily entered the city without facing significant military resistance. Furthermore, while the Tahuantinsuyo empire expanded, there was no danger of attack on Cuzco. Rostworowski believes that it was a monument to the victory over the chancas, and that ritual battles were represented there during the festivities. This also served as a great help to the Incas in being able to defend themselves against foreign military troops.
elite architecture
Incallajta (from the Quechua Inka Llaqta, city of the Inca), also registered as Inkallajta, is one of the most important archaeological centers in Bolivia.
It was the most important Inca "llajta" of Collasuyo, one of the four of Tahuantinsuyo. Its construction dates back to the end of the 15th century. Currently it is the most important Inca legacy in Bolivian territory and is located at an altitude of (meters above sea level).
The city was built by Túpac Yupanqui and rebuilt by Huayna Cápac, during his visits to Cochabamba, Pocona and central Bolivia. It was a military fortress, political, administrative and ceremonial center of the Inca Empire or Tahuantinsuyo and geographical border of the Inca empire against the invasions of the Chiriguanos.
The archaeological complex has an area of about 80 hectares. It is built by large squares and patios surrounded by walls and buildings with doors that lead to open spaces. The main temple or laKallanka, 78 × 25 m (meters) and 12 m high; Its wall is the most prominent and characteristic of this structure, it has a gable wall with 10 niches, 4 windows and a clay finish, it dominates the central area of the site.
It is located on an ejecta cone, in Fort Huayko, an almost inaccessible ravine. It uses uni-spatial spaces, the architectural units do not communicate with each other. Trapezoidal shapes are observed; since the characteristic geometric figure of these ruins is the trapezoid. "La Cancha" or patio, is a mythical multifunctional space. The use of the basic construction material: stone, mud coating.
The roofs are "exempt", there is no meeting of roofs, which is why their roofs are called the use of the free roof, the support structure is made of wood.
Ollantaytambo or Ullantaytampu is another monumental work of Inca architecture. It is the only Incanate city in Peru still inhabited. The descendants of the Cusco noble houses live in its palaces. The patios maintain their original architecture. This city constituted a military, religious, administrative and agricultural complex. Entry is through the door called Punku-punku. Ollantaytambo is located in the district of the same name, province of Urubamba, approximately 60 km (kilometers) northwest of the city of Cusco and has a height of 2792. Located 600 m below Cusco, it enjoys a warmer climate and more fertile land, which the Incas took full advantage of to build towns and important agricultural centers.
The valley is surrounded by steep mountains that give you the feeling of being in a special place, but hey, that's nothing new, you can feel it as soon as you enter here.
Písac (also Pisaq) is located 33 km from the city of Cusco. Its archaeological site is one of the most important in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The architecture of Písac is mestizo, built on indigenous remains by the viceroy Francisco de Toledo.