17 Facts About Inca architecture

Inca architecture is the most significant pre-Columbian architecture in South America.

Inca architecture buildings were made out of fieldstones or semi-worked stone blocks and dirt set in mortar; adobe walls were quite common, usually laid over stone foundations.

The material used in the Inca architecture buildings depended on the region, for instance, in the coast they used large rectangular adobe blocks while in the Andes they used local stones.

The most common shape in Inca architecture was the rectangular building without any internal walls and roofed with wooden beams and thatch.

Inca architecture is widely known for its fine masonry, which features precisely cut and shaped stones closely fitted without mortar .

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However, despite this fame, most Inca architecture buildings were actually made out of fieldstone and adobe as described above.

Second major influence on Inca architecture came from the Wari culture, a civilization contemporary to Tiwanaku.

The Inca architecture built their cities with locally available materials, usually including limestone or granite.

Pillow-faced Inca architecture was typically used for temples and royal places like Machu Picchu.

Inca architecture is strongly characterized by its use of the natural environment.

The Inca managed to seamlessly merge their architecture into the surrounding land and its specificities.

Yet despite geographic variances, Inca architecture remained consistent in its ability to visually blend the built and natural environment.

In particular, Inca architecture walls practiced mortarless masonry and used partially worked, irregularly shaped rocks to complement the organic qualities and diversity of the natural environment.

Inca architecture used natural bedrock as their structural foundations .

Inca employment and integration of the natural environment into their architecture played an essential role in their program of civilizational expansion and cultural imperialism.

Patronage of powerful elites and rulers of the Inca empire was a major impetus behind the construction of Inca structures, and much of the remaining architecture we see today was most likely royal estates or mobile capitals for Sapa Inca to inhabit.

The Sapa Inca architecture naturalized and asserted their political rule through their palaces' aesthetic appeal to a reciprocal relationship between their imperialism and the earth itself.