1. INKA ARCHITECTURE
INKA ARCHITECTURE, Less is More--Much More!
Ar. Navdeep Shukla

2. Inca architecture is widely known for its fine masonry, which features
precisely cut and shaped stones closely fitted without mortar
The most common composite form in Inca architecture was the kancha, a
rectangular enclosure housing three or more rectangular buildings placed
symmetrically around a central courtyard
Ollantaytambo is a town and an Inca archaeological site in southern Peru
some 60 kilometers northwest of the city of Cusco
Ar. Navdeep Shukla &Ar. Shruti H. Kapoor

3. The citadel of Machu Picchu, with Huayna Picchu in the background

6. The buildings are
MATERIAL
made out of local
grey-white granite.
The quality of the
stonework varies
considerably, and
not simply because
sacred buildings
always displayed
greater
craftsmanship than
residential and
other mundane
buildings. The
largest, megalithic
blocks and finest
stonework are
always found in the
lower levels of the
buildings. As at
other sites, certain
structures, or parts
of them,
undoubtedly
predate the Incas.

7. Different masonry styles.

8. Cyclopean masonry.

9. A cyclopean block in the Sacristy. Another polygonal block has 32 angles.

11. They built with locally available rock, from limestone to granite.

12. red porphyry
piedras cansadas or "tired stones".

13. peculiar grooves
emplacement ramp.

15. Inka doorways, windows, and wall niches
DOOR IN STONE are trapezoidal

16. A typical Inca doorway still used in the
town..
Note the single stone
lintel, a sign of
importance

17. Wall of the Six Monoliths

18. The Enclosure of the Ten Niches.

19. Inca walls had numerous design
details that helped protect them
against collapsing in an
earthquake. Doors and windows
are trapezoidal and tilt inward
from bottom to top; corners
usually are rounded; inside
corners often incline slightly into
the rooms; and ―L‖-shaped
blocks often were used to tie
outside corners of the structure
together. These walls do not rise
straight from bottom to top but
are offset slightly from row to
row
Part of the Enclosure of the Ten Niches.

21. The largest stone in the Wall of the Six Monoliths is about 4.3 m high, 2.1 m wide, 1.8
m thick, and weighs about 50 tonnes. The six monoliths are joined with narrow fillet
stones – a style found nowhere else in the Inca empire

22. Ollantaytambo bath of the princess Stevage
Detail of drainage canal at the side of
the dry moat, stone nail which was
used to tie the straw roofs, holes
through which removable doors were
secured

23. Ollantaytambo terraces

24. Ollantaytambo granaries Stevage

25. Placement of these trapezoidal openings was primarily
functional, but occasionally, Esthetic arrangement might
dominate the placement of the trapezoids, if there was no
conflict with functionality.

26. Playful handling of flowing water.
Sparkling streams cascade from stone
spouts, sometimes decorated with
carved designs, into joyfully splashing
basins, then flow through quite
unnecessarily complex stone channels
to pour into the next fountain (or bath,
as the fountains are sometimes referred
to) and so on from fountain to fountain,
one after the other. The Inkas employed
the sight and sound of water as an
element of architectural design and
evidently enjoyed demonstrating their
mastery over the course of this
essential fluid.

27. Stone was cut and shaped mainly with stone tools. Bronze or copper tools may
also have been used, but would be of limited use with the hard varieties of
igneous rock commonly used by the Inca.
The row of narrow holes forming the line
along which it was to be split seem to
bespeak the use of a metal tool.

28. The conquistadores admired Inka stonework sufficiently to employ Inka
stonecutters and techniques in colonial buildings, and many of the "ancient
Inka" walls in Cusco belong to the colonial period, such as this wall with
carved snakes and stones in non-Incaic shapes.

29. It is assumed the Inkas knew the
technique of splitting rock using
wooden wedges placed in cracks,
then soaked in water, until the
expanding wood split the rock-- a
method developed independently
by many ancient societies.
"Peck marks" or, more properly, percussion marks are obvious on much
Inka stonework.

30. The Inkas could also drill holes through
rock, such as in this ring of unknown
function projecting from a wall in Machu
Picchu. Holes were probably drilled
using grit and some sort of pestle stone.
Holes drilled through rock are narrowest in the middle and flare outwards, as
drilling with a pestle and grit would inevitably wallow out the first-drilled
portions of the hole.

31. Twelve cornered stone
The glory of Inka stonecutting lies in their ability to cut unusual shapes
and fit them tightly together, as exemplified by the famous "twelve-
cornered stone" found in a wall of the palace of the Inka Roca. It is both a
cliché and a verity that the stones are so closely fitted that a knife blade
cannot be jammed between them. How did they achieve these amazing
close tolerances?

32. Inkas used a technique known as scribing and coping to fit their wonderful jigsaw-
puzzle stones
This technique is used to shape
dove-tail joins of logs at the corners
of log cabins, resulting in logs
carefully fitted together with little or
no gap between the cut log faces. A
related technique could have been
used by the Inkas to shape their
stones.
The fact that ‗Inca‘ walls tend to incline
inwards by 3° to 5° also contributes to their
stability.

34. For administrative buildings and noble
houses, medium rocks, and for fortresses
and religious sites, enormous ones. In both
cases the rocks were carved completely
and not only on their outer edge, to ensure
that the joints were perfect, and that not
even a pin could go through them. This
also ensured that the construction would
last in time.
Some Inca buildings were constructed using mortar, but by Inca standards
this was quick, shoddy construction, and was not used in the building of
important structures. Peru is a highly seismicland, and mortar-free
construction was more earthquake-resistant than using mortar. The stones of
the dry-stone walls built by the Incas can move slightly and resettle without
the walls collapsing.

36. View of the residential section of Machu
Picchu.

37. Interior of a partially restored Inca building, featuring
trapezoidal windows.

39. Temple of the sun ,the only circular building, with ritual meaning in
Machu Picchu

40. Utilization of land ,caves, rocks and steep slopes of the Andes in
their favor

41. Trapezoidal niches, typical of Inca style ,in the so called house of the
priest located by the temple of the sun

47. Tambo Machay, a site for ritual bathing, consists of massive stone walls with elegant
niches, band a series of water fountains cascading from channels hidden within the
structure.

48. Close-up of the impeccable stonework

49. STONE MASONRY
ROMAN WALL SECTIONS

50. Walls were constructed through a number
of different techniques which could range
from clay packed around a wooden frame
through to stone blocks and bricks held
together by mortar.

51. These techniques had different names such as Opus Mixtum, Opus Reticulatum
or Opus Incertum. The different techniques were used according to preference of
the particular age, availability of materials, aesthetic result and of course
structural function.
Roman Etruscan walls Roman wall built in "opus reticulatum"

53. Walls:
OPUS QUADRATUM : Rectangular blocks of stone secured with dowels
OPUS INSERTUM : Good mortar of lime & sand , Stones arranged in a loose
pattern with small size stone Like a polygonal wall
OPUS RETICULATUM : Pattern was regular & defined. Stones were at fixed lines,
each square in shape

54. Opus quadratum was the method of building walls, roads, and bridges by
placing cut stone blocks in close proximity, sometimes without mortar or
another binding substance. The Latin term translates roughly as square work
Opus quadratum is an ancient roman construction technique, in which
squared blocks of stone of the same height were set in parallel courses,
often without the use of mortar

55. Opus quadratum
Walls of cut stone, rectangular in form

56. Opus Incertum
Using irregular shaped and random placed uncut stones or fist-sized tufa blocks
inserted in a core of opus caementicium, used from the beginning of the 2nd
century B.C, later superseded by opus (quasi) reticulatum
The term literally means "uncertain work," possibly referring to the irregular
appearance of walls built using this technique.
Small, irregularly shaped pieces of stone — about 4 inches (about 100 millimeters)
in diameter — were used for opus incertum.

58. Barcelona, the Roman Walls

59. Opus Craticium
Term both used for wattle work and walls of half-timer construction, filled in
with stones and/or straw and plastered with mortar

60. Opus (quasi) Reticulatum
Small square tufa blocks placed diagonally to form a diamond-shaped mesh pattern,
often supplemented by other materials at frames of windows and doors or at
reinforments at corners of buildings with oblong tufa blocks

61. Opus Testaceum / latericium
Brick faced masonry - kiln-backed bricks; the dominant technique throughout the
imperial period

63. Opus (retilatum) mixtum
Masonry of reticulated material
reinforced and/or intersected by brick
bands or interlocked with bricks

65. Opus vittatum
Oblong (or occasionally square) Tufa blocks intersected by one or more brick bands
at regular distances

66. Opus Sectile
Decoration patterns and figures at walls (and floors) with precisely cut pieces of
polychrome stone, usually marble

67. Opus spicatum
Walls (and floors) made of quite small elongated tiles, laid in a fishbone
pattern

68. Opus Signinum
Waterproof floor- and wall-revetment of
mortar mixed with terracotta shreds and
crushed tiles or bricks