Suspension Bridges - Inca - Andes. History's Turning Points - The Conquest of the Incas Part 1/3. ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES IN MACHU PICCHU - MACHU PICCHU ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE - MACHUPICCHU. The builders of Machu Picchu must have worked hard to achieve an architectural equilibrium with such a special and difficult environment. To build the citadel they used materials from the surroundings, stone blocks taken from the border areas. Moreover, the construction itself was the result of an incredible architectural planning for that time. The ancient Peruvians built it at the back of a spur called Machupicchu, taking advantage of the low mountainsides and the very small plateau on this great stone block, which is part of a rocky outcrop of volcanic origin, of more than a hundred square kilometers surface area.
On this steep, short and uneven surface, the Incas had to design a complex that lacked the characteristics of a conventional city. Some specialists point out that the urban design of the citadel and its surroundings, containing elements that form part of the Andean view (major mountains and rocks, caves and springs), reinforce the idea that it was a sanctuary. Inca Religion. The Intiwatana at Machu Picchu, known as the "hitching post of the sun" is a carved rock pillar whose four corners are oriented toward the four cardinal points. The Inca were accomplished astronomers, and used the angles of the pillar to predict the solstices. The sun exerted a crucial influence on the agriculture, and therefore the well-being of the whole society. It was considered the supreme natural god (a ceramic corn god gives evidence to the spiritual devotion of the natural world that was common to all pre-Inca cultures).
At the winter solstice on June 21, the high priest would rope a golden disc to the Intiwatana, to symbolically catch the sun and bring it back toward earth for another year's cycle of seasons. The Intiwatana is the only one of its kind not lopped off by the Spanish conquerors, who made a point of destroying all implements of Inca religion. www.incaempire.org.uk/riseandfall.PDF. Inca Architecture. Inca architecture includes some of the most finely worked stone structures from any ancient civilization.
Inca buildings were almost always practical and pleasing to the eye. They are also remarkably uniform in design with even grand imperial structures taking on a similar look to more humble buildings, the only significant differences being their much larger scale and quality of finish. Fond of duality in many other areas, another feature of Inca architecture is that it typically incorporated the natural landscape yet at the same time managed to dominate it to create an often spectacular blend of geometrical and natural forms. Materials Stone was the material of choice and was finely worked to produce a precise arrangement of interlocking blocks in the finest buildings.
The stone was of three types: Yucay limestone, green Sacsahuaman diorite porphyry, and black andesite. Roofs were generally made of thatch from grasses or reeds placed on poles made of wood or cane. Features Structures. Untitled document.