Inca Architecture Synthesis Essay

It is often argued that Incan architecture is the most significant and outstanding pre-Columbian architecture in South America. The famous royal estate of Machu Picchu is a surviving example of the illicit and amazing Inca architecture to go along with other significant sites that include Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo. The Incas also are known for developing an extensive road system that spanned most of the western length of the entire South American continent. Inca Architecture is a common topic amongst historians over the years and there have been many interpretations of how and why the Incas went about building these magnificent temples and architecture. In Jean-Pierre Protzen’s, Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo, he discusses extensively how the Inca, who did not have iron, or tools, or knowledge of the wheel, wined and transported stones and dressed and fitted them into making these remarkable structures. He talks about how he spent much of the past decade investigating the quarrying and stonecutting techniques of the Inca and the various problems that surrounded the Inca during these processes. Protzen also makes an argument that he is open to the possibility
Thomson launches a effective expedition to find the lost Inca city Llactapata. “What really was important was understanding what the ruin was about.” Thomson excels in his storytelling and his skills are apparent in both his recreation of the violent destruction of architecture of the Incas by the Spanish. He goes on to describe the ruins he discovers, the people he meets along the way, and the hardships and pleasures of traveling through the abandoned Inca highways. He also makes arguments and comparisons of that of the carved Inca rock to the work of Henry Moore, and equally capable of conveying levs in the Peruvian