Inca's+Monumental+Architecture

toc =Monumental Architecture.=

[|Architecture] was the most important of the Inca's arts. The main example is the capital city of Cuzco. The breathtaking site of [|Machu Picchu] was constructed by Inca engineers. The stone temples constructed by the Incas used a mortaless construction that fit together so well that a knife could not be fitted through the stonework. The rocks used in construction were sculpted to fit together exactly by repeatedly lowering a rock onto another and carving away any sections on the lower rock where the dust was compressed. The tight and the concavity on the lower rocks made them extraordinarily stable.


 * == **__The Inca Roads__** ==

In such a rough and difficult zone of area as the Andes, the Incas needed to have a good system of roads to be able to keep communicated well the different points of their empire. From north to south two principal road links were spreading. These were crossed by hundreds of minor ways, which were going well together to the different settlements and villages. In the high lands, the roads were paved by stones, or lands ready for seeding in the rocks. It is very current that the mountainous roads in question reveal important accomplishments of the engineering Inca. Sometimes, the roads were ascending as big perrons; on other occasions they were slipping for [|tunnels]. When the roads had to cross rivers or important[|abysses], bridges of precarious aspect they were allowing the step. The Incas had not discovered the [|wheel], this way that were effecting all his displacements by feet. In order to facilitate the same ones houses were constructing themselves in the principal road links separated by one kilometres, where the wayfarers could rest.

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 * == **__Constructions.__** ==

The Incas were enjoying themselves with the [|building] construction that they were accommodating to their natal landscape. In the settlements of the high lands, the buildings were getting up with perfectly cut stones. The roofs were formed by a soft cap of straw of more than one meter of thickness. The settlements seem as if they were forming part of the landscape. The architecture was very formal and simple. The buildings were possessing to regular intervals doors and windows. The decoration to made exception of a few income painted with alive colors, was reserved for the interiors of the constructions. But that simplicity was only to avoid more work. Really, the inca constructions could be considered a miracle of the laboriousness. In many of the walls, integrated by big stones, these they were assembled so carefully that it had been impossible to make slide between the meetings the sharp leaf of a knife. A lot of works realized by the Incas with the stones have survived the[|earthquakes] that managed to destroy entire, constructed from then with materials and more studied methods. When they were suffering some alteration, the stones Incas were separating, but then they were returning to its initial position.




 * == **__The Cities and their Administration.__** ==

The Inca cities were very different from ours, with its mixture of shops, offices and homes. Few ones were the persons who were living in the city in strict sense; in his most, the people were living in the settlements of the surroundings and were moving to the city only when it had to settle some matter. In effect, the city was almost for point a center of government. In her there were remaining all the records relating to the different districts. The local civil servants were visiting the administrative centers of his zone, elaborating report on the condition of the villages and of the public in general. It was possible to need help in epochs of disaster, and the effected supplies were registered for [|Quipucamayocs], the "countable person" of the Incas. Every city had a palace, in order to be use by the Inca and the local governor. Near him, thanks to which messages could be transmitted rapidly to all the parts of the empire. There were also stores, in which there were guarded the food and fabrics delivered as taxes. In the neighborhoods of the craftsmen, the goldsmiths, carpenters, weavers and other skilful workers were producing special labors for the Inca and the temples. An important building was the temple of the Sun, since the Incas were insisting everywhere that the god Sun had to be adored. Near the temple it was situated[|Acllahuasi], where "Virgins of the Sun” lived out of the sight of the public in general.


 * == **__An Inca Palace and the Acclahuasi.__** ==

The Sapa Inca possessed many palaces placed in the important cities of his empire. Such palaces were big complexes of buildings arranged concerning a few square courts. In the interior part there were situated the housings of the Sapa Inca and the queen. In the surroundings there were other houses destined for the royal servants. The palace was containing also big foyers and rooms that there were occupying several nobles of other tribes retained as hostages. Some constructions were serving to guard the [|quipu], the fabrics and the grain, as well as the military equipment. Aside of the palace he was [|Acllahuasi], species of convent destined for the “Virgins of the Sun ". Here, Inca was taught to these especially select young women the religion, and equally certain domestic duties, by the mamacunas, a nuns' species of education. The young women were learning to spin and to weave to the perfection, to do exquisite plates and to prepare the alcoholic maize drink that was in use in the religious ceremonies. On having expired thirteen or fourteen years, they were taken to Cuzco on the occasion of the sun’s Festival, and here the Inca was deciding his future. Some of them were turning into his wives or of other members of the family of the Inca, and the remaining ones were devoting themselves to the temples, or were turning into "Mamacunas".