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The capital of the Inca empire, Cuzco, still contains many fine examples of Inca architecture, although many walls of Inca masonry have been incorporated into Spanish Colonial structures. The famous royal estate of Machu Picchu (Machu Pikchu) is a surviving example of Inca architecture.
Pre-Inca tambo architecture can be divided into 2 basic categories. Some tambos were not modified in any way and therefore feature an architectural style that is distinctly pre-Inca. [18] However, some of these sites were renovated by the Inca, so some pre-Inca sites do feature some Inca architecture. [18]
In addition to providing housing for people and economic activities, the architecture provided a way through which divisions and combinations could be manipulated by the Inca. In part the architectural backdrop was symbolic, but a final effect in terms of architecture is that it really can and does shape human activities and relationships». [36]
The Inca had religious reverence for the cougar, commonly known as a puma in South America. The Incas believed the puma to represent power and strength, as well as patience and wisdom. The original Inca Capital Cusco took the shape of a puma, with the massive citadel of Sacsayhuaman representing the head of the puma. [29]
It has been suggested [10]: 229 That the origin of kanchas may derive from pre-Inca coastal architecture, especially from the Chimú culture, which flourished between 900 CE and the conquest by the Inca emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui around 1470 [1]: 81–84 or from the Wari culture which developed in the south-central Andes and coastal area of modern-day Peru, from about 500 to 1000 CE.
The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu, [14] "the suyu of four [parts]". In Quechua, tawa is four and -ntin is a suffix naming a group, so that a tawantin is a quartet, a group of four things taken together, in this case the four suyu ("regions" or "provinces") whose corners met at the capital.
Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, also called Pachacútec (Quechua: Pachakutiy Inka Yupanki), was the ninth Sapa Inca of the Chiefdom of Cusco, which he transformed into the Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu). Most archaeologists now believe that the famous Inca site of Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Pachacuti. [2]
The chakana (Andean cross, "stepped cross" or "step motif" or "stepped motif") is a stepped cross motif used by the Inca and pre-incan Andean societies. The most commonly used variation of this symbol today is made up of an equal-armed cross indicating the cardinal points of the compass and a superimposed square.