City of Cusco, including Qorikancha, Santa Domingo, and walls at Saqsa Waman. Central Highlands, Peru. Inka. c. 1440 CE; convent added 1550- 1650 CE. Andesite.

• Santa Domingo
  • Form
    • In the shape of the puma, a royal animal
    • Modern plaza is in the place where the puma’s belly would be
    • Head, a fortress; heart, a central square
  • Function
    • Historic capital of the Inka Empire
• Qorikancha: main temple, church, and convent of Santo domingo
  • Form
    • Ashlar masonry; carefully grooved and beveled edges of the stone fit together in a puzzle-like formation
    • Slight spacing among stones allows movement during earthquakes
    • Walls taper upward; examples of Inkan trapezoidal architecture
    • Temple displays inkan use of interlocking stonework of great precision
    • Original exterior walls of the temple were decorated in gold to symbolize sunshine
    • Spanish chroniclers insist that the walls and floors of the temple were covered in gold
  • Function
    • Qorikancha: golden enclosure; once was the most important temple in the Inkan world
    • Once was an observatory for priests to chart the skies
  • Context
    • The location is important; placed at the convergence of the four main highways and connected to the four districts of the empire; the temple cemented the symbolic importance of religion, uniting the divergent cultural practices that were observed in the vast territory controlled by the Inkas
    • Remains of the Inkan temple of the sun form the base of the Santo domingo convent built on top

• Walls at Saqsa Waman
  • Form
    • Ashlar masonry
    • Ramparts contain stones weighing up to seventy tons, brought from a quarry two miles away
  • Context
    • Complex outside the city of Cusco, Peru, at the head of the puma-shaped plan of the city