161. City of Machu Picchu. Central Highlands, Peru. Inka. c. 1450- 1540 CE Granite.

• Form
  • Buildings built of stone with perfectly carved rock rendered in precise shapes and grooved together; thatched roofs
  • Outward faces of the stones were smoothed and grooved
  • Two hundred buildings, mostly houses; some temples, palaces, and baths, and even astronomical observatory; most in a basic trapezoidal shape
  • Entryways and windows are trapezoidal
  • People farmed on terraces
• Function
  • Originally functioned as a royal retreat
  • The estate of fifteenth-century Inkan rulers
  • So remote that it was probably not used for administrative purposes in the Inkan world
  • Peaceful center: many bones were uncovered, but none of the indicate war-like behavior

• Observatory
  • Form
    • Ashlar masonry
    • Highest point at Machu Picchu
  • Function
    • Used to chart the sun’s movements; also known as the Temple of the Sun
    • Left Window: sun shines through on the morning of the winter solstice.
    • Right window: sun shines through on the morning of the summer solstice
    • Devoted to the sun god

• Intihuatana Stone
  • Intihuatana means “Hitching post of the sun”; aligns with the sun at the spring and the autumn equinoxes, when the sun stands directly over the pillar and thus creates no shadow
  • Inkan ceremonies held in concert with this event.