Inca Cuzco Summary

The Inca Empire was one of powerful and large empire controlled the region of Andes Mountains until Spanish invaded in 1532. Cuzuco was the Inca Empire capital and center of politics and religion. Author of “What Kind of a Settlement Was Inca Cuzco?" John Howland Rowe was an archeologist who taught in University of California. Archeologist John Rowe proposed that Cuzuco city built in shape of a puma, but he ignore the surrounding structures of the city center.

Most of Inca architectures’ shape made base from basic housing unit Kancha, which mean enclosure. Kancha built with group of building and surrounded by wall. Coricancha temple built in bigger version of Kancha. Another characteristic signifies Inca architectures is trapezoidal shape of

He explained temple fortress Saqsa Waman represent of puma head, puma’s front and back leg considering the public space, and where the two rivers Huatanay and Tullumayo River cross each other represents the puma tail. His evidence is two rivers cross point called puma tail in Inca which referenced from only 2 witnesses. Inca cities and Cuzuco burned down part when Spanish invaded, so we can only imagine the before burned down from story from witnesses. His theory not only problematic in evidence, because this puma theory exclude large part of city like Hanan (upper) and Hurin (lower). The view from the sky, we see some sort of animal shape, but it does not look like a puma shape. City keep expand when the new emperor come and keep conquer local tribes. If emperor Pachakuti want to expand, his empire then he plan to build the city more people can possibly live in the future. Other archeologist R. Tom Zuidema believe another theory Ceque system, this system spread through the empire and not limited to certain area. R. Tom Zuidema was professor of Anthropology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at University of Illinois. He purposed 328 huacas (shrines) and 41 ceque lines radiate across the empire. According to book of Art of the Andes, “328 huacas represent the number of days in the growing seasons.” Cuzuco’s ceque envisioned to extend to end of the world. Stone on road signifies the imaginary line and this line represent Inca’s fiber record device Inca