{"it":{"id":"CUZ-SAC","kind":"site","sub":"South America","name":"Sacsayhuamán","place":"Peru","lat":-13.509,"lon":-71.982,"date":"Main walls Inca, 15th c. AD (Killke-period occupation earlier)","mat":"Local limestone (zigzag walls); andesite in other parts","facts":[{"a":"Andesite source distance (Rumiqolca)","v":"35","u":"km","r":32},{"a":"Largest limestone block mass (estimates)","v":"128-~200","u":"t","r":33},{"a":"2008 finds","v":"additional ruins at periphery 13 Mar 2008","u":"text","r":34}],"nfacts":72,"tags":["Andes"],"sum":"Estimates for the biggest stone in Sacsayhuamán's walls run from about 128 tonnes to nearly 200; none has been weighed. Even the low figure is heavier than a loaded semi-truck, and it was fitted into a zigzag wall without mortar.\n\nSacsayhuamán sits above Cusco, Peru. Its main walls are Inca work of the 15th century AD, built over an earlier Killke-period occupation, mostly from local limestone with andesite in other parts.","why":"An Inca fortress-temple above Cusco, whose giant stones are fitted without mortar.","src":[34],"nsrc":23,"yt":"How would you fit a 128-tonne stone to its neighbours with no gap?","rel":["OLL-OLL","TIW-PUM","BAA-TRI"],"hook":"A Spanish soldier who walked Sacsayhuamán's walls wrote that a coin could not fit between two stones."},"S":{"32":["Béjar 2003 Bol. Arq. PUCP 7:407-417; Wikipedia Sacsayhuamán","https://doi.org/10.18800/boletindearqueologiapucp.200301.018"],"33":["Wikipedia Sacsayhuamán","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n"],"34":["Wikipedia (Sacsayhuamán)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n"]},"rec":{"id":"CUZ-SAC","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"Zigzag terrace walls","a":"longest wall length","v":"~400","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"via Wikipedia","yr":"","m":"","c":"via Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"secondary","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0466"},{"f":"Zigzag terrace walls","a":"wall height","v":"~6","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"via Wikipedia","yr":"","m":"","c":"via Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"secondary","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0467"},{"f":"Largest block","a":"mass estimate","v":"128-~200","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"various (via Wikipedia)","yr":"","m":"estimate","c":"various (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"I","bb":"range of estimates; not weighed","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0468"},{"f":"Largest block","a":"quarry distance claim","v":"35 km from Rumicolca","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"via Wikipedia","yr":"","m":"","c":"via Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"I","bb":"CONFLICT: article calls the block limestone but Rumicolca is an andesite quarry; needs Protzen primary [unverified]","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0469"},{"f":"Quarry","a":"Andesite source distance (Rumiqolca)","v":"35","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"Béjar; Wikipedia rev.","yr":"2003","m":"quarry survey","c":"Béjar 2003 Bol. Arq. PUCP 7:407-417; Wikipedia Sacsayhuamán","pg":"abstract","url":"https://doi.org/10.18800/boletindearqueologiapucp.200301.018","b":"S","bb":"Béjar shows Rumiqolca supplied Cuzco from Pachacutec on; does not state it supplied the zigzag walls","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"CONFLICT: zigzag walls are limestone (local)","id":"M0499"},{"f":"Blocks","a":"Largest limestone block mass (estimates)","v":"128-~200","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia (rev.)","yr":"","m":"estimate","c":"Wikipedia Sacsayhuamán","pg":"text","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"Tertiary range; no primary metrology located","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0500"},{"f":"Quarry","a":"Zigzag-wall stone type and source","v":"Limestone (\"Yucay\"), local hills N of site","u":"—","o":"","unc":"","by":"V.R. Lee (interview)","yr":"","m":"field observation","c":"Lee interview (video)","pg":"—","url":"[video, weak]","b":"I","bb":"Weak source; Protzen 1985 JSAH 44:161 on quarrying from rockfall/local outcrops supports local sourcing","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0501"},{"f":"Inca architecture and sits at an altitude of","a":"elevation","v":"3701","u":"m","o":"The site is an important example of Inca architecture and sits at an altitude of 3701 m.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1112"},{"f":"The longest of the three walls is about","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"400","u":"meters","o":"The longest of the three walls is about 400&nbsp;meters.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1113"},{"f":"They are about","a":"height","v":"6","u":"meters","o":"They are about 6&nbsp;meters tall.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1114"},{"f":"weight of the largest Limestone block vary from","a":"mass","v":"128","u":"tonnes","o":"Estimates for the weight of the largest Limestone block vary from 128&nbsp;tonnes to almost 200&nbsp;tonnes.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1115"},{"f":"block vary from 128 nbsp tonnes to almost","a":"mass","v":"200","u":"tonnes","o":"Estimates for the weight of the largest Limestone block vary from 128&nbsp;tonnes to almost 200&nbsp;tonnes.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1116"},{"f":"These stones were moved an estimated","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"35","u":"km","o":"These stones were moved an estimated 35&nbsp;km (22 miles) from Rumicolca.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1117"},{"f":"one experiment where they tried to lower a","a":"mass","v":"1","u":"ton","o":"They conducted one experiment where they tried to lower a 1 ton stone down a mountain.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1118"},{"f":"a megalith that may have been close to","a":"mass","v":"10","u":"tons","o":"They also did an experiment towing a megalith that may have been close to 10 tons on cobblestones.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1119"},{"f":"Incas built a large road system that included","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"24999","u":"km","o":"The ancient Incas built a large road system that included 24,999&nbsp;km of roads.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380687433 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M1120"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa andesite quarry","a":"distance from Cuzco","v":"35 km SE","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field study (Ñawpa Pacha 21)","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"past Pikillaqta, left bank of Vilcanota; andesite intrusive into sandstone","id":"M2649"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa andesite quarry","a":"distance from Cuzco","v":"32 km SE","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"PUCP Boletín de Arqueología","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"PUCP Boletín de Arqueología","pg":"","url":"https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletindearqueologia/en/article/download/2013/1945/7782","b":"S","bb":"independent Peruvian study","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"disagrees with 35 km: separate rows","id":"M2650"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa lava flow","a":"size","v":"~200 m wide x ~1 km long","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"PUCP Boletín","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"PUCP Boletín","pg":"","url":"https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletindearqueologia/en/article/download/2013/1945/7782","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"altitude 3150 m; printed coords appear to swap lat/long labels (13°36'04\" S, 71°41'01\" W)","id":"M2651"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa quarry","a":"altitude","v":"3150","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"PUCP Boletín","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"PUCP Boletín","pg":"","url":"https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletindearqueologia/en/article/download/2013/1945/7782","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2652"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa quarry areas","a":"rock fabric","v":"High: flow-banded (slabs); East: columnar; Central: boulder-like; South: flow-banded + boulder","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"field observation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2653"},{"f":"zigzag terrace walls","a":"count","v":"3","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Revista Esp. 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361 t figure seen online has no traceable measurement - not stored","id":"M2658"},{"f":"Inca fine masonry joints","a":"tolerance (qualitative)","v":"\"often within fractions of a millimeter\"","u":"mm","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary author statement, not a tabulated measurement","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"no batter-angle number found in sources opened this wave","id":"M2659"},{"f":"three zigzag walls","a":"length (each, approx.)","v":"~360 (1,200 ft)","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Texas Tech thesis (preservation of Inca heritage)","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Texas Tech thesis (preservation of Inca heritage)","pg":"","url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2346/21468","b":"S","bb":"secondary thesis","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Hyslop 1990 batter/salient numbers not reachable as free text","id":"M2721"},{"f":"outer (first) wall","a":"average height","v":"~8 (26 ft)","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Texas Tech thesis","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Texas Tech thesis","pg":"","url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2346/21468","b":"S","bb":"secondary","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2722"},{"f":"largest monolith","a":"h x w x thickness","v":"8.2 x 4.2 x 3.6","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Texas Tech thesis","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Texas Tech thesis","pg":"","url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2346/21468","b":"S","bb":"secondary","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"compare other rows; weight not given","id":"M2723"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa Llama Pit","a":"size L x W / depth","v":"~100 x 60 / 15-20","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"~250 finished stones in pit","id":"M2752"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa","a":"lithic implements (hammers) mapped","v":"68","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"foreign river cobbles","id":"M2753"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa hammerstones","a":"weight range","v":"~0.2-8 (clusters 2-3, 4-5)","u":"kg","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"hardness >=5.5 Mohs","id":"M2754"},{"f":"edge-drafting hammers","a":"weight","v":"200-600","u":"g","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2755"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa test area 1.8 x 1.8 m","a":"slivers found","v":"43","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2756"},{"f":"dressing experiment","a":"starting block","v":"25 x 25 x 30","u":"cm","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"4 kg hammer, roughed out in 6 blows","id":"M2757"},{"f":"dressing experiment","a":"time: one face / 3 sides + 5 edges","v":"20 / <=90","u":"min","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"3.5-4 kg hammers; edges with 560 g hammer","id":"M2758"},{"f":"dressing experiment","a":"best strike angle / rebound","v":"15-25 deg off normal / 15-25 cm","u":"","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2759"},{"f":"Inca blocks (31 measured)","a":"dihedral angle mean / range","v":"117 / 90-132","u":"deg","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2760"},{"f":"Sacsayhuaman joints","a":"measurable joint depth","v":"~5","u":"cm","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen","yr":"1983","m":"as stated","c":"Protzen","pg":"","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf","b":"S","bb":"primary field survey (Ñawpa Pacha 21), OCR of scan","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"joints too tight for knife blade; deeper not measurable","id":"M2761"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa andesite quarry","a":"distance from Cuzco","v":"35 km ESE","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"Ixer (NHM petrography)","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Ixer (NHM petrography)","pg":"","url":"https://www.academia.edu/117573765/On_the_petrography_of_some_Cuzco_Inka_stones_including_from_the_Coricancha_Temple_of_the_Sun","b":"S","bb":"petrographic paper","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"third source, but very probably reuses Protzen 35 km; not independent","id":"M2762"},{"f":"Rumiqolqa quarry","a":"distance from Cuzco","v":">30 km","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"Rough Guides","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Rough Guides","pg":"","url":"https://www.roughguides.com/peru/cusco-and-around/sacsayhuaman/","b":"S","bb":"travel guide","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"consistent with 32-35 km; low weight","id":"M2763"},{"f":"2008 periphery excavation","a":"pre-Inca temple rooms","v":"11","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"NBC/AP","yr":"2008","m":"as stated","c":"NBC/AP","pg":"","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23626672","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"later modified by Inca","id":"M2958"},{"f":"Killke phase","a":"radiocarbon (earlier tests)","v":"construction c. 1100s AD","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"NBC/AP","yr":"2008","m":"derived","c":"NBC/AP","pg":"","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23626672","b":"S","bb":"","t":"LAB_RESULT","n":"lab basis not detailed in press","id":"M2959"},{"f":"Killke culture","a":"occupation span","v":"900-1200 CE","u":"","o":"","unc":"","by":"NBC/AP","yr":"2008","m":"derived","c":"NBC/AP","pg":"","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23626672","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"INTERPRETATION","id":"M2960"},{"f":"2007-08 excavation","a":"excavation history","v":"discovery announced 13 Mar 2008; programme planned 5 yr","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"NBC/AP","yr":"2008","m":"as stated","c":"NBC/AP","pg":"","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23626672","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2961"},{"f":"fortress","a":"two round towers (Pizarro account)","v":"2","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia (Sacsayhuamán)","yr":"","m":"derived","c":"Wikipedia (Sacsayhuamán)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"Pedro Pizarro eyewitness, INTERPRETATION of function","id":"M2962"},{"f":"foundations","a":"method (chronicle)","v":"living rock excavated for foundation","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia (Sacsayhuamán)","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia (Sacsayhuamán)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Spanish chronicler, quoted on Wikipedia","id":"M2963"},{"f":"excavation history","a":"2008 finds","v":"additional ruins at periphery 13 Mar 2008","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia (Sacsayhuamán)","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia (Sacsayhuamán)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2964"},{"f":"tools (claim)","a":"tool hardness (claimant)","v":"6-7 Mohs; copper/bronze too soft","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Brien Foerster (claimant)","yr":"2014","m":"derived","c":"Brien Foerster (claimant)","pg":"","url":"https://hiddenincatours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Lost-Ancient-Technology-Of-Peru-And-Bolivi-Brien-Foerster.pdf","b":"S","bb":"claimant book (preview opened)","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"claims found tools could not shape andesite","id":"M2965"},{"f":"northern terraces","a":"length E-W (3 walls)","v":"720","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3132"},{"f":"northern terraces","a":"total height","v":"18","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3133"},{"f":"lowest wall","a":"salient/reentrant angles","v":"46 facets: 23 projecting + 23 reentrant","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3134"},{"f":"lowest wall","a":"masonry face area","v":"310.95","u":"m2","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3135"},{"f":"lowest terrace","a":"surface","v":"3497","u":"m2","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"gravel-covered","id":"M3136"},{"f":"Muyucmarca","a":"concentric wall diameters","v":"9.35 / 15.00 / 22.20","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"outer rect 22.5 x 26.0 m","id":"M3137"},{"f":"site","a":"elevation","v":"3555","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"vs 3701 m existing row: DISAGREE","id":"M3138"},{"f":"blocks","a":"max block mass","v":"up to 200","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"diorite porphyry quarried in situ (rock-type conflicts with andesite/limestone rows)","id":"M3139"},{"f":"site","a":"construction date","v":"Tupac Inca Yupanqui reign 1471-93","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"derived","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M3140"},{"f":"site","a":"excavation history","v":"excavated from 1933 by Luis Valcárcel and Luis Pardo","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","yr":"1996","m":"as stated","c":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","pg":"","url":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3141"},{"f":"zigzag walls","a":"excavation history (Valcárcel 1934)","v":"walls cleared of debris; internal corridors/trenches and passages at reentrant angles found","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Langlois (reporting Valcárcel), J. Soc. Américanistes 26","yr":"1934","m":"as stated","c":"Langlois (reporting Valcárcel), J. Soc. Américanistes 26","pg":"","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1934_num_26_2_1885_t1_0318_0000_3","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3142"},{"f":"fortress","a":"drainage network","v":"small-stone drain channels crossing walls, curving near outlet","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Langlois (reporting Valcárcel), J. Soc. Américanistes 26","yr":"1934","m":"as stated","c":"Langlois (reporting Valcárcel), J. Soc. Américanistes 26","pg":"","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1934_num_26_2_1885_t1_0318_0000_3","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"Valcárcel 1934","id":"M3143"},{"f":"summit","a":"towers + water system","v":"3 Garcilaso towers confirmed; basin + water conduits found","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Langlois (reporting Valcárcel), J. Soc. Américanistes 26","yr":"1934","m":"as stated","c":"Langlois (reporting Valcárcel), J. Soc. Américanistes 26","pg":"","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1934_num_26_2_1885_t1_0318_0000_3","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3144"},{"f":"Valcárcel 1934 finds","a":"artifacts found","v":"alabaster alpacas, shell necklaces, tupus, tumis, 6-cell alabaster pigment container, silver ribbon 3.12 m x 0.02 m 180 g","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Historia Peruana blog (citing Valcárcel)","yr":"2016","m":"as stated","c":"Historia Peruana blog (citing Valcárcel)","pg":"","url":"https://arqueohistoriaperuana.blogspot.com/2016/11/investigaciones-arqueologicas-y.html","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3145"},{"f":"walls","a":"wall batter (Inca generic)","v":"~3-5","u":"deg","o":"","unc":"","by":"Textbook of Architecture (generic)","yr":"2025","m":"derived","c":"Textbook of Architecture (generic)","pg":"","url":"https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/inca-batter","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"general Inca rule, NOT a Sacsayhuamán survey value","id":"M3146"},{"f":"walls","a":"wall batter (qualitative)","v":"walls lean inward","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3147"},{"f":"longest wall","a":"length","v":"~400","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"vs 720 m total of 3 walls (DM)","id":"M3148"},{"f":"walls","a":"height","v":"~6","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3149"},{"f":"stone","a":"volume","v":">6000","u":"m3","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3150"},{"f":"largest block","a":"mass range","v":"128 to ~200","u":"t","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3151"},{"f":"zigzag walls","a":"slope / orientation / levelness (Protzen 1993)","v":"not found in free sources; Protzen 1993 covers Ollantaytambo, Sacsayhuamán geometry not tabulated in reachable text","u":"text","o":"","unc":"","by":"review of Protzen 1993 (Technology & Culture)","yr":"1996","m":"derived","c":"review of Protzen 1993 (Technology & Culture)","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.1996.0116","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"searched Protzen + Sacsayhuamán inclination/batter","id":"M3222"},{"f":"Sacsayhuamán labor (chronicle)","a":"workers","v":"20,000 (4,000 quarrying; 6,000 hauling)","u":"people","o":"","unc":"","by":"Protzen 1993, Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo (OUP) (Introduction; section CONSTRUCTIONPROGRAM; epub p21; printed p.12)","yr":"1993","m":"book: ref: Introduction; section CONSTRUCTIONPROGRAM; epub p21; printed p.12 | locator: \"had recourse to 20,000 men\"","c":"W19S-PROTZEN1993; Protzen 1993, Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo (OUP) (Introduction; section CONSTRUCTIONPROGRAM; epub p21; printed p.12)","pg":"","url":"file:books/upload1.epub#p21","b":"S","bb":"","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"chronicler report quoted by Protzen; not a measurement","id":"M3724"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"Estimates for the weight of the largest Limestone block vary from 128&nbsp;tonnes to almost 200&nbsp;tonnes.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433"}],"eng":[{"cl":"fitting_type","a":"Joint type","v":"polygonal, concave-convex fitted, no mortar","u":"—","m":"field study + experiment","c":"Protzen 1985 JSAH 44:161 doi:10.2307/990027; Lee 1986","b":"V","cr":"Two independent studies agree on hammerstone dressing; differ on fitting method (pounding trial vs scribe-and-cope)"},{"cl":"quarry_distance","a":"Limestone (zigzag walls)","v":"local (<1 km?)","u":"km","m":"observation","c":"Lee interview; Protzen 1985","b":"I","cr":"Conflicts with Wikipedia 35 km Rumiqolca line, which applies to andesite"},{"cl":"quarry_distance","a":"Andesite (Rumiqolca)","v":"~35","u":"km","m":"survey","c":"Protzen 1983 https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf ; Béjar 2003","b":"V","cr":"W2: upgraded: two sources agree (35 km SE of Cuzco)"}],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"magnetic_radiation","r":"no published magnetic/radiation survey found (searched site name + magnetometry/radiation; Wikipedia, Google Scholar snippets)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA007","a":"stone softened/melted; knife-tight joints","who":"Foerster; Hancock (plant-juice legend); Foerster; Hancock; popular web; Brien Foerster (book preview opened)","main":"hammerstone pounding + trial fitting (Protzen 1983)","ms":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n ; Protzen 1993 Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo (OUP) [not opened] ; https://doi.org/10.2307/990027 ; https://doi.org/10.1179/naw.1986.24.1.003 ; https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n","st":"contradicted","n":"experiments reproduce dressing; joints measurable only to ~5 cm depth; no vitrification lab data","nl":11}],"ac":[{"v":"Stones were melted/vitrified or softened","who":"Foerster; Hancock (plant-juice legend)","url":"[claimant]","b":"I","ce":"Protzen experiments: pounding with hammerstones reproduces surface textures and fit; no lab analysis showing vitrification [unverified]"},{"v":"Pre-Inca megalithic builders, Inca only added upper courses","who":"Foerster; Hancock","url":"[claimant]","b":"I","ce":"Chronicles describe Inca construction with labour drafts; Killke occupation earlier but megalithic walls dated Inca"},{"v":"Joints so tight that stone must have been softened/melted","who":"popular web","url":"[claimant web]","b":"I","ce":"Protzen 1983/1985 reproduced fitting with hammerstones and trial fitting; pounding marks visible"},{"v":"bronze/stone tools could not shape andesite","who":"Brien Foerster (book preview opened)","url":"https://hiddenincatours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Lost-Ancient-Technology-Of-Peru-And-Bolivi-Brien-Foerster.pdf","b":"I","ce":"Protzen hammerstone experiments; Rumiqolqa tool finds (existing rows)"}],"me":[{"v":"Inca construction under Pachacuti and successors (15th c.), labour drafts (mit'a) of thousands; stones pounded to fit with hammerstones and trial fitting.","ev":"Cieza de León 1553 account of 20,000 workers; Protzen's Ollantaytambo/Kachiqhata quarry, ramp and abandoned-block study and pounding experiments","s":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n ; Protzen 1993 Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo (OUP) [not opened]"},{"v":"Inca polygonal masonry: blocks from local limestone outcrops/rockfall, hauled on sledges, fitted by repeated trial-and-pounding with hammerstones","ev":"Protzen 1985 JSAH experiments; Lee 1986 scribe-and-cope hypothesis","s":"https://doi.org/10.2307/990027 ; https://doi.org/10.1179/naw.1986.24.1.003"},{"v":"Inca pecking with hammerstones and iterative fitting","ev":"Protzen field experiments","s":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf"},{"v":"Inca pounding with harder hammerstones","ev":"Protzen 1985/1993","s":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n"}],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"Main walls Inca, 15th c. AD (Killke-period occupation earlier)","dm":"Spanish chronicles (Cieza de León 1553) + ceramics","lab":"NO: inference only (style/context/king list/textual)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"","dens":"MEDIUM"},"co":{"lat":"-13.5086","lon":"-71.9817","src":"Wikidata P625 only + curated wave0 value agrees","agree":"agree","b":"V","note":"two independent sources agree; max delta 0.0039 deg (~0.44 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/483362892"},"src":[{"id":"S0599","t":"via Wikipedia","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n"},{"id":"S0071","t":"Béjar 2003 Bol. Arq. PUCP 7:407-417; Wikipedia Sacsayhuamán","u":"https://doi.org/10.18800/boletindearqueologiapucp.200301.018"},{"id":null,"t":"Lee interview (video)","u":"[video, weak]"},{"id":"S0379","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacsayhuamán&oldid=1380687433"},{"id":"S0038","t":"Protzen","u":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/nap021-006.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"PUCP Boletín de Arqueología","u":"https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletindearqueologia/en/article/download/2013/1945/7782"},{"id":null,"t":"Revista Esp. Antropología Americana","u":"https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_reaa.2014.v44.n1.47633"},{"id":null,"t":"studiomatrx.org (secondary)","u":"https://www.studiomatrx.org/architecture-canon/sacsayhuaman"},{"id":null,"t":"truthinstone.com (secondary)","u":"https://truthinstone.com"},{"id":null,"t":"MINCETUR inventory","u":"https://www.mincetur.gob.pe"},{"id":null,"t":"Texas Tech thesis (preservation of Inca heritage)","u":"http://hdl.handle.net/2346/21468"},{"id":null,"t":"Ixer (NHM petrography)","u":"https://www.academia.edu/117573765/On_the_petrography_of_some_Cuzco_Inka_stones_including_from_the_Coricancha_Temple_of_the_Sun"},{"id":null,"t":"Rough Guides","u":"https://www.roughguides.com/peru/cusco-and-around/sacsayhuaman/"},{"id":null,"t":"NBC/AP","u":"https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23626672"},{"id":null,"t":"Brien Foerster (claimant)","u":"https://hiddenincatours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Lost-Ancient-Technology-Of-Peru-And-Bolivi-Brien-Foerster.pdf"},{"id":null,"t":"Grove Dictionary of Art via MIT Dome","u":"https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/26979"},{"id":null,"t":"Langlois (reporting Valcárcel), J. Soc. Américanistes 26","u":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1934_num_26_2_1885_t1_0318_0000_3"},{"id":null,"t":"Historia Peruana blog (citing Valcárcel)","u":"https://arqueohistoriaperuana.blogspot.com/2016/11/investigaciones-arqueologicas-y.html"},{"id":null,"t":"Textbook of Architecture (generic)","u":"https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/inca-batter"},{"id":null,"t":"review of Protzen 1993 (Technology & Culture)","u":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.1996.0116"},{"id":null,"t":"W19S-PROTZEN1993; Protzen 1993, Inca Architecture and Construction at Ollantaytambo (OUP) (Introduction; section CONSTRUCTIONPROGRAM; epub p21; printed p.12)","u":"file:books/upload1.epub#p21"},{"id":null,"t":"[claimant]","u":"[claimant]"},{"id":null,"t":"[claimant web]","u":"[claimant web]"},{"id":"VCUZ-SAC-24","t":"Cieza de León, The Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru, tr. Markham (1883), Internet Archive text","u":"https://archive.org/download/secondpartchron00markgoog/secondpartchron00markgoog_djvu.txt"},{"id":null,"t":"Cieza de León, P. 1883 [c.1553]. The Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru, trans. C. R. Markham. Hakluyt Society. Full text, Internet Archive.","u":"https://archive.org/details/partofchronicleperu00ciez"},{"id":null,"t":"Garcilaso de la Vega. 1871 [1609]. First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, vol. 2, book 7, chs. 27–29, trans. C. R. Markham. Hakluyt Society. Full text, Internet Archive.","u":"https://archive.org/details/firstpartofroyal02vega"},{"id":null,"t":"Protzen, J.-P. 1983. Inca quarrying and stonecutting. Ñawpa Pacha 21: 183–214 (scanned full text, OCR checked).","u":"https://doi.org/10.1179/naw.1983.21.1.005"},{"id":null,"t":"Lee, V. R. 1986. The building of Sacsahuaman. Ñawpa Pacha 24: 49–60 (scanned full text, OCR checked).","u":"https://doi.org/10.1179/naw.1986.24.1.003"},{"id":null,"t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “City of Cuzco” (inscribed 1983), statement of Outstanding Universal Value.","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/273/"},{"id":null,"t":"Zora-Carvajal, F. 2008. Andenes de zona posterior de Sacsayhuamán pertenecieron a cultura preincaica. Agencia Andina, 13 May 2008.","u":"https://andina.pe/agencia/noticia-andenes-zona-posterior-sacsayhuaman-pertenecieron-a-cultura-preincaica-174316.aspx"},{"id":null,"t":"Foerster, B. A Brief History of the Incas: From Rise, Through Reign, To Ruin. Graham Hancock official website.","u":"https://grahamhancock.com/foersterb1/"}],"sum":"Walk through the old centre of Cusco, in the Peruvian Andes, and you are walking past pieces of a fortress. The churches, the colonial mansions and the government buildings around its squares are full of smooth, finely dressed Inca stone, and much of it was carried down from a hill above the city in the years after the Spanish conquest. Garcilaso de la Vega, son of a Spanish captain and an Inca noblewoman, who wrote Cusco's history in 1609, watched it happen. To save themselves \"the cost, delay, and trouble\" of cutting new stone, he wrote, the Spaniards \"pulled down all the masonry walls within the circle of the fortress,\" and \"there is not a house in the city which has not been partly built with those stones.\"\n\nWhat they left on the hill is what they could not easily take. That is Sacsayhuamán, and the leftovers are among the most astonishing walls on Earth.\n\nThe site sits on a ridge 3,701 metres above sea level, looking down over the red roofs of Cusco, once the capital of the Inca Empire. Its heart is a set of three terraced walls, stacked one above the other up the slope. They do not run straight. They zigzag, jutting out and folding back, and Clements Markham, the Victorian translator of Garcilaso, counted twenty-two of those angles in each wall. The longest runs about 400 metres, nearly four football fields end to end, and the walls stand about 6 metres high.\n\nIt is the stones themselves that stop people. They are huge, many-sided blocks of local limestone, each one shaped to lock into its neighbours like pieces of a puzzle, with no mortar holding them together. Where one bulges outward, the stone beside it hollows in to meet the bulge. The biggest has never been weighed, and estimates run from 128 tonnes to almost 200, about the weight of a hundred family cars. The joints between many of them are so tight that a sheet of paper will not slide in.\n\nThe first Europeans to see the walls struggled to believe them. The conquistador Pedro Pizarro described stones \"so large and thick that it seemed impossible that human hands could have set them in place.\" He also saw what has since vanished: two very high round towers. Pedro Cieza de León, a soldier who wrote a long chronicle of Peru, went to see the site twice. All the stones, he wrote, \"are laid and joined with such delicacy that a rial could not be put in between two of them.\" A rial was a thin Spanish coin. Cieza was a hard man to impress, but he admitted that the stones \"tired the judgment\" of anyone trying to work out how they had been moved and shaped with so few tools.\n\nThe people of Cusco gave the Spaniards an answer, and Cieza wrote it down. The ruler ordered the provinces to send 20,000 men, while their villages sent food. Of those 20,000, 4,000 broke stone in the quarries and 6,000 dragged it to the hill with great ropes of leather and plant fibre. The rest dug foundations and cut timber, and master builders directed the job. According to the histories passed down to the chroniclers, the work began under Pachacuti, the ruler who turned Cusco into a planned imperial capital, and went on under Topa Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac. Garcilaso even named the chief architect, Huallpa Rimachi Inca.\n\nThis was a state that measured its power in human labour. It ran less on money than on work, calling people out in rotation for the empire, a duty the Inca called mit'a. A wall like this was a public demonstration of how many people the ruler could summon, feed and command. Garcilaso described it as a house of the Sun for arms and war, the partner of the great temple in the city below, which was for prayer. Its plaza could hold thousands for ceremonies, and still does: every 24 June the hill fills for Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the winter solstice.\n\nGarcilaso also remembered the stories. In front of the fortress lay a huge rough block called the tired stone. Local people said it had grown so weary on the road that it wept blood and could not go on. Inca scholars told him the true story: more than 20,000 people dragged the stone across steep country with heavy cables, until on one slope it broke away and slid, killing three or four thousand of the people guiding it. The blood was theirs. The memory that survived was not of an easy job.\n\nThe mainstream explanation of how it was done is strong, and much of it rests on experiment. In 1982 Jean-Pierre Protzen, an architecture professor at the University of California, Berkeley, went into the Inca quarries around Cusco to try the work with his own hands. He first set aside the folk answers, such as the story, still told in Cusco, that the Inca had a plant juice that softened stone. \"Mystics,\" he added, \"speak of the application of cosmic energies to resolve the problem.\" Then he picked up the tools left lying in the quarries: hammerstones weighing from a couple of hundred grams to 8 kilograms. With one of about 4 kilograms he took a rough block of andesite about 25 by 25 by 30 centimetres. Dressing three of its sides and cutting five edges \"took no longer than ninety minutes.\" For the famous fit, he concluded that the masons worked by trial and error, lowering a stone, marking where it touched, lifting it and pounding again, just as the Jesuit José de Acosta had written in 1589: \"it was necessary to try the fit many times.\"\n\nThat explains the shaping. It does not explain everything. Protzen was candid that his fieldwork answered how the Inca quarried, dressed and fitted stone, but not how they moved and lifted it. He also found signs that the Inca sometimes sawed into stone and admitted he did not know with what. In one towing trial, a block of perhaps 10 tonnes moved over cobblestones with about a dozen people pushing and well over a hundred pulling. The largest stones on the hill are more than ten times heavier. None of the sources gathered here reports a full-scale test that shaped, moved and fitted a block of 100 tonnes or more to the standard of the lowest wall. Garcilaso, who knew the place as well as anyone alive, said simply that it could not be conceived how the work was done without engines or proper tools.\n\nThen there is the question of who came first. Pottery shows people were living on the hilltop by about AD 900, centuries before the Inca rose. In 2008 Peruvian archaeologists reported that four curved terraces behind the fortress belonged to the Killke culture, which flourished around Cusco between about AD 900 and 1200, and recovered nearly 6,000 fragments of Killke pottery. The researcher Brien Foerster goes much further. His studies of \"stone anomalies\" around Cusco, he writes, show \"that many of the greatest achievements of the Inca were in fact made by earlier people,\" whom he links to survivors of the floods at the end of the last Ice Age, around 10,500 BC. The dated Killke material comes from those outer terraces, though, not from beneath the great zigzag walls, and the Inca histories claim the walls as their own.\n\nAs a boy, Garcilaso and his friends used to climb up to the ruins. He wrote of a round central tower fed by a spring brought underground from somewhere far off, and of a maze of tunnels beneath the towers. The boys never went further into the vaults than the daylight reached, frightened by the stories they had heard.\n\nThose tunnels have never been described in modern detail. What stands on the hill now is a ruin made by subtraction: the Spaniards took what would travel and left, mostly, what was too big to move. The giants are still up on the ridge, folded into their zigzags, fitted so closely that a coin will not pass between them. The Inca said their grandfathers built them. Cieza believed it, though it tired his judgment. And a story still told in Cusco says that the people who raised them knew how to make stone soft.","qs":["Cieza was given numbers for the labour. Do they answer how the stones were shaped, or only half of it?","Why build walls in a zigzag?","Who first built on the hill before the Inca?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n%2C_Cusco%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-31%2C_DD_27.JPG/1280px-Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n%2C_Cusco%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-31%2C_DD_27.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n,_Cusco,_Per%C3%BA,_2015-07-31,_DD_27.JPG","title":"Sacsayhuamán, Cusco, Perú, 2015-07-31, DD 27.JPG","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Diego Delso","cap":"Sacsayhuamán, Cusco, Peru"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/FMIB_49785_North_view_of_the_remains_of_the_Inca%27s_fort%2C_Sacsahuaman_Cuzco.jpeg/1280px-FMIB_49785_North_view_of_the_remains_of_the_Inca%27s_fort%2C_Sacsahuaman_Cuzco.jpeg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FMIB_49785_North_view_of_the_remains_of_the_Inca%27s_fort,_Sacsahuaman_Cuzco.jpeg","title":"FMIB 49785 North view of the remains of the Inca's fort, Sacsahuaman Cuzco.jpeg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"William Lewis Herndon","cap":"North view of the remains of the Inca's fort, Sacsahuaman. Cuzco Subject: Sacsahuamam (Peru), Fortification--Peru Geographic Subject: Peru--Sacsahuamam Tag: Coa"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/From_above_Sacsayhuaman_ruins_%2823254347339%29.jpg/1280px-From_above_Sacsayhuaman_ruins_%2823254347339%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:From_above_Sacsayhuaman_ruins_(23254347339).jpg","title":"From above Sacsayhuaman ruins (23254347339).jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 2.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0","by":"KimonBerlin","cap":"from above Sacsayhuaman ruins"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Sacsayhuaman-Inca_stone.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacsayhuaman-Inca_stone.jpg","title":"Sacsayhuaman-Inca stone.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Sharonkuei","cap":"Sacsayhuamán stone wall"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Sacsayhuaman_Panorama.jpg/1280px-Sacsayhuaman_Panorama.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacsayhuaman_Panorama.jpg","title":"Sacsayhuaman Panorama.jpg","lic":"CC BY 2.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0","by":"Tydence Davis from Las Vegas","cap":"It's hard to say how big these ruins were, so here's a panorama."}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"128–200","u":"t","h":"Estimated weight of the largest limestone block","s":[12]},{"v":"No mortar","h":"Huge boulders cut to fit together tightly without mortar","s":[12]},{"v":"35","u":"km","h":"Distance the stones were moved, from Rumicolca","s":[12]},{"v":"6,000","u":"m³","h":"Estimated volume of stone in the three terrace walls","s":[12]}],"hs":{"12":["Wikipedia: Sacsayhuamán (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/CUZ-SAC.webp","w":1280,"h":703,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n%2C_Cusco%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-31%2C_DD_27.JPG/1280px-Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n%2C_Cusco%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-31%2C_DD_27.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}