Late Middle Ages · South America · Technology
1438
Inca Redesign Cuzco as a Puma
1438
Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui demolished old Cuzco and rebuilt the sacred capital in the shape of a crouching puma, with the fortress of Sacsayhuaman forming the animal's head and teeth. Massive polygonal stones, some weighing well over a hundred tons, were fitted together without mortar so precisely that a knife blade cannot pass between their joints. Andean stone engineering had reached its absolute zenith.