Inca earthquake-resistant masonry
Mampostería inca antisísmica
- Date
- c. 1450 · confidence medium
- Place
- Sacsayhuamán, Cusco, Peru
- Credited to
- Inca Empire
- Field
- Tools
What it is
Polygonal ashlars fitted without mortar, with battered walls and trapezoidal openings, which shift and resettle during earthquakes. Inca buildings in Cusco withstood earthquakes that brought down colonial ones.
What it led to
- the survival of Inca walls after the 1650 and 1950 earthquakes
- the modern study of traditional seismic engineering