The site of Tiwanaku is thought of as the center of a civilization of the same name that exerted its influence over the southern Andean region from around 300 B. C. when it emerged to about A. D. 1100 when it collapsed. The architecture of Tiwanaku today is reduced to several eroded mounds, outlines of courtyard structures, weathered uprights, fragmented walls, foundation stubbles, and jumbles of building stones but not a single standing, original building. It is argued that before this architecture can be understood and its anthropological and cultural significance properly appreciated, it first has to be reconstructed. The reconstruction of Tiwanaku architecture, in turn, requires an understanding of what the design principles were that gave Tiwanaku architecture its identity. Many building blocks and fragments are analyzed for the purpose of identifying the design features typical of Tiwanaku architecture, and in search of clues to their bond to other stones and to their initial appurtenance to some larger configuration. Several partial reconstructions are presented.

At Tiahuanaco, on the southern rim of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, visitors encounter enormous stone slabs and carved building blocks dressed with astonishing skill. The stones are the visible remains of a culture that flourished there about a thousand years ago. Some six hundred kilometers to the northwest, in Cuzco (Peru), one finds the different yet equally remarkable masonry of the Incas, who dominated the Andean world from the middle of the fifteenth century to the Spanish conquest in 1532. Did the Inca stonemasons learn their skills from their predecessors at Tiahuanaco? A comparative study of Inca and Tiahuanaco construction techniques reveals fundamental differences between the architecture of the two cultures. In this article, we compare masonry bonds, design details, stone-cutting techniques, and the methods of fitting, laying, and handling of stones used by both cultures. The results of this comparison suggest that the ingenuity of Inca masonry originated with the Incas, and not with their predecessors.

Inca construction techniques have long been the subject of wild speculation. Investigations of ancient quarry sites and of numerous cut-stone walls reveal that the amazing Inca constructions were built with very simple means. Stones were selected out of rock falls or just broken out of a rock face with pry-bars. If the blocks needed to be parted, big hammerstones were used to split them. To dress the stones smaller hammerstones were used to pound them until they had the desired shape. The fitting of one stone to another was done by cutting the already laid stones to receive the next ones in a trial-and-error fashion. Experiments show that with this process stones can be mined, cut, dressed, and fit with little effort and in a short time.