Aztec capital Tenochtitlan

on an island in the middle of a lake

gridded city

canals (like Venice)

temple complex in center

Templo Mayor, in Tenochtitlan

temple has two different entrances, which represented the two sides of the diety

has four minor temples, ball court, priests quarters, and sacrificial platforms 

Templo Mayor

the gridded side represented the bad side of the diety and the other was the good

Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna

-pyramid of the sun/ moon

-enormous mud-brick platforms, basically artificial platueas

-royal buryings inside

-to get to treasure inside, spanish reedirected the river and melted the pyramids

Chan Chan

collection of large temple precincts

the capital Cuzco

-not legit gridded, but well organized

-mountain streams and field on either side

-mountain on the northwest side, with the sun temple on top of it

-the seperate areas are complexes with individual incan leaders/owners

-when owners die they are mummified and set up in complex

Kancha Complex

-houses have simple plans

-a seperating wall runs straight through the middle building

-entrances of houses are on the long ends of the buildings not the short walls

-steep pitched roofs to deal with snow

plan of a Kancha Complex

-simple plan

-each section has its own courtyard

-niches were cut into house walls and used as closets

Masma structure

-basic housing

-cuts in wall are normally trapezoidal

-single room buildings

Masma structure on a sloped hillside

-allows for 2 floors

-floors are still only single room

-no interior stairs/ ladders

Saqsaywaman Complex

-on the hilltop over Cuzco

-surrounding walls built with massive, 10 ft tall blocks

-walls are only built on the front side of the complex

-sometimes used as a fortress

plan of Saqsaysawan Complex

--circular tower was built with small stones unlike the massive ones on the walls

Coricancha Temple of the Sun

-structure was so sound that as time went on the temple was added onto and the walls are still standing today