Architecture

Tambo Colorado features some details that are most uncommon to Inca architecture. Among these details are the crenellations, latticework, figurative frieze, very wide windows, “stepped” windows and low platforms. The unusual details, or elements, are not evenly distributed over the entire palace. The low platforms found along the northern and southern edges of the plaza were once covered by a roof structure. Different from other major Inca settlements with great halls (“kallanka in 16th century as identified by Gonzalez Holguin as “callancarumi” in 1989:44) facing the main plazas as a common feature, Tambo Colorado lacked such great halls (Protzen 1993: 273). However, these covered low platforms, or galleries, may in fact have been stand-ins for great halls.

“Stepped” windows distinguish compound H and exclusively found on buildings 45, 47, and 50. Buildings 47 and 50 are the only buildings in the whole palace to be crowned with crenels. The entire Compound H is distinctively set apart by crenels that run along its front, or south wall. The only other place were crenels are found is on the wall that separates court 9 from court 1, and in this sense, this wall clearly sets off Compound A from Cluster B that is to say the rest of the entire complex.

The crenels reminded Uhle of the decorations on silver-plated and gilt pinnacles he had found near Ica and he believes they are significant and marks high rank such as caziques (Letter to Hearst 9/11:50) . The opening of “stepped” windows is similar to half of an Andean cross (Chakana) that is widely known for its religious significance. In the same letter, Uhle thought that the “stepped” windows “must have reminded people of the same signification” as the Andean cross.

Wide windows are limited to buildings 60 and 65 in Compound G. These windows are over 1.50 m n width as compared with the usual 40 to 50 cm. In the same buildings where wide windows are found, a distinctive pair of double-framed niches high above the ground mark the south outside walls and buildings 47 and 50 in Compound H. Otherwise, double-framed niches at an accessible height over the ground are limited to the walls of courts 9, 16, and 42. The use of a figurative frieze was restricted to Compound J. It exclusively crowned the two story building (32/41). A very similar figurative frieze had been found at Chincha and that the motif seemed to bear similarities to Chimu designs (Protzen and Morris, 2004:269).

The latticework, too, is reminiscent of Chan-Chan and the Chimu. A latticework is running the length of gallery 66, high at the back of the entire palace as if framing it. Yet, latticework, which is barely visible today, also exclusively crowns building 65 in Compound G and at the front or south wall of Compound G enclosing fountain area, 58 and 57. Another architectural feature are fountains, or “baths” as Uhle called them. Fountains are a common feature of many Inca sites, and in particular of royal estates, such as Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Pisaq and others. Two fountains exist in Tambo Colorado in Palace I, one in compound G and another in compound K.

While there are ample non-Inca precedents for the unusual architectural details at Tambo Colorado, the question remains of why they are found here? Where they incorporated into Inca architecture under the impulse of local cultural and construction practices, or where they brought here by the Incas from some other conquered territories?