Site Planning

Tambo Colorado is strategically located where the narrow Pisco Valley starts to open up and emerges onto the coastal plains. Max Uhle, the “Father of Peruvian Archaeology”, found Tambo Colorado to be set in a charming valley with ample water, fertile soil and ever-green trees and speculated that this may have been one reason for the Incas to settle here. The reason for the specific location of Tambo Colorado lies on the important Inca road that connected Chincha on the coast with the highlands and Cusco, the Inca capital. Uhle wrote in his letter to Phoebe A. Hearst on September 11, 1901 that he believes “[t]here is no doubt that the selection of this spot for construction of the ruins has something to do with the general line of communications with the valley of Ica.” (Protzen and Harris, 2005).

The site is comprised of several structures around a large central plaza. The central plaza is shaped like a trapezoid with its largest side being 150 m long. In the same letter to Hearst, Uhle attributed the specific layout of the Inca complex to the particular topography: “The irregularity [of the plaza] may have originated from the difficulty of building palaces on both the northern and the southern side of the triangular plain. For that reason the northern face of the buildings at the south of the plaza was turned more to the west. In the other case, the ground at the back would not have been sufficient for the construction of the proposed buildings.” The site was traversed by the Inca road from the coast to Cuzco. The road entered the Inca complex on the east through a double double-jambed (on both the outside and the inside) doorway, now destroyed. The nature of the gate on the west side is unknown since it seems to have been damaged.

The main structures are grouped together in a northern part and a southern part (Sector Norte and Sector Sur). These structures are known as the Northern palace and the two Southern Palaces, flanked by a dais-like structure, ‘usnu, raised ceremonial platform, and a building known as the Utilities Structure. ‘Usnu is also the most salient feature of the plaza’s western enclosure. From the remains still recognizable along the western edge south of the ‘usnu, we can reconstruct in this area a small ramp leading to yet another small platform. In the middle of the western edge of this platform was a large niche flanked on either side by a series of small windows. The whole area was once elaborately painted in white, yellow and red colors.

The western edge of the area north of the ‘usnu up to the western gate seemed to have consisted of a wall with tall (doorway-sized) niches facing the main plaza. However, these niches seem to have been an afterthought, since the back of the niches have been built into what originally may have been just openings out to the west. How exactly the projection west of the ‘usnu once was connected to the latter is not clear. From its position, however, this projection must have been quite special.