PRE-COLUMBIAN

CENTRAL AMERICA
ARCHITECTURE
• The important areas were central Mexico, including part of the gulf of Mexico coast and
the Oaxaca region, and the territories comprising
the Yucatan peninsula, southern Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.
• The earliest civilization has been around as early as 600 B.C. and is broken down to
three phases: pre-classic 600 B.C. until 100 A.D.; classic 100-900 and the post classic
900-1525.
 ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERS
• Temple pyramid – a relatively small structure derived from the house form, and
serving as the “house of the god”. The temple pyramids were the foci of the cities and
sacred enclosures of Middle America
• It is entered by a single door, consisting of one or two windowless chamber.
• Maya examples were crowned externally by a high roof – crest or tomb.
• Mexican examples had tall false fronts of wood, decorated with symbols connected
with the god of the temple.
• For all buildings of importance, stone was employed, either finely dressed or carved or
laid as roughly dressed rubble.
• Roofs were flat, window were not used and doorways were square-headed.
• Internal walls could be decorated with mural paintings and, in Aztec and late Maya
period, these were of high quality.
• Maya arches – a corbelled arch of triangular shape
EXAMPLES

The pyramid of the sun (A.D. 260) – the structures forms part of an important complex of
building centered on a broad avenue 3km long. The stone-faced pyramid rises in four stages to
a height of 66m (216 ft.) and is over 213m (700 ft.) square in plan.
• Citadel, Teotihuacan (600 A.D.) – consists of a large court surround by terraced
platforms, and at its east end, incorporates a small pyramid. Instead of simple, inclined
surfaces, the different levels are separated by deep, strongly framed friezes (tableros)
which overhang relatively narrow inclined bands of masonry (taluds).
• Temple I (temple of the Giant Jaguar) – an impressive example of classic Maya
Temple pyramid. At its base, the pyramid is 34m x 29.8m and rises ten stages to a
height of 30.5 m. The temple building consists of a main sanctuary from each side of
which open three smaller chambers or recesses, all of which are roofed with
corbelled vaults. The temple is approached by a single steep flight of steps and
above it rises a high stone roof-comb which makes a total height for the pyramid and
its 47.5m.
• Temple of the warriors, Chichen Iza (c. 1100) – it is approached through a colonnade of
square columns in its interior but, its external walls are decorated with projecting trunk-
like forms associated with the long-nosed Maya rain god.
• The palace of the Governors (c. 900) – has a one-storeyed building measuring 96m x 11.9m on high
base of a central mass linked by great triangular corbelled arches to smaller blocks on either side, and
contains twenty chambers, all covered by corbelled vaults. The façade of the building is 8.5m high and
is divided into two deep horizontal bands.
PERU
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERS
• In the coastal region, adobe brick was the basic building material. And, were made in a variety
of shapes at different periods and included conical, hemispherical, and cubic forms.
• Roofs were sometimes gabled, openings kept to a minimum.
• Houses were generally of one room, entered by a single door and without windows.
• In the highlands, simple buildings were constructed of rubble, sometimes bonded with clay.
• Public buildings and fortifications used dressed stone in a variety of forms including smooth
ashlar, polygonal masonry of large irregular stone, and wailing where the edges of the stones
were bevelled and their faces dressed into a cashion-like form.
• Structures were characterized by their broad simple forms, lacking rich external decorations.
• Roofs were covered with thatch, in southern highlands, corbelled stone roofs were sometimes
used.
EXAMPLES

• Mechu Picchu – is a late Inca town, sited on the saddle between two mountains and overlooking in
the Urubamba river. Its buildings, all constructed of local stone use various types of wailing, from
coursed ashlar to roughly dressed rubble, and incorporate trapezoidal doorways.
• The Gate of the Sun (c 1000-1200) – is one the most important monuments in
the great ceremonial site in the Titicaca Basin. The gateway is cut from a single
andesite block, measuring approximately 3 m high and 3.8 m wide, with an
estimated weight of 10 tons. The centre is carved with a formalized
representation of the god Vircocha.
• Sacsahuaman (c 1475) – was built as a fortress to protect Cuzco, the sacred city
of Inces, and to provide a place of refuge for its inhabitants in the event of attack.
Three stages of terraces with high retaining walls of Yucay limestone, stretch for
more than half a kilometre. The walls follow a saw-tooth pattern in plan and the
three stages together reach a height of 18m. The lowest wall is formed of
Monoliths measuring as much as 8.2m high and 3.6m thick.