The Stones of Tiahuanaco by Stella Nair, Jean-Pierre Protzen - 9781931745673

The Stones of TiahuanacoA Study of Architecture and Construction\nAuthor(s): Stella Nair, Jean-Pierre Protzen\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, United States\nImprint: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA\nISBN-13: 9781931745673, 978-1931745673\nSynopsis\nThe world's most artful and skillful stone architecture is found at Tiahuanaco at the southern end of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. The precision of the stone masonry rivals that of the Incas to the point that writers from Spanish chroniclers of the sixteenth century to twentieth-century authors have claimed that Tiahuanaco not only served as a model for Inca architecture and stone masonry, but that the Incas even imported stonemasons from the Titicaca Basin to construct their buildings. Experiments aimed at replicating the astounding feats of the Tiahuanaco stonecutters--perfectly planar surfaces, perfect exterior and interior right angles, and precision to within 1 mm--throw light on the stonem.