the contrary, their placement and modes of access aggrandized the real and
perceived power of the ruler and the Inca state.
Terracing at Machu Picchu, a royal estate. Scholars believe that these terraces
could not have sustained the settlement’s residents and that they obtained most of
their food from elsewhere. Adriana von Hagen.While the architecture of royal estates shared many features of Inca design
and construction, their underlying message was deeply informed by the specific
needs of the patron and the particularities of his rule. Pachacuti, for example,
built his royal estates in recently conquered lands. The architecture of his estates
emphasized natural landscape features that had religious resonance. By blurring
the line between the “natural” and the manmade, the architecture of Pachacuti’s
royal estates called into question where (and when) the architecture of the Sapa
Inca (sole, unique Inca) began and where the sacred landscape ended. For
Pachacuti, the architecture of his royal estates conveyed visual and material
messages of his conquest.
By contrast, the political concerns of his son, Topa Inca, were vastly different
and were thus reflected in the architecture of his royal estate. When Topa Inca
built Chinchero at the end of his life, his primary concern was not conquest, but