Grandeur, rigorous straight lines, rectangular blocks separated by access ways and ample squares found in Peru’s archeological compounds bring to our mind the layout of Mediterranean cities of Greek as well as Roman heritage. How-ever, compared to Mesopotamia, cradle of man’s first juridical and economic organization built on market and individual property principles, Andean civilization shows substantial differences. The first of such differences concerns agglomeration processes. Large cities like Wari, Cajamarquilla and Chan-Chan had relatively short lives of 400 to 600 years, they were born suddenly and expanded quickly. Not even ceremonial centers like Chavín or Pachacamac were occupied continuously under the same design pat-tern for more than one thousand years.
Another difference lies in the fact that in West-ern cities, roofed houses separated from other houses, i.e. the family’s place of residence, were the basic units and the reason for the existence of the whole. Inside them, courtyards, passages and streets are organized around private roofed areas. In the Andes, instead, communal spaces that served political and economic functions- like squares, courtyards and open areas- were the organizing core. They include sacred spaces such as pyramids, platforms and restricted monument compounds, but exclude homes. In most Medi-terranean cities, public spaces occupy about 30% of the total area and their monumental buildings are at the center of a residential belt that grew slowly and haphazardly, as shown by the maze – like layout of their roads and passages. In the Andes, we find the exact opposite relationship everywhere.
But the differences do not end there. Also chal-lenging modern understanding is the location of several monument compounds that may have been cities. In the Andean highlands, they are often located at the top of almost inaccessible mountain peaks. On the Coast, they hide in gorges or sit at the top of high, barren plateaus, far from agricultural areas. The peculiar character of Andean city design stems from its origin. In Mesopotamia and most ancient Mediterranean civilizations, urban growth gave birth to the es-
tate as the guide of a new society where kinship had ceased to play the most prominent role in human relationships. In the Andes, the emerging state fostered the construction of large architectural compounds to serve administrative, religious and production ends.
How sedentary life was organized in the Andes is another source of amazement. Even the large capital cities of Andean kingdoms and empires often had a small permanent population. Cities comprised sanctuaries as well as sacred palaces with innumerable administrative buildings lo-cated along roads and irrigation canals. A pro-fuse calendar of ceremonial activities performed in public spaces organized the numerous eco-nomic and political functions that characterized the life of crowded cities in other parts of the world.
Taxes paid in labor and kind always arrived at the scheduled times, and the hierarchical posi-tions, duties and obligations of the ruling elite were confirmed. A loose layout guided an unceas-ing flow of people who traveled to either pay hom-age or taxes. With evident relation to the roads, canals, mountains and other sacred places, cit-ies basically served as a stage for periodical fes-tivities where the ceremonial corn beer called “chicha” was abundantly poured. Thus, the state could count on an extended reservoir of labor at the right time and place without having to con-centrate large population contingents in big cit-ies. By and large, most pre-Hispanic Andean so-cieties follow this model, although we can clearly identify at least three broad categories of sites exhibiting pre-Inca and pre-Chimu architectural patterns, including rural settlements of about one half to 4 Ha; monument compounds serving administrative and religious functions usually larger than 8 Ha; and dispersed religious struc-tures such as pyramids, and other smaller groups of closed buildings, platforms and terraces.
