Ollantaytambo

Construction attributed to Pachacutec (~1440 AD): converging ethnohistorical sources (Sarmiento de Gamboa, 1572) and radiocarbon — a 14C peak at ~1440 AD on a wooden lintel in situ (Adamska & Michczyński, 1996, Andes vol. 1).

The Wall of the Six Monoliths (Temple of the Sun) is carved from pink rhyolite extracted from the Kachiqhata quarry, about 5-9 km in a straight line away, on the other side of the Río Urubamba and 400-900 m higher. Protzen (1993) documents three quarry zones with roads and wooden rollers identified in situ.

Transport carried out via ramps with a ~8-12° slope, crossing the river through an artificial diversion of the riverbed, then pulled by teams via the mit'a system (imperial corvée labor). Wooden rollers found under abandoned blocks during excavations (Protzen 1993, Oxford Univ. Press).

The site is unfinished: several blocks called piedras cansadas (tired stones) remain on the haulage ramps. One lintel is still attached to its lifting ramp, direct evidence of the worksite interrupted by the Inca civil war and then the Conquest.

Astronomical orientation: the wall of the Temple of the Sun is aligned at an azimuth of ~60°, the direction of the June solstice sunrise over Pinkuylluna hill. Demonstrated by ASTER digital elevation model and theodolite (Hanzalová, Klokočník & Kostelecký, 2015, Geoinformatics FCE CTU 14(2), DOI 10.14311/gi.14.2.4).

Battle of Ollantaytambo (January 1537): Manco Inca repelled Hernando Pizarro by flooding the plain through the diversion of the Río Patacancha. Documented in the Relación del sitio del Cuzco (~1539) and by Herrera y Tordesillas.

Documented lithological variety: pink rhyolite, welded rhyolitic tuff, breccia, andesite, limestone, ignimbrite — each type assigned to a precise architectural function, attesting to deliberate planning (Protzen 1993).