The Peruvian city of Cuzco, as well as its surroundings, is full of a wide variety of mysterious buildings, which have one distinctive feature - they are all built using polygonal masonry technology.
Distinctive features of polygonal masonry:
1. Any block that makes up a polygonal masonry differs from its counterparts in shape, size, weight. There cannot be two identical blocks. These are not standardized bricks. Moreover, the shape can be any: curvilinear, rectangular, convex, flat. Blocks in one particular polygonal masonry can be giant, medium or miniature.
2. There is no bonding solution between the blocks.
3. Blocks of any configuration fit perfectly to each other. There is no gap between them.
In the central part of the city of Cusco is located the Catholic Church of Santo Domingo, built by the Spaniards in the middle of the 17th century. The peculiarity of this Christian temple is that it was erected on the ruins of a much more ancient building - Coricanchi.
The top photo shows the Church of Santo Domingo, built by the Spaniards in the most usual way we are used to, that is, from blocks held together with cement.
Promotional video:
But in the foreground we see a wall of a rather complex curvilinear shape made of black basalt, without any cementing mortar. Notice the small bumps on some of the blocks. They are usually called bosses.
On the other side of Coricancha, we can observe another, very extended wall, built using the same technology. See how tightly the blocks fit together.
Pay attention to the bosses that are located on some blocks of this wall. There are many hypotheses about the origin of bosses. But no one can confirm their assumptions with certainty.
Inside the church of Santo Domingo there are similar structures, but I think they are even more interesting. The walls of the building are inclined to the horizon by about 8 degrees. Doors are trapezoidal, niches and windows are also trapezoidal.
Pay attention to the high quality workmanship of trapezoidal niches and windows.
Something embedded in a doorway. It seems that the holes and grooves were used for some unknown wiring, for some ropes, wires or cables.
Nobody knows what these gutters and circles were for in the upper part of the buildings.
Artifacts are laid out nearby, testifying to the use of a fairly high technology in stone processing. The purpose of these items can only be guessed at.
And in conclusion I would like to show a photograph, which I would call "The Clash of Civilizations."
On the left we see a wall with niches, built by representatives of an ancient unknown civilization, without a cement mortar, and on the right, a beautifully designed (from our point of view) wall of a Catholic church, built by the Spaniards using a cement mortar.
A short slide film on the theme of Coricanchi.