Ancient Inca Stone Cutting Mystery

Video How did ancient Incas fit the hardest of rocks with such precision? It baffles all scientists today. They had insufficient pyrotechnology to do it. You need very hot temperatures to melt most stones, close to 3000F. Nobody could produce temperatures like that until well into the Middle Ages, when the Chinese developed suitably designed furnaces. Machu Picchu is almost the only Inca site in Peru that survived the Spanish invasion and the last 500 years unscathed. As such, it is one of the few places where you can experience the architectonical ingenuity of the Inca masons. Despite its picture-perfect vista, few facts are known about Machu Picchu. The Lost City of the Incas remains a mystery, though the buildings hint at a glorious story. Here is everything you need to know about the Machu Picchu architecture. Machu Picchu was built around 1450 AD on a mountain ridge roughly 2,420 meters above sea level using simple tools*. Roughly 200 structures survived throughout the ruins – all of them lost their wooden, straw-thatched roofs over the ages. But the decay stopped at the perfectly cut granite stones. These remain impeccable and showcase the unbelievable skill of the Inca masons. The technique of fitting stones without mortar is known as Ashlar. The Inca refrained from using mortar because the loose-fitting was more resistant to earthquakes and the whole Urubamba Valley was prone to experiencing them. How the Incas cut the stones so perfectly remains a puzzle: theories range from wild (gold disks in parabolic shape to concentrate the rays of the sun into laser-like beams) to plausible (wooden wedges inserted in the rock, expanding and cracking it along natural fissures). There still is no consensus in the archeological community of exactly how this was done, so any hypothesis can be the starting point of more research to prove or disprove it.