Cognição e paisagem no processo civilizatório andino: a matriz do lugar como chave para decifrar Machu Picchu

This paper presents the relations between Andean landscape and how Inca cities as Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo, located at Urubamba-Vilcanota valley, was building. Through techniques of landscape ecology, geology and geomorphology the site matrix was identified in terms of a very dense tectonics faults web. The morphology of mountains and blocs was resulted as intersection of geologic fractures and faults. We try to demonstrate that Inca cities were located on very cross-tectonic faults. In this site, rocks are so fragmented that become possible to build cities in high topographic levels, strategically safe of geological hazards and inhospitable Andean conditions.