The Inca architecture is the most significant pre-Columbian South America architecture. The Incas inherited the architectural technique from Tiwanaku, a civilization that in the second century BC dwelt the current Bolivia. 

Much of the architecture of the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco shows influences from both Inca and Spanish. The city of Machu Picchu is the best preserved example of Inca architecture. 

Other interesting sites are Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo. The Incas also developed a complex road system that covered much of the west coast of the continent.

The Inca buildings were made of semi-finished stones cemented with mortar. Also the walls of adobe (dried bricks) were fairly common, usually erected on stone foundations. The most common form for buildings was the rectangular, without interior walls and roofs made of bundles of wood or dried plants. There are many variations of this scheme, including sloping roofs, rooms with one or two of the long sides open and rooms that shared one long side. The rectangular buildings were used for many purposes, from humble cottages to palaces and temples. There are also examples of curved walls, especially in the outer regions of the empire. The two-story buildings were rare; when they were built, the second floor was accessible from the outside via a staircase or an embankment rather than from within. The openings of the walls, including doors, windows and niches, were usually trapezoidal. Rarely there were other decorations; some walls were painted or adorned with metal plaques, and in rare cases the walls were carved with small animals or geometric patterns.

The most famous complex of Inca architecture form is the Kancha, a rectangular building containing three or more rectangular rooms placed symmetrically around a central court. The kancha were the basic structure of the houses, temples or palaces; Moreover, many Kancha were grouped to form blocks of Inca settlements. A testimony of the importance of these buildings is represented by the center of the Inca capital of Cusco, consists of large kancha, including the Temple of the Sun God (Qorikancha) and palaces. The kancha best preserved were found in Ollantaytambo, an Inca settlement located along the Urubamba. The buildings on the plateaus usually had the sloping roof of straw and brick walls, while those on the coast had the walls built of adobe (raw dried clay bricks in the sun), mud plastered and painted, with a flat roof.

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