Initial political consolidation probably spanned a number of generations. The Inca homeland did not have a tradition of fine stonework, and architects and masons were therefore probably drawn from conquests in the Titicaca region . Thus, the Inca corporate architectural style emerged only after a political base was in place to support it. As the Rios Huantanay and Tullamayo converge, they frame the triangle occupied by Cuzco. The narrowest section of the city, between the elongated confluence of the two rivers, was known as the Pumachupan, or puma's tail.
Some scholars argue that the imperial metropolis was designed and laid out in plan as a vast puma.
Others deny this. What the Inca had in mind is not clear, but the outline of a great cat seen from the side can be imposed over the architectural tracery of the Inca city. The main plaza creates an open space between the uphill front quarters of the cat, and its rear legs and down-hill tail. Forming entire city blocks, vast cancha-wasi compounds of the royal panaqa occupied the upper hanan and lower hurin sectors. Each sector apparently contained a palace compound appropriate for dual rule.