In the remote town of Huaytará, Peru, the building that houses the Church of San Juan Bautista is more than what it seems. It was built upon a three-walled Incan structure called a carpa uasi that exchanged stability for something unexpected.

While the Incan Empire is best known for the iconic 15th-century citadel of Machu Picchu , a team of researchers is investigating the acoustic properties of the carpa uasi , another one-of-a-kind Incan construction that likely dates back to the same century. Their work emphasizes the importance of studying more than what meets the eye—literally—when tracing the footsteps of bygone civilizations.

A three-walled building

“We’re exploring the possibility that the carpa uasi may have amplified low-frequency sounds, such as drumming, with minima

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