|a primitive style of masonry characterized by use of massive stones of irregular shape and size|
wall constructed without mortar, using enormous blocks of stone. This technique was employed in fortifications where use of large stones reduced the number of joints and thus reduced the walls' potential weakness. Such walls are found on Crete and in Italy and Greece. Ancient fable attributed them to a Thracian race of giants, the Cyclopes, named after their one-eyed king, Cyclops. Similar walls, though not called cyclopean, are found at Machu Picchu, Peru, and at several other pre-Columbian sites in the New World
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