The Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines are a series of giant geoglyphs found in the Peruvian coastal plain about 400km south of Lima. How were they created? Why were they created? Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 these giant creations are a mystery to researchers.
Ancient Nazca Culture
The Nazca culture was an ancient archaeological civilization that flourished between 100BC to 800AD. They lived in the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley beside the dry southern coast of the country.
This culture is known for two massive construction projects they undertook. One is the giant geoglyphs in the desert, which we’ll be discussing today, and the other is the construction of a system of underground aqueducts to bring water to the desert environment for crops and drinking. Several of these aqueducts are still in use today.
Geoglyphs
The geoglyphs (or Nazca lines) are really what we’re here to talk about. They can be straight or curved lines or even depictions of animals and plants. There are about 800 straight lines on the coastal plain, some reaching up to 48km long! There are also over 300 geometric shapes including triangles, rectangles, wavy lines, arrows, spirals, and zig zags. Finally, there are about 70 massive depictions of animals and plants including a spider, hummingbird, cactus plant, monkey, whale, llama, duck, flower, tree, lizard, dog, etc. Some of these animals and plants are up to 370m long!! There was even a depiction of a human-like creature found.
Over the years using drone and mapping technology more and more geoglyphs have been discovered like a 30m long mythical creature with spots and lots of legs sticking out its tongue. And in 2018 the Peruvian government announced that they had found 50 new geoglyphs and were able to use technology to photograph them with unprecedented detail.
The mystery here really lies in how these were created but even more so, what they were created for. In terms of how they were made it is clear that it had to be a large group of people working together over a prolonged period of time. There are a few techniques that they may have used to create them, demonstrated by researchers. One is stretching a rope between two points and removing all the red desert rocks underneath the rope. This reveals the lighter-coloured earth below making the lines visible from high altitudes. Because they were created in a desert they have been very well preserved since there is little rain.
Now let’s get into some of the theories about why these may have been created. There are quite a few thoughts on this.
They were creations for the Gods to look upon and enjoy. Pretty self-explanatory but they could have been created as offerings or prayers for the Gods.
The lines served as some sort of calendar or some indication of different alignments of the stars for agricultural purposes or to mark where the sun and moon would rise and set on important holidays.
They were related to water in some way either as an offering to the Gods for precious water (since the landscape was so arid) or maybe as channels to let water flow through (though the aqueducts seem to disprove this one).
Some people also believe that the Nazca people couldn’t have built these geoglyphs themselves. These people say that since the only way to properly see them is by flying above them (not true because they can be seen from the surrounding hillside but anyways) they must have had the ability to fly. And where did this ability come from?? Aliens of course. Everything comes back to aliens. People think that maybe the Nazca people came into contact with aliens and they helped them build the lines and animal and plant depictions. They usually also point to the human-ish figure I referenced before as looking like a person in a space suit (maybe a depiction of an alien).
Most scholars don’t agree but I’ll let you make up your own mind.
Works Cited
“Nazca Lines”. History.com. 2018. https://www.history.com/topics/south-america/nazca-lines#:~:text=More%20recent%20research%20suggested%20that,to%20bring%20much%2Dneeded%20rain
Rennie, Daniel. “Unlocking the Mystery of Peru’s Massive Nazca Lines”. All That’s Interesting. 2021. https://allthatsinteresting.com/nazca-lines