We continue our series of stories about mysterious ancient objects. Today we will tell you about the Nazca geoglyphs in Peru, created many centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire, and which are the most important evidence of the existence of a mysterious ancient culture in Peru. These lines and geoglyphs are located on the Nazca plateau and reach tens of meters in length, so they are visible only from the air.
The German scientist Von Daniken, in his book Answer to the Gods, claims that these lines were created as landing signals. spaceships aliens. And the German doctor of archeology Maria Reiche called these patterns a strange confirmation of the existence of the ancient Peruvian culture:
“The Nazca lines are nothing but the documented history of ancient Peruvian science. The ancient inhabitants of Peru created their own alphabet to describe the most important astronomical events. The Nazca lines are the pages of a book written in this strange alphabet.”
From the air, you can observe various figures such as large giant spiders, lizards, llamas, monkeys, dogs, hummingbirds, etc., not to mention zigzags and geometric projects. There are many unanswered questions regarding these lines. For example, how they remain intact after hundreds of years, or how they were created in such sizes, accurately recreating all proportions. 
In 1927, Mejia Hespe, a student of the famous Julio Tello, the father of Peruvian archeology, reported mysterious incomprehensible geoglyphs on the territory of the Peruvian plateau. Initially, this was not given any importance, scientists were engaged in research on other more significant sites, such as Machu Picchu 
In the same year, a researcher from the United States, Paul Kosok, arrived in Peru, who was very attracted ancient history Peru. On one of his first trips to the south of the country, he stopped at the top of a plateau and saw extensive lines on both sides of the road. After careful examination, he was amazed to find that one of the figures was displayed perfect shape bird flight. Kosok spent almost 20 years studying the Nazca lines, in 1946 he returned home, offering to study the drawings of the Nazca tribes to the German doctor of archeology Maria Reiche. Maria devoted her whole life to this work. 
Maria Reiche studied the Nazca lines for 50 years. She explained how these lines were used by the ancient Peruvian astronomers - they were a giant solar and lunar calendar hidden in the sand, legends and myths of the locals. 
The lines themselves are applied to the surface in the form of furrows up to 135 centimeters wide and up to 40-50 centimeters deep, while white stripes form on the black stony surface. The following fact is also noted: since the white surface is heated less than the black one, a pressure and temperature difference is created, which leads to the fact that these lines do not suffer in sandstorms.
The hummingbird has a length of 50 meters, the spider - 46, the condor has stretched from beak to tail feathers for almost 120 meters, and the lizard has a length of up to 188 meters. Such enormous dimensions of the drawings are admirable, almost all the drawings are made in this huge scale in the same manner, when the outline is outlined by one continuous line. The true shape of the images can only be observed from a bird's eye view. Such a natural elevation does not exist nearby, but there are medium size hills. But the higher you rise above the plateau, the smaller these drawings become and turn into incomprehensible scratches. 
Other animals captured by the Nazca include a whale, a dog with long legs and tail, two llamas, various birds such as herons, pelican, gull, hummingbird and parrot. Reptiles include the alligator, iguana, and snake.
All geoglyphs are located on the map, with detailed names. Click to enlarge
So who did create the Nazca geoglyphs? locals or aliens? It's a giant solar and moon calendar Or spacecraft landmarks? It is impossible to know the answers to these questions, since the Nazca lines are one of the largest
Nazca - a small ancient town in the south of Peru - attracts many tourists from all over the world. There are no outstanding architectural sights here, but there is something that does not leave indifferent even the biggest skeptics: giant images on the earth's surface, which are more than two thousand years old. How these drawings appeared here, what they were used for, is still a mystery, despite a large number of hypotheses. But thanks to objects such as the Nazca Lines, Peru has become a "magnet" for explorers, mystics and anyone interested in mysteries that have not yet been solved.
Story
The "pioneers" of amazing drawings were back in 1927, pilots who noticed on a plateau near Pacific Ocean numerous lines and images. But scientists became interested in this discovery only a decade later, when Paul Kosok, an American historian, published a series of photos taken from the air.
However, strange images were known much earlier. As early as 1553, the Spanish priest and scholar Pédro Césa de León, writing about the conquest South America, mentioned "signs among the sands to guess the path laid." The most remarkable thing is that he did not regard these drawings as something strange or inexplicable. Perhaps in those days more was known about the purpose of geoglyphs? This question also remains open.
Among the scientists who studied the lines in the Nazca desert, the greatest contribution to the development and popularization of the topic belongs to the German archaeologist Maria Reich. She worked as an assistant to Paul Kokos, and when he stopped research in 1948, Reiche continued to work. But her contribution is important not only with scientific point vision. Thanks to the efforts of the researcher, some of the Nazca lines were saved from destruction.
Reiche described the research of an amazing monument of an ancient civilization in the book “The Secret of the Desert”, and the fee was spent on preserving the original appearance of the area and building an observation tower.
Subsequently, aerial photography of the reserve was repeatedly carried out, but detailed map that includes all pictures. Doesn't exist yet.
Description of drawings
In the photo of the Nazca lines in Peru, you can see clear images of huge size. Among them there are about 700 regular geometric shapes (trapezoids, quadrilaterals, triangles, etc.). All these lines retain their geometry even on complex terrain, and the contours remain clear in places where they overlap. Some of the figures are clearly oriented to the cardinal directions. No less surprising are the clear edges of the figures, the size of which exceeds several kilometers.
But even more amazing are the semantic images. There are about three dozen drawings of animals, birds, fish, plants and even humans on the plateau. All of them are of impressive size. Here you can see:
- a bird almost three hundred meters long;
- two hundred meter lizard;
- a hundred meter condor;
- eighty meter spider.
In total, there are approximately one and a half thousand images and figures on the plateau. The largest of them are about 270 m in size. But, despite careful study over the years, Nazca continues to delight with discoveries. So in 2017, after restoration work, scientists discovered another drawing - an image of a killer whale. They suggested that this image may be one of the most ancient. Most geoglyphs date back to around 200 BC.
Because of large sizes images, being on the ground, it is impossible to see them - the whole picture opens only from a height. From the observation tower, where tourists can climb, the view is also extremely limited - only two drawings can be seen. To admire the ancient arts, you must
Origin theories
Since the discovery of the Nazca lines, hypotheses have been put forward one after another. There are several popular theories.
religious
According to this hypothesis, images of such big size ancient population Peru was built so that the gods could see them from space. For example, the archaeologist Johan Reinhakd was inclined to this point of view. In 1985, he published research data pointing to the elemental worship of the ancient Peruvians. In particular, the cult of mountains and the cult of water were widespread in these territories. Thus, it was suggested that the drawings on the ground are nothing more than part of religious rites.
astronomical
This theory was put forward by the first researchers - Coconut and Reiche. They believed that many of the lines are indicators of the places of sunrise and sunset and other celestial bodies. But the version was refuted by the British archaeoastronomer Gerald Hawkins, who back in the 70s of the last century proved that no more than 20% of the Nazca lines can be associated with celestial landmarks. And taking into account the different directions of the lines, the astronomical hypothesis looks unconvincing.
demonstrative
Astronomer Robin Edgar did not notice any scientific background in the drawings on the Peruvian plateau. He also leaned towards metaphysical causes. Pravda believed that numerous furrows were dug not for the purpose of worship, but as a response to constant solar eclipses that happened during this period in Peru.
Technical
Some researchers believe that the lines are related to the possibility of construction aircraft. As proof of this version, there were even attempts to build an airplane from the materials available at that time. A similar version is put forward by the Russian researcher A. Sklyarov in the book “Nasca. Giant crop drawings. He believes that the ancient civilization on the territory of Peru was highly developed and possessed not only aircraft, but even used laser technology
alien
And finally, there are those who believe that the drawings were used for aliens - as a way of communication, as a place to land flying objects, etc. As evidence, even the strange remains of unknown creatures found in these parts are given. Others, on the contrary, are sure that the Peruvian mummies, like the Nazca lines, are a fake and a fraud.
Mystery of Nazca solved?
Archaeologists have been trying for decades to find an explanation for the mysterious Naska lines. Removed in 2009 documentary"Deciphered Nazca Lines". Anyone interested in the topic will certainly be interested to see. But the answer to the question remained open, and attempts to unravel the mystery continue. For example, a version has recently been put forward that the Nazca lines form a single whole with the aqueduct system. Puquios, a complex hydraulic system, was built for the purpose of extracting groundwater. Part of it has survived to this day. On the basis of images taken from space, it has been suggested that the lines are part of this "water carrier". It is an assumption, because the researchers could not explain what functional role the drawings played in the plumbing system. But perhaps one fine day, the solution to the Peruvian miracle will still be found.
These gigantic drawings are distinguishable only with high altitude: only flying by plane over the Nazca plateau - that which is spread out in the southern part of Peru, you can see this " art gallery”, consisting of images of birds and animals, flowers and insects. The correct contours of the lizard, hummingbird, monkey, condor and spider cross numerous straight lines, spirals, triangles, trapeziums and others geometric figures.
Where did this heritage come from, what was the goal of the ancient artists who brought out desert masterpieces and, finally, what technologies allowed them to observe ideal proportions drawings, the size of the smallest of which is 46 meters, and the largest - a pelican - reaches 285 meters? These questions have occupied the minds of scientists since the very moment when the Nazca geoglyphs were discovered - since 1939, when an airplane with an American archaeologist on board flew over the desert.
The technique for making all the drawings is the same: the contour of the image is a single inseparable line that stretches for tens and hundreds of meters and often crosses hills, depressions and dried up river beds. Tell me, if you will, without the help of special instruments and control from a height, it was possible to draw all these straight lines, curves and broken lines, without once deviating from the given direction by even half a degree?
Yes, hundreds of meters - the lines of some geometric shapes stretch for 8 kilometers! Not being able to rise high above the “canvas”, it is more than difficult to get an idea of the nature of the drawing and, moreover, of the correctness of the direction taken. And that is not all. Careful studies of drawings and figures showed that all geoglyphs are subject to strict mathematical laws.
How were these canvases created? Like many other geoglyphs, by digging trenches: moving along a given contour, the ancient creators furrowed the desert land, digging the soil along the length of the entire pattern 120-140 cm wide and 25-35 cm deep. Due to the peculiarities of the semi-desert climate, the drawings of the Nazca board have survived to this day.
Another mystery that haunts researchers: how did it happen that the workers digging numerous trenches (recall that some lines are several kilometers long) did not leave any traces of their stay - at least trampled paths? By by and large, pundits do not have exact answers to any of the current questions - only hypotheses.
Unless it was possible to determine the time of creation of drawings and lines relatively accurately - geoglyphs were formed before the 12th century, when the Incas settled the valley. This means that the authorship of marvelous patterns is attributed to the predecessors of the Incas - the Nazca civilization. One can only guess about the purpose of creating a "gallery" in the desert. Based on the fact that the huge paintings are distinguishable only from a great height, it is logical to assume that the ancient people who inhabited the desert tried to communicate with the deities in this way.
According to other versions, representatives of the Nazca civilization tried to reproduce the celestial map of the constellations using patterns and drawings or transmitted an encrypted message to someone. One of the idle assumptions is completely devoid of common sense: signs supposedly inscribed on the face of the earth served as a landing strip for alien ships. One thing is clear: there are still much more questions in the case of geoglyphs of the Nazca plateau than answers - huge drawings in the middle of the desert remain an unsolved mystery to this day.
Beneath the Nazca refers to the plain, located on a hill. This terrain has, as a rule, a flat or wavy, slightly dissected relief. From other flat spaces Nazcaseparated by clear cuts. This natural formation is located in Peru, in its southern part, 450 km southeast of Lima, the capital of the country. However, this territory is remarkable not for its unusual location, it is distinguished by its Nazca drawings.spread over an area of 80 kilometers. These images, or as they are also called the Nazca lines, made in a bizarre form: from the outlines of animals, spiders and birds, to geometric shapes. Drawings in the Nazca desertare one of the most important mysteries for the modern research community. Dozens of figures struggle daily in so far aimless attempts to answer at least some questions regarding the mysterious images.
Nazca is a geoglyphic territory.
The territory of the plateau is vast and stretches for many kilometers. This valley was considered lifeless for a long time, however, the researchers were wrong, but more on that later. Nazca coordinates where geoglyphs are located: 14° 45′ south latitude and 75° 05' west longitude. The shape of the Nazca plate is elongated. From north to south, the length reaches approximately fifty kilometers, from west to east from 5 to 7 kilometers. The Nazca area is practically uninhabited by people and has an extremely dry climate.
Winter in the vast Nazca Square lasts from June to September. All because in southern hemisphere the seasons do not coincide with those in the Northern Hemisphere. At the same time, the temperature in Nazca never drops below 16 degrees Celsius. In summer, the temperature is stable and stays around 25 degrees Celsius. Rain, despite the proximity of the ocean, is a rarity for Nazca. Winds are also practically non-existent. There are no rivers, streams or lakes surrounded by Nazca, and there cannot be with such conditions. The presence of water in these lands is signaled only by numerous channels of the long-long dried up Nazca rivers and no less numerous dried-up canals.
No less important component of this region than the Nazca Valley is the city with the corresponding name. It was founded by the Spaniards in 1591. In 1996, the city was completely destroyed by a powerful earthquake. But, fortunately, there were few casualties, since the aftershocks began at noon and the people were prepared. In total, 17 people died during the Nazca earthquake. And about 100 thousand people were left without a roof over their heads. To date, the city of Nazca has been completely rebuilt. On its territory were built multi-story houses, and the center of the city of Nazca is now decorated with a beautiful square.
However, this area is notable not for a city or a plain, but for mysterious geoglyphs, lines and drawings, which are believed to have been made by skillful human hands. However, the last statement is very, very controversial. Exists popular theory regarding the Nazca, according to which the lines on the plateau were drawn not by a person, but by an alien mind or some other unknown forces.
Amazing drawings in the Nazca desert.
In total, experts discovered 13 thousand various lines and stripes on the territory of the plateau. In science, these drawings have their own name - geoglyphs (geometric figures of a bizarre shape, made in the earth's soil and having a length of at least four meters). In our case, the drawings in the Nazca desert are shallow and long grooves of various widths dug in the soil, which is a mixture of sand and clay. Shallow by the standards of Nazca is from 15 to 30 cm. But the length of individual lines reaches several kilometers: the longest reach 10 kilometers in length. The width of the drawings in the Nazca desert is also striking: In some cases, it ranges from 150 to 200 meters.
In addition to lines, all kinds of figures were found on the territory of the plateau, well known to every person from geometry - triangles and quadrangles. Some drawings in the Nazca desert are trapezoids, as they only have two sides that are parallel. There are about seven hundred such creations of unknown origin on the plateau. There are also figures resembling animals: monkeys, birds, killer whales, llamas and other inhabitants of flora and fauna. Single drawings in the Nazca desert depict fish, spiders, lizards and sharks. There are few of them in total amount no more than forty.
The figures amaze the imagination with their enormous size, but to understand them true purpose people are unable to. Obviously, the clue may lie in the bowels of the plain, which means that in order to understand who and why created the drawings in the Nazca desert, it is necessary to start excavations. The problem is archaeological excavations are prohibited here, since the plain has the status of a sacred zone. So the mystery of the drawings in the Nazca desert remains unsolved. And something suggests that it will remain so for a very, very long time, until the scientific community comes to its senses.
Mysterious lines of Nazca.
However, no matter how sacred this land is, human curiosity has never stopped at anything and is not going to stop. The first person suffering from the “vice” of curiosity ended up in these forbidden lands in 1927. He was an archaeologist from Peru, Mejia Toribio Hespe. He studied the Nazca lines from the foothills surrounding the plateau.
In the 1930s, a mysterious piece of land where Nazca lines, anthropologists studied from a bird's eye view, flying around on an airplane. They, in fact, confirmed the fact of the presence of lines in Nazca. To study closely unique creations archaeologists got the opportunity only in 1946. But this was not a targeted state or research program with appropriate funding, but separate expeditions of enthusiastic scientists.
It turned out that the Nazca lines and shallow trenches were made by our distant ancestors or alien entities by removing the surface of the clay soil layer rich in iron oxide. Gravel has been almost completely removed from the Nazca lines section, and there is soil under it light color. As a result, the Nazca lines became so catchy and at the same time durable.
The light soil of the local lands surrounding the drawings on the Nazca plateau boasts a high lime content. In the open air, it hardens almost instantly and forms a durable protective layer excellent erosion prevention. For this reason, the mysterious Nazca lines have been preserved in their original form for thousands of years, at least that is the opinion of researchers. The durability of the Nazca lines was also facilitated by the absence of winds, as such, precipitation and stable air temperature. If the climate were different, then these drawings would have disappeared from the face of the earth long before they were discovered.
However, they exist, and their presence has puzzled more than one generation of researchers, archaeologists, and just scientists from all over the world. Official science, which has long formed its attitude to the Nazca lines, claims that all these geoglyphs, lines and drawings were created during the Nazca civilization. This ancient empire existed, as expected, from 300 BC to 800 AD. A significant part of scientists agrees that most of the drawings were created during this period of 1100 years. It is believed that the Nazca civilization had a very developed culture, whose golden age falls on 100-200 AD.
The Nazca plateau and its mystical civilization.
The Nazca civilization sank into oblivion, presumably at the end of the 8th century. The reason for this allegedly became the floods that the Nazca plateau faced towards the end of the first millennium. The waters flooded and destroyed the agricultural lands of the ancient people. Some people died of starvation, the rest were forced to leave the unfavorable land. A few centuries later, the Nazca plateau was settled by the Incas. However, it was already a completely different, and even a different culture, the customs of which certainly did not include drawing giant lines on the ground.
Well, let's say ancient people Nazca plateau really created mysterious creations on this earth, but why were they created, and most importantly, how could the natives make trenches several kilometers long on rough terrain. Even using modern techniques and devices, it is extremely difficult to draw an ideal straight line on the ground with a length of, say, 5-8 kilometers.
In accordance with the theory of scientists, all this was done by them once or twice. For some centuries, the Nazca plateau has turned from a lifeless valley into the most bizarre and richest territory in geoglyphs on the whole Earth. The first settlers crossed ravines and hills, but at the same time their geometric lines, Nazca geoglyphs, remained perfectly correct, and the edges were strictly parallel, which seems incredible. In addition to stripes and trenches in the Nazca plateau unknown masters also created figures of various animals. From the air, they are seen, albeit bizarrely, but easily recognizable. Again, how the first people in these lands managed to depict, say, hummingbirds with such accuracy is categorically unclear.
The mentioned hummingbird, by the way, like many Nazca, reaches fifty meters in length. Another drawing bird, the condor, is 120 meters long. And the spider, similar to its relatives living in the Amazon jungle, boasts 46 meters in length. It is noteworthy that all these masterpieces of the Nazca plateau can only be seen by rising high into the air or climbing some mountain, which, unfortunately, is not nearby. From the ground and small hills, these drawings are indistinguishable and are a simple set of lines and trenches. Of course, you can make out individual silhouettes and strokes, however, full picture visible only from the air.
Obviously, the civilization that inhabited the Nazca plateau did not have any aircraft. Neither balloons, neither airplanes, let alone rockets, existed in prehistoric times. So how could they recreate their drawings with such accuracy, without being able to evaluate the work done and find flaws in order to correct them?! This remains as much a mystery as the functionality of the Nazca images. Why were they created? Is it really just for the sake of aesthetic beauty, or maybe for some religious purposes? A question, a question, and another unanswered question.
It's hard for a modern person to understand logic. distant ancestors. We do not understand people who lived a hundred years ago, where are we to understand the motives of those who lived thousands, two thousand years ago. Is it possible that all the lines and images of the Nazca plateau have no practical component at all? The ancient people created them to show that they are capable of this. But why was it necessary to spend so much time and energy on self-assertion?! Wouldn't it be easier to unleash another war, in ancient times it seemed to be a much more common practice?!
Nazca drawings and related theories.
Scientists who are confident that a person is behind the creation of mysterious drawings on the territory of the plateau are no less than those who believe that Nazca drawings were created by an alien race. In their opinion, all the images and lines on the plateau are nothing more than runways. The version involving Peru, the Nazca plateau, of course, has the right to life, it remains unclear why the alien spaceships did not have a vertical take-off, or why create runways in the bizarre form of terrestrial animals? If you really wanted to stand out in this way, why not make a couple of drawings of Nazca in the form of fauna living in your world? However, it is better not to focus on this, because theories and conjectures regarding the motives of alien creators seem even more illusory than the motivation of the first people.
It is better to pay attention to this: Nazca drawings in the form of animals, birds and insects were created much earlier than simple triangles and other geometric shapes. This is not a confirmed fact, the theory is still in development, however, even now most of scholars agree that this is the case complex drawings Nazca were created before simple images and trenches. Be that as it may, a simple conclusion suggests itself: did the unknown masters at first do more complex shapes, obviously created in several stages, and only then other people began to practice drawing straight lines and trapezoids. Or maybe for the long centuries it took to create the drawings for which the desert is famous Nazca on the map, did the masters of the ancient civilization lose their technology or simply forgot how to create complex images? All these are regular questions, the answers to which we, apparently, will receive very, very soon, if at all someday.
At the same time, there are isolated figures in the scientific community who believe that all the Nazca drawings were made in the same period. But what scholars agree on is the idea that individual members of the ancient Nazca people had knowledge of astronomy.
For example, Maria Reiche (1903-1998), a German mathematician and archaeologist who has been studying mysterious lines for almost 50 years, once claimed that the Nazca drawing in the form of a huge spider is very reminiscent of star cluster in the constellation of Orion. Three straight lines lead to the figure, they presumably served to track the change in the declinations of the three most bright stars in Orion's Belt: Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.
There is another very entertaining theory involving the Nazca figures. Archaeologist Johan Reinhard, who is an American by birth, believes that the lines and figures of animals were part of religious rites, or at least were built for some religious purposes. The figures of animals, insects and birds were supposedly associated with the worship of the gods. With the help of Nazca drawings, people asked the celestials for water to irrigate their lands. It is not entirely clear how exactly this ceremony took place, but it doesn’t matter if it even took place at all? It is obvious that the ancient people were novices of the pagan faith and, as in any such religion, the cult of the gods occupies a central place not only in religion, but also in Everyday life of people. It is likely that the Nazca civilization really carried out some rituals to worship their deities, but it is almost impossible to prove this.
Today, the attention of researchers from all over the world is focused not on the Nazca drawings and not even on the mysteries surrounding them. While people are guessing and guessing, a serious environmental threat looms over the plateau. Deforestation, pollution ambient atmosphere change not in better side balanced and almost unchanged climate of the plain. The Nazca Plate is facing problems: it rains more and more often, landslides and other misfortunes occur, one way or another affecting the integrity of the images. This is a very serious threat, and if nothing is done in the next 5-10 years, or maybe less, the Nazca drawings will be lost forever, and then there is no doubt that the answers to the questions posed by the research community will never be received. We will certainly never know who and why created this, without exaggeration, a wonderful and unique phenomenon.
Do you know what a Nazca is? This is an ancient Indian civilization. It got its name from the river, in the valley of which one can still admire numerous cultural monuments. The heyday of this civilization was observed in the first millennium BC. Later, the name Nazca was worn by a small Indian village in the south of Peru, located behind the mountain ranges. In order to get to it from the capital of the state of Lima, it was necessary to drive many kilometers through a dusty, rocky and sandy wasteland.
Today, the city of Nazca is connected by a four-lane freeway. Moreover, that part of it that passes through the bare hills and the desert is paved with wild stones. A small and quiet village in the past, today it is a small but very neat town. There is own museum and a small park, various shops and even two banks. There are hotels of various classes in the town that accept tourists who have gone to this area in order to get acquainted with the world-famous "Pampa de Nasca".
Geography
What attracts tourists from all over the world to a small town in southern Peru? Travelers come here to see the amazing and mysterious plateau Nazca. This is a plain, located on a certain hill. For her, as for all plateaus, a flat, and sometimes wavy relief is characteristic. It is slightly dissected in places. Distinct ledges separate the plateau from other plains.
Where is Nazca located? This plateau is located in the south of Peru. It is separated from the capital of the country, Lima, by 450 km, which must be overcome in a southeasterly direction. on the map is located almost in the coastal zone of the Pacific Ocean. From the plateau to its boundless waters - no more than eighty kilometers.
Nazca coordinates will help you find this area on the map faster. They are 14° 41' 18" South latitude and 75° 7' 22" West longitude.
The Nazca plateau has an elongated shape from north to south. Its length is 50 km. But the width of the area from the western to the eastern borders ranges from five to seven kilometers.
natural conditions
The Nazca coordinates are such that the area is located in a dry climate zone. As a result, it is sparsely populated. Winter here lasts from June to September. For us, this is surprising, but in the Southern Hemisphere it does not coincide with that which is typical for the zone located north of the equator.
As for the air temperature, it is practically stable in this area. In the winter months, its value does not fall below sixteen degrees. IN summer period the thermometer is almost constantly kept at around +25.
The Nazca plateau, as mentioned above, is located in close proximity to the waters of the Pacific Ocean. However, despite this, rains are very rare here. There are also no winds on the plateau, since it is protected from air masses by mountain ranges. There are no rivers and streams in this desert either. You can see here only their dried-up beds.
Nazca lines
However, it is not its location that attracts many tourists to this region. The Nazca plateau beckons with mysterious drawings and lines located right on the earth's surface. Scientists call them geoglyphs. This concept means a geometric figure made in the earth's soil, the length of which is at least four meters.
The Nazca geoglyphs are grooves made of a mixture of sand and pebbles dug into the soil. They are not deep (15-30 cm), but long (up to 10 km), having different widths (from 150 to 200 m). Geoglyphs, or, as they are also called, the Nazca lines, are made in a very bizarre form. Here you can see the outlines of birds, spiders and animals, as well as geometric shapes. In total, there are about 13 thousand such lines on the plateau.
What is this? Secrets of history? Mysteries of the past? There is no single answer to these questions. Some scientists believe that the Nazca drawings are applied to the earth's surface by skillful human hands. However, it is still impossible to confirm this assumption. There is another, rather stable opinion, according to which the stripes and lines were applied not by people, but by representatives of an alien mind. This is the greatest secret of the Nazca desert, over which dozens of scientists are struggling. However, despite this, the mystery of the Peruvian plateau remains unsolved for the modern world.
Discovery history
The Nazca Desert (Peru) is famous huge paintings located on the plateau. These drawings, created by unknown artists, belong to greatest achievements world culture and are an undoubted monument of art throughout our planet.
For the first time ground giant paintings were noticed by pilots in 1927. But the geoglyphs of Nazca became known to the scientific community only twenty years later. It was then that the American historian Paul Kosok published a whole series of photographs of amazing and mysterious drawings that were taken from the air.
Creation technology
Nazca drawings were created by removing debris, brown stones and volcanic pebbles, covered with a thin coating of black, from a light subsoil, consisting of a mixture of calcite, clay and sand. That is why the contours of giant figures are clearly visible from a helicopter or plane.
From the air, all lines against the background of the soil look lighter, although from the ground or from low mountains such patterns merge with the ground, and it is impossible to distinguish them.
Lines and geometric shapes
All images that can be observed in the Nazca desert have different shape. Some of them are stripes or lines, the width of which is in the range from fifteen centimeters to ten or more meters. Such deepenings of the soil are quite long. They can stretch from one to three or even more kilometers. The stripes can also expand smoothly along their length.
Some Nazca lines are elongated or truncated triangles. This is the most common view on the plateau. Moreover, their sizes are very diverse and range from one to three kilometers. Such triangles are often called trapezoids. Some Nazca drawings are large squares that have a rectangular or irregular shape.
You can also see such quadrangles familiar to us from geometry as trapezoids (with two parallel sides) on the plateau. There are about seven hundred such creations with clear forms in the desert.
Many lines and platforms have some deepening of the arcuate profile up to thirty or more centimeters. Moreover, all these grooves have clear boundaries, resembling a curb.
Feature of the Nazca lines
Geoglyphs peruvian desert are well known for their straightforwardness. The imagination of travelers is literally amazed by the lines stretching for many kilometers along the plateau, easily overcoming all the features of the relief. In addition, the Nazca figures have peculiar centers, located, as a rule, on hills. At these points converge and diverge different kinds lines. Often, recesses in the ground are connected to each other, while combining in various combinations. It happens that shapes and lines overlap each other.
The location of the trapezoids is also interesting. Their bases, as a rule, are turned towards the river valleys and are located below the narrow part.
It is also surprising that:
- the edges of all lines have the highest accuracy, the spread of which is within only five centimeters over a length of several kilometers;
- the visibility of the contours is preserved even when the figures are superimposed on each other;
- there is a strict limitation of figures in width with significant lengths of the strips;
- the visibility of the stripes is maintained even with changes in the characteristics of the soil;
- there is a similarity of the configuration and arrangement of ray-shaped figures with optical schemes;
- the geometry of the figures is preserved even with complex terrain;
- there are lines that are astronomical in nature, indicating the cardinal points or the days of the equinoxes.
Various drawings
A kind of decoration of large-scale areas of the Nazca plateau are zigzags and whip-shaped figures. Among 13,000 lines, 800 platforms and hundreds of different spirals in the amazing and mysterious Peruvian desert, you can see semantic drawings. These are three dozen figures of animals and birds, including:
- a lizard 200 meters long, crossed by a ribbon of an American highway, the builders of which did not notice the drawing;
- a bird with a snake neck, stretching for 300 m;
- hundred meter condor;
- eighty meter spider.
In addition to these images, you can see fish and birds, a monkey and a flower, something similar to a tree, as well as a thirty-meter figure of a man, made not at all on a plateau, but as if carved on one of the steep slopes of a mountain.
From the ground, all these drawings are nothing but separate strokes and stripes. You can admire the giant images only by rising into the air. These greatest secrets history, the mysteries of the past have not yet been clarified by scientists. How did an ancient civilization that does not have aircraft manage to create such complex drawings, and what are their purposes?
Features of Nazca drawings
Contour images of birds and animals have different sizes ranging from 45 to 300 m. Width contour line drawings - from 15 cm to 3 m. All semantic images that can be seen on the Nazca plateau are concentrated along its edge, located above the valley of the Ingenio River.
Among the features of these drawings are:
- execution of one continuous, nowhere intersecting and non-closing line;
- the beginning and end of the deepening of the soil are located on the site;
- the "output" and "input" of the circuits are two parallel lines;
- there is an ideal conjugation between curved drawings and straight lines, which, as established by scientists, are made according to the strict laws of mathematics, which explains their harmony and beauty;
- mechanical execution (except for the image of a monkey), which deprives the figures of animals of any emotional coloring;
- the presence of asymmetry, which is explained by the imperfection of the work on enlarging the sketches;
- the presence of secant lines parallel to one of the contour segments, which is explained by the complex execution of the internal space of the figure.
Assumptions and versions
Who is the author of the amazing creations located in the Nazca desert? So far, scientists can only build their own versions and put forward various hypotheses. So, there are many supporters of the assumption of the extraterrestrial origin of geoglyphs. They suggest that the broad lines served to extraterrestrial civilization runways. However, such a hypothesis has many opponents who put forward their very weighty argument - the nature of the drawings. Yes, they are impressive and far from terrestrial in size, but their plot suggests that they were made by people, and not at all by aliens.
However, even in this case, many unresolved mysteries remain. How did unknown artists manage to create such gigantic images that are visible only from the air? Why did they do it? What techniques were used to keep the proportions of the giant models?
Hypotheses about the origin of drawings on the Nazca plateau are varied, and some of them are simply fantastic. However, among the existing versions there are those that deserve special attention.
So, according to some scientists, the entire system of Nazca lines is a huge calendar. One of the first to put forward this assumption was Paul Kosok. This American scientist was the first to discover the mysterious conglomeration of various shapes and lines. His whole life after that was devoted to unraveling the mystery of the Peruvian desert. Once Kosok noticed that the setting sun had set directly at the intersection of the horizon with one of the straight lines. He also discovered a band indicating a winter opposition. There is also Kosok's assumption that certain drawings correspond to certain cosmic bodies. This hypothesis has existed for a long time. Moreover, it was supported by many famous scientists from all over the world. However, later it was proved that the percentage of coincidence of the Nazca drawings with certain planets is extremely small in order to consider this system as a calendar.
There is another very plausible version. According to her, the Nazca lines indicate the location of an extensive system of underground water channels. This hypothesis can be confirmed by the fact that the location of ancient wells coincides with the strips dug in the ground. But it is possible that this is just a coincidence.
Or maybe the purpose of the Nazca lines is of a cult nature? Excavations of archaeologists have found ancient human burials and altars in places where drawings were made. However, all ritual objects have always been built in such a way that they can evoke certain emotions and influence a person. The drawings, viewed only from a height, do not evoke any feelings in those who are on the ground.
Be that as it may, the one who created these amazing figures had the ability to somehow move through the air and was remarkably oriented in space. Maybe ancient people knew how to build Balloons and fly them?
All existing hypotheses have not yet brought humanity closer to unraveling the mystery of the Nazca desert. Maybe soon scientists will answer the question about the origin of amazing lines? Or maybe this mystery will remain unsolved ...
