Nazca rock paintings. Nazca Lines: Plateau with Mysterious Tattoos

The Nazca Lines still cause a lot of controversy regarding who created them and when they appeared. Strange designs, clearly visible from a bird's eye view, resemble geometric shapes, even stripes, and even representatives of fauna. The dimensions of the geoglyphs are so large that it is not possible to understand how these images were drawn.

Nazca Lines: history of discovery

Strange geoglyphs - inscriptions on the surface of the earth, were first discovered in 1939 on the Nazca plateau in Peru. American Paul Kosok, flying over the plateau, noticed strange drawings, resembling birds and animals of enormous size. The images were intersected by lines and geometric shapes, but they stood out so clearly that it was impossible to doubt what they saw.

Later in 1941, Maria Reiche began researching strange marks on the sand surface. However, take a photo unusual place succeeded only in 1947. Maria Reiche devoted more than half a century to deciphering the strange symbols, but a final conclusion was never provided.

Today, the desert is considered a protected area, and the right to explore it has been transferred to the Peruvian Institute of Culture. Due to the fact that studying such a vast location requires huge investments, further scientific works According to the deciphering of the Nazca lines, they are still suspended.

Description of Nazca drawings

When viewed from the air, the lines on the plain are clearly visible, but walking through the desert, it is unlikely that you will be able to understand that there is anything depicted on the ground. For this reason, they were not discovered until aviation became more developed. Small slides on the plateau distort the pictures, which were made by trenches dug across the entire surface. The width of the furrows reaches 135 cm, and their depth is from 40 to 50 cm, while the soil is identical everywhere. It is due to the impressive size of the lines that they are visible from a height, although they are hardly noticeable while walking.

Among the illustrations are clearly visible:

birds and animals;
geometric figures;
chaotic lines.

The sizes of the printed images are quite large. Thus, the condor stretches over a distance of almost 120 m, and the lizard reaches 188 m in length. There is even a drawing reminiscent of an astronaut, the height of which is 30 m. The manner of drawing geoglyphs is identical, and the lines are striking in their evenness, because even with modern technology it seems impossible to make such a trench.

Hypotheses about the nature of the appearance of lines

Scientists from different countries tried to find out where the lines pointed and who laid them. There was a theory that such images were painted by the Incas, but research has proven that they were created much earlier than the existence of the people. The approximate period to which the appearance of the Nazca lines dates back to the 2nd century BC. e. It was at this time that the Nazca tribe lived on the plateau. In a village belonging to the people, sketches were found reminiscent of drawings made in the desert, which once again confirms the scientists’ guesses.

Maria Reiche deciphered some symbols, which allowed her to hypothesize that the drawings reflect a map of the starry sky, and therefore were used for astronomical or astrological purposes. True, this theory was subsequently refuted, since only a quarter of the images matched known astronomical bodies, which seems insufficient for an accurate conclusion.

IN currently It is still not known why the Nazca lines were drawn and how a people who did not have writing skills managed to reproduce such marks on an area of 350 square meters. km.

Lines and images on the Nazca plateau were found in 1920. American scientist P. Kosok, flying over desert, noticed mysterious drawings from the cockpit of the plane. Today, more than 100 “painted” gigantic in size have been discovered on the plateau. geometric shapes, perfectly straight lines, plants and animals.

The lines most interested scientists who studied the plateau. They were perfectly smooth, located absolutely chaotically from each other and “did not pay attention” to the landscape of the area - they passed through valleys and hills, leaving an invariably even trail behind them.

Nazca Plateau is located near the towns of Palpa and Nazca, 60 km long. This area has not been irrigated by rain for years. Perhaps this is an ideal area for arranging burials, since it can ensure the incorruptibility of the remains. When P. Kusok studied the lines and drawings from the ground, he noted that they were made using incredibly simple technology. To leave the design, it was only necessary to move the turf and stones, placing them in a row. Considering that the drawings were huge, they would have taken years to complete. But in such an area they could retain their original appearance for thousands of years.

The subjects of images are divided into 2 groups: figures and lines. There are two types of lines: they are either paired, like tram rails, or they form certain figures. After studying the plateau, scientists came to the conclusion that the images were first drawn, and then lines were drawn on top of them. The accuracy of the lines is surprising - they are so straight that they could be used instead of a level. This is surprising, and none of the scientists could explain how, without modern aviation equipment and technology, it was possible to maintain the effect of straight lines over such vast distances.

As soon as these drawings were discovered on the Nazca plateau, the question immediately arose about their purpose and the authorship of the images. Many different theories have been put forward - from alien civilizations to systems for controlling the Earth's population. More and more new researchers are trying to unravel the mystery of the plateau, and almost everyone comes up with their own version of the purpose of the lines. Today, none of the theories has an advantage over others, since in the solution secrets of the Nazca plateau humanity is not one step closer. Modern scientists also have different views on the age of these drawings: some researchers believe that the lines were drawn in 200 BC, others - 1700 BC.

Theories of the purpose of Nazca paintings

One of the first to appear was the astronomical theory. It was suggested by the discoverer of the plateau - P. Kusok. During sunset, he noticed that it was setting exactly at the intersection of one of the lines on the horizon. Further observations convinced the scientist that his guess was correct: he calculated the line of the winter solstice on the plateau. Piece noted that the lines point in the direction of certain space objects (constellations and stars) on important days for astronomy (full moons, etc.).

To confirm the theory of P. Kusok, it was necessary to identify all the images on the Nazca plateau with celestial bodies. Such a task required complete dedication, enormous effort and time from researchers. Therefore, P. Kusok enlisted the help of a familiar Spanish translator, who accompanied him on trips around South America. Her name was Maria Reiche. Together they drew up a map and topological plans of the plateau - this took more than 7 years of joint work.

Researchers first received government support only in 1947, when officials from the Ministry of Aviation Peru A service helicopter was allocated for the needs of scientists. From that moment on, Maria was able to take photographs of the plateau from a flying height.

The first time Maria flew, tied herself with ropes, hanging from the side, took pictures, and held the camera in her hands the entire flight. After the first flights, she turned to an engineer she knew, and he designed something like a suspension for the board. In 1956, all the photographs were collected, and on their basis a detailed diagram was drawn up drawings on the Nazca plateau.

In ancient times, the Sun and Moon served as a calendar for people. Their position on the horizon determined the arrival of spring and autumn, the amount of rain, and the timing of the harvesting work. Scientists believe that these lines are a calendar that uses the Moon and the Sun instead of hands like a clock. When studying the drawings on the plateau, scientists were surprised to find that the Nazca drawings repeated the star map and displayed entire constellations on a large scale. But the most important question relatively Nazca Lines remained unanswered until today: who painted these images, and how? After all, among ancient people, if you believe official history, it was not possible to fly over the desert and correct the work of the builders.

The theory of paleocontact and the Nazca plateau

Another most common version is the paleocontact or alien theory. This is what most researchers and scientists around the world support. For the first time, the theory that planet Earth was previously visited by alien civilizations was first put forward by Erich von Däniken. In his work, Däniken indicated that he was confident that these images were in fact runways for interplanetary travel. He claims that drawings of such sizes were intended only for those who could see them in flight, that is, using aircraft. Däniken suggested that this airport was built for the "Gods" who are spoken of in all the local legends.

One is interesting ancient legend, which is passed on from generation to generation by the entire local population. It talks about how a “golden ship” from distant galaxies arrived on our planet. The crew of the ship was controlled by the woman Oryana, who later became the mother human race. When she gave birth to 70 children to earthly people, the ship left Earth and all the aliens went to their home galaxy.

Documentary films by Erich von Däniken and can be viewed on our website.

The local legend describes in detail how the “youths of the sun” easily traveled through space on their “golden ships”. Another interesting fact is that the result of an analysis of muscle tissue of Inca mummies showed that the composition of the blood of ancient remains and modern local residents are radically different from each other. The mummies were found to have a blood type of a surprisingly rare combination. This blood type was encountered by scientists only 2 or 3 times during the entire research period.

Developing the study, scientists noticed that near the main widest lines there were smaller ones that were not related to the main one. These lines did not continue the main drawing in any way and were connected exactly near the end of the contour. They formed a mega-system, which is similar to a kind of electrical circuit in which everything is done with one wire - the patterns do not intersect (there is no short circuit) and are not interrupted (as if the circuit were broken).

The Nazca Desert is located in the south of Peru, 450 kilometers from Lima. This is the region inhabited by the pre-Incan Nazca civilization (1st-6th centuries AD).

The Nazca people waged war and traded, but their main activities were fishing and farming. In addition to this, the Nazca were wonderful artists and architects - we can judge this from the found ceramic products of this culture and the ruins of ancient cities. Many evidences of the high level of development of this civilization have been preserved, the main of which, undoubtedly, are the Nazca Lines - huge geoglyphs in the desert, visible only from a bird's eye view.

What to see

Nazca Lines

Giant desert paintings depicting animals and various objects - the Nazca Lines - were discovered in 1926. Researchers suggest that the geoglyphs were created in 300-800 by the Nazca civilization. They were called “the largest calendar in the world”, “the most gigantic book about astronomy” - their exact purpose remains unknown.

The area where the Nazca Lines are located covers 500 km2 and is located in the desert, where it rains only half an hour a year. It is this fact that has allowed geoglyphs to survive to this day.

These drawings were first described in 1548, but for many years no one paid serious attention to them. Perhaps this was due to the fact that you can only get a good look at them from a height, and they began to fly airplanes over the desert much later. In the early 1940s, during the construction of the Pan-American Highway, an American professor invited to study coastal hydrology regularly flew small planes over the valleys. It was he who drew attention to the strange lines folding into huge drawings. The sight that unfolded shocked and amazed him. Professor Kosok and other scientists have devoted many years to studying these lines. They were able to discover a connection between the location of the lines and the sun on the days of the summer and winter solstices, as well as indications of the moon, planets and bright constellations. It seemed that the Nazca civilization had built a giant observatory here.

The technique for creating geoglyphs was very simple: the top darkened layer was cut off from the soil and folded here, along the resulting light strip, creating a roller of a darker color framing the lines. Over time, the color of the lines has darkened and become less contrasting, but we can still see the drawings left by the Nazca civilization.

How to watch
Nazca has several companies that fly sightseeing flights in small planes over the desert. This is because due to the number of people wishing to inspect the Line of seats on the desired date in last moment it may not turn out to be.

An alternative way to see the lines is to go up to the observation deck on the Panamericana Highway (El Mirador). The cost of lifting is 2 sols (20 rubles), but you will only be able to see 2 drawings.

Palpa Lines

Unlike the Nazca drawings, the Palpa Lines consist more of images of a person and geometric designs. According to archaeological research, the Palpa Lines belong to more early period than the Nazca Lines. Flying along the Palpa Lines you can see the image of a Pelican, an image of a woman, a man and a boy, whom archaeologists nicknamed “The Family”. One of the Palpa Lines is an image of a Hummingbird - similar to one of the Nazca Lines geoglyphs. The Other Line is read by archaeologists as an image of a Dog near the Square. Near the city of Palpa you can see famous image Sundial and Tumi - a ritual knife.

Ruins of Cahuachi

The most important and powerful city of the Nazca civilization was Cahuachi - a city in the Nazca Valley, 24 km from modern city Nazca. Excavations are still underway here. Today what remains of the city are:

The Central Pyramid is 28 meters high and 100 meters wide, consisting of 7 steps. Religious ceremonies were held here.
Step Temple 5 meters high and 25 meters wide
40 buildings made of adobe (unbaked brick)

Near the city there was a necropolis, in which scientists found untouched burials with various objects that were customary to be placed in graves (dishes, fabrics, jewelry, etc.). All finds can be seen in Archaeological Museum Antonini (Museo Arqueológico Antonini) in Nazca.

Necropolis of Chauchilla (El cementerio de Chauchilla)

The Necropolis of Chauchilla is located 30 km from the city of Nazca. This is the only place in Peru where you can see mummies ancient civilization directly in the graves where they were found. This cemetery was used from the 3rd to 9th centuries AD, but the main burials date back to 600-700 years. The mummies were well preserved thanks to the arid desert climate, as well as the embalming technology used by the Nazcas: the bodies of deceased people were wrapped in cotton cloth, painted with paints and soaked in resins. It was the resins that helped avoid the decomposing effects of bacteria.
The necropolis was discovered in 1920, but is officially recognized archaeological site and was taken under protection only in 1997. Before that, he suffered for many years from looters who stole a significant part of the Nazca treasures.

2-hour guided tour - 30 Soles

Entrance ticket to the Necropolis - 5 Soleils

San Fernando Nature Reserve (Bahía de San Fernando)

About 80 km from Nazca there is a reserve very similar to Paracas. Here you can also see penguins, sea lions, dolphins, different birds. And in addition, Andean foxes, guanacos and condors are found in San Fernando.

It is difficult to get here and there are almost no tourists here.In San Fernando you can spend time alone with nature and the Pacific Ocean!

Cantayoc Aqueducts

The Nazcas were a very advanced civilization. In desert conditions, where the river is filled with water only for 40 days a year, Nazca farmers needed a system that would allow them to have water throughout the year. They solved this problem by creating a magnificent aqueduct system. One of them is the Cantayoc Aqueducts, located less than 5 km from the city of Nazca and are a chain of spiral wells.

When to go

Nazca is located in the desert, where it is almost always dry and sunny. December to March is the hottest time in this region, with average daily temperatures hovering around 27C. June to September are the coldest months of the year, with daytime temperatures as low as 18C.

How to get to Nazca

Nazca is located 450 kilometers south of Lima. You can get here by car along the Panamericana Highway, or by one of the many buses that go in this direction. The bus trip will take 7 hours.

“Geo” translated from Greek, as we know, means “earth”. And a “glyph” is a “concave line.” The Nazca geoglyphs are huge, beautiful and mysterious. They are surrounded by a seemingly chaotic network of lines and contours. Scientists have no doubt that these images and lines appeared in the pre-Columbian era. Their clear time barrier has also been determined - until the 12th century, when the Incas, who had a completely different culture, entered the territory of present-day Peru. But regarding the framework of the beginning and end of the period in which the main Nazca geoglyphs were created, there are different points of view. Archaeologists, knowing that on fragments of ceramics of the Nazca people the same geometric elements are found as on earth, and the heyday of this civilization dates back to the 100s. BC e. to the 700s n. e., insist on these dates. To this their opponents object that the images were not necessarily created during this entire period. Objections are based on analysis of manganese and iron oxides at the edges of the lines. These oxides in Nazca, in conditions of almost complete anhydrity, form the so-called desert tan of sandy soil, a kind of crust that has formed over thousands of years. Beneath it is sandstone. That is why the Nazca lines are so clearly visible: the dark crust and light sandstone contrast sharply and clearly with each other. And they are nothing more than witnesses of time. According to this concept, the Nazca geoglyphs are attributed by geologists mainly to the 1st century. n. e., and the latest - to the 6th century. n. e. However, neither a purely archaeological nor a purely geological approach can be considered exhaustively reliable; there are still too many unanswered questions in each version.
The history of the discovery of Nazca geoglyphs began only in the 20th century, because they can be seen in their entirety only from a bird's eye view. Until airplanes appeared here, Nazca remained “terra incognita” for the world. Although the shepherds, and then the travelers, of course, saw and understood that the lines on the ground were clearly of man-made origin: the trenches were smooth, lined with pebbles along the edges. In 1553, Ciesade Leon (1518/1520-1554), a Spanish priest, geographer and historian, reported about them this way: “Through all these valleys and those that have already been passed, along the entire length there is a beautiful, great Inca road , and here and there among the sands you can see signs to guess the path laid out.” Archaeologists Alfred Krebe and Toribio Mejia Xesspe in 1927 suggested that this was a system of irrigation structures; Xesspe, however, later changed his mind, agreeing with Leon. Even then it was noticed that the furrow lines were laid strictly in a straight line; they did not bypass any elevations or dry river beds. But the scale of the drawings itself remained unknown. Until the American archaeologist Paul Kosok (1896-1959) flew over them on an airplane in 1939. And when, in 1941, the German Maria Reiche (1902-1998), a mathematician by profession, began to collaborate with him, he opened up and new meaning, and what kind. She believed, and Kosok agreed with her, that all these contours and lines are nothing more than an astronomical calendar: straight and spiral figures symbolize the constellations, and symbolic animal figures symbolize the positions of the planets. The movement of planets and constellations in the sky could be associated with calculations of the rainy season. And also have sacred meaning- a message to the heavenly rulers of the forces of nature with a request to send life-giving moisture or, who knows, not only about that. About something purely spiritual, judging by the truly artistic inspiration with which the images were created. If we remember that their creators could not fly into the air on anything, and the contours are drawn in continuous lines, then one cannot help but bow our heads respectfully before the power of their imagination and the accuracy of the execution of their plans.
In 1994, the geoglyphs of the Nazca Desert were included in the List World Heritage UNESCO.
The Nazca Plateau is a sandy, arid plain in the southern part of Peru, in the province of the same name in the Ica region, which lies approximately in the center of the country's Pacific coast and 40 km from the ocean, 380-440 km southeast of the country's capital city. In this region they retreat from the coast, and the topography here is predominantly flat and level, with minor elevations. The plateau extends between the small cities of Palpa in the north and Nazca in the south, almost 60 km from north to south and has a width of 5 to 7 km from west to east. The Andes spurs approach it from the east. The Pan-American Highway passes through the Pampa de Nazca, as the plateau is called in Peru.
Hypotheses about the origin and purpose of the Nazca geoglyphs, from mathematical to ufological, have long since acquired the character of an avalanche of disputes, in which no one has yet been able to put a weighty and irrefutable point.
But there are still counterpoints in this flow.
Geological and hydrological studies have established that 62 “radial centers” are located on elevations from which river beds (mostly dry today) are visible. Many lines pass exactly over faults and, therefore, aquifers, especially in the east of the pampa, closer to the Andes. That is, in the complex it could well be a map of the distribution of groundwater.
Maria Reiche, who spent more than 40 years studying the Nazca geoglyphs, also found small copies of them, sketches. And therefore, she concludes, ancient artists knew how to scale an image, that is, they understood the laws of mathematics and physics (optics), albeit not in theory, but as they manifest themselves in nature. These guesses by Reiche are shared by the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Orefici (b. 1946), today the world's most authoritative expert on Nazca, as well as the adjacent pyramidal structures of the city of Cahuachi. And he doesn’t just separate them, he checks them using computer programs. He also has his own impressive hypothesis. Studying Cahuachi since 1982, he came to the conclusion that the Nazca civilization was generally much more highly developed than commonly thought, and put forward a hypothesis about its existence until approximately the middle of the 1st century. n. e. on the plateau big city called Suashi. He modeled this city in 3D graphics, based on multispectral analysis of the soil and archaeological finds, in particular in the Nazca necropolises. All the people buried there were without weapons, which means they lived peacefully. And when a person lives in the world, he develops his intellect and talents. The Nazcas did not know writing, but they designed their pyramids perfectly, erected them up to 20 m high, they even had a water supply system with multi-level wells, like karizs in Central Asia, about which we write in the same issue. (An amazing coincidence - evidence that human intelligence develops according to general laws.) On the Orefici monitor, a city built up with temples and pyramids appeared, which went underground as a result of two natural Disasters immediately - earthquakes and floods: in that era Nazca was not as dry as it is now. Orefici's calculations showed that only 20% of geoglyphs could be related to observations of starry sky, and that is hypothetical. And mistakes among the pyramid builders, although rare, did occur; after all, it is human nature to make mistakes. But aliens from other planets, who, according to some versions, are the true authors of geoglyphs, would hardly be mistaken; their level of knowledge, by definition, should have been much higher.
And yet, no scientific conclusions can compare in popularity among the general public with the flight of fancy of supporters of the theory of participation here extraterrestrial civilizations. Based on the book of the Swiss ufologist Erich Däniken (b. 1935) “Chariots of the Gods,” in 1970 Harald Reinl made the film “Memories of the Future,” which is documentary in form, but is distinguished by an extremely arbitrary interpretation of the filmed material and conjectures arising from it. This film is widely known in the world. He made millions of people seriously believe that the Nazca geoglyphs are runways for aliens from other planets and were quite likely created by them (as well as Egyptian pyramids, and statues of Easter Island, and other famous grandiose and mysterious structures on the planet). Many times these conclusions have been disputed by serious and responsible scientists, but this film and other ufological works are still taken on faith.
One thing is certain: the Nazca Desert will open up many more unexpected and extremely interesting things for all of us.

general information

Images from the Nazca Plateau in Peru.
Administrative affiliation: Ica region, Nazca province.
Official language in Peru: Spanish.
Currency of Peru: new salt.

The US dollar is also the most widely used currency.
The largest river of the Nazca plateau: El Ingenio (drying).

Nearest airport: Jorge Chavez (international) in the capital of Peru, Lima.

Numbers

Area of the Nazca Plateau: about 500 km 2.

Population of the Nazca Plateau: about 20,000 people.

Population density: 40 people/km 2 .
Width of trench lines- up to 135 cm, depth - up to 50 cm, on average - 35 cm.

Climate and weather

Subtropical dry, semi-desert.

Average annual temperature: +22°С.

Average annual precipitation: about 180 mm.

Economy

Tourism.
Transport services(Pan American Highway).

Attractions

■ More than 30 images, the most famous of which are “Astronaut” (a person in clothes similar to a spacesuit) - 30 m long, “Hummingbird” - 50 m, “Spider” - 46 m, “Monkey” - 50 m high and more than 100 m wide , “Condor” - 120 m, “Lizard” - 188 m, “Heron” - 285 m. Other images - flowers, trees, real and fantastic animals.
■ Straight, long and short lines (about 13 thousand, long ones stretch for a distance of several kilometers).
■ About 780 geometrically correct figures- triangles, spirals, trapezoids, located both separately and in various combinations with other figures and lines (zigzags, “ray centers”).
■ Research Center named after. Maria Reiche(her former house).
■ Archaeological Museum of Antonini(finds by J. Orefici).
■ Nearby: geoglyphs of the Palpa plateau, ruins of Cahuachi - Great Temple and other buildings (II century BC - VIII century AD), Cantajok aqueducts - spiral wells (IV-VII centuries AD), necropolis Chauchilla, open graves, mummies (presumably III-IX centuries).

Curious facts

■ In 2011, Japanese scientists from Yamagata University announced that they had discovered previously unnoticed images on the Nazca plateau, presumably created in the period from 400 AD. BC e. to 200 BC e. These are two figures whose “faces” are clearly visible, that is, the points of the eyes and mouth. The left one measures 13x7 m, the right - 9x8.5 m. The head of the right figure is separated from the body. Yamagata University cultural anthropology professor Masato Sakai has suggested that the scene depicts a ritual execution.
■ The image of the “Monkey” reveals a harmonious mathematical combination. Two long axes drawn near it form an oblique cross, similar to an X. The axis of symmetry drawn through the intersection point passes exactly between the monkey’s legs. The angle between the oblique lines is 36°. And if the monkey’s figure is repeated on exactly the same scale relative to point X, then we get 10 monkeys, forming a closed circle without any stretch. Moreover, the center of the spiral of the tail of each monkey coincides with the center of the head of its next double.
■ Early in the morning, Maria Reiche, the first explorer of geoglyphs, often found various fruits and nuts in baskets on the ground near the tent or adobe hut where she lived. The Indians brought them at night. They treated her with irony mixed with respect and sympathy, and nicknamed Maria “The Crazy Gringa.”
■ Nazca geoglyphs have analogues. The most famous of them are located nearby - on the Peruvian plateau of Palpa. They are not that large, but there are more of them. They are located mainly on the flat tops of hills, and these peaks give the impression of being cut horizontally on purpose, while the nearby hills have a natural cone shape. Humanoid figures are often found on the hillsides of Palpa. In Peru, near the city of Pisco, there is a single geoglyph “Andean candelabra”. A landmark of the Atacama Desert in Chile is the “Giant”, an image of a man (86 m). There are several geoglyphs similar to Peruvian ones near the city of Blythe in California (USA). Terrestrial imagery has also been found in Ohio; in England (“White Horse”, “Giant”); on the Ustyurt plateau in Kazakhstan; on Southern Urals(“Elk of Zyuratkul”); in Africa (south of Lake Victoria and Ethiopia); in Australia (“Murry Man”, the largest geoglyph on Earth, 4.2 km long).
■ If we continue the clearest straight lines of Nazca, it turns out, as some researchers prone to the so-called paranormal versions believe, that they point to the capital Ancient Egypt Thebes, ancient city in Mexico, the period of greatest prosperity of which falls on 250-600. n. e. Both there and there, as you know, there are pyramids. The third line is directed to the pyramidal-shaped burial mounds... in China, in the province of Shaanxi, and another one is directed to the pyramid-like natural mountainous formations of the flagrons in Europe, in Bosnia. With equal success, you can find any other objects on imaginary lines, which have much in common.

The Nazca Desert is located in the south of Peru, 450 kilometers from Lima. This is the region inhabited by the pre-Incan Nazca civilization (1st-6th centuries AD).

The Nazca people waged war and traded, but their main activities were fishing and farming. In addition, the Nazcas were excellent artists and architects - we can judge this from the found ceramic products of this culture and the ruins of ancient cities. Many evidences of the high level of development of this civilization have been preserved, the main of which, undoubtedly, are the Nazca Lines - huge geoglyphs in the desert, visible only from a bird's eye view.

What to see

Nazca Lines

The area where the Nazca Lines are located covers 500 km2 and is located in the desert, where it rains only half an hour a year. It is this fact that has allowed geoglyphs to survive to this day.

These drawings were first described in 1548, but for many years no one paid serious attention to them. Perhaps this was due to the fact that you can only get a good look at them from a height, and they began to fly airplanes over the desert much later. In the early 1940s, during the construction of the Pan-American Highway, an American professor invited to study coastal hydrology regularly flew small planes over the valleys. It was he who drew attention to the strange lines forming huge drawings. The sight that unfolded shocked and amazed him. Professor Kosok and other scientists have devoted many years to studying these lines. They were able to discover a connection between the location of the lines and the sun on the days of the summer and winter solstices, as well as indications of the moon, planets and bright constellations. It seemed that the Nazca civilization had built a giant observatory here.

How to watch
Nazca has several companies that fly sightseeing flights in small planes over the desert. This is because due to the number of people wishing to inspect the Line, there may not be places available for the desired date at the last moment.

Palpa Lines

Unlike the Nazca drawings, the Palpa Lines consist more of human images and geometric designs. According to archaeological research, the Palpa Lines date back to an earlier period than the Nazca Lines. Flying along the Palpa Lines you can see the image of a Pelican, an image of a woman, a man and a boy, whom archaeologists nicknamed “The Family”. One of the Palpa Lines is an image of a Hummingbird - similar to one of the Nazca Lines geoglyphs. The Other Line is read by archaeologists as an image of a Dog near the Square. Near the city of Palpa you can see the famous image of the Sundial and Tumi - a ritual knife.

Ruins of Cahuachi

The most important and powerful city of the Nazca civilization was Cahuachi, a city in the Nazca Valley, 24 km from the modern city of Nazca. Excavations are still underway here. Today what remains of the city are:

The Central Pyramid is 28 meters high and 100 meters wide, consisting of 7 steps. Religious ceremonies were held here.
Step Temple 5 meters high and 25 meters wide
40 buildings made of adobe (unbaked brick)

Near the city there was a necropolis, in which scientists found untouched burials with various objects that were customary to be placed in graves (dishes, fabrics, jewelry, etc.). All finds can be seen in the Antonini Archaeological Museum (Museo Arqueológico Antonini) in Nazca.

Necropolis of Chauchilla (El cementerio de Chauchilla)

The Necropolis of Chauchilla is located 30 km from the city of Nazca. This is the only place in Peru where you can see the mummies of an ancient civilization directly in the graves where they were found. This cemetery was used from the 3rd to 9th centuries AD, but the main burials date back to 600-700 years. The mummies were well preserved thanks to the arid desert climate, as well as the embalming technology used by the Nazcas: the bodies of deceased people were wrapped in cotton cloth, painted with paints and soaked in resins. It was the resins that helped avoid the decomposing effects of bacteria.
The necropolis was discovered in 1920, but was officially recognized as an archaeological site and taken under protection only in 1997. Before that, he suffered for many years from looters who stole a significant part of the Nazca treasures.

2-hour guided tour - 30 Soles

Entrance ticket to the Necropolis - 5 Soleils

San Fernando Nature Reserve (Bahía de San Fernando)

About 80 km from Nazca there is a reserve very similar to Paracas. Here you can also see penguins, sea lions, dolphins, and various birds. And in addition, Andean foxes, guanacos and condors are found in San Fernando.

It is difficult to get here and there are almost no tourists here.In San Fernando you can spend time alone with nature and the Pacific Ocean!

Cantayoc Aqueducts

When to go

How to get to Nazca

Nazca is located 450 kilometers south of Lima. You can get here by car along the Panamericana Highway, or by one of the many buses that go in this direction. The bus trip will take 7 hours.