Ruins, photos, scientific explorations, theories and more about the lines in the sand at Nazca, Peru.
On a high plateau known as the pampa of San Jose, a tribal group once used the sixty miles long and five miles wide coastal plain to draw long, intricate lines on the desert floor. Pre-dating the Incas, this group disappeared with the Spanish conquest, leaving behind the lines, pottery, gravesites, and more questions than archaeologists and scientists can answer.
Ancient religion? Aliens from outer space? Ancient astronomers? Water sources? What caused the lines at one of Peru's favorite tourist destinations?
"Cahuachi is a major ceremonial center of the Nasca civilization in Peru, occupied from between AD 1-500. The site is located near the Nasca lines, and evidence clearly connects Cahuachi with the construction of the lines."
Photos of the pyramids and structurs of what has so far been found.
Photos taken on a trip to Cahuachi.
A photographic "documentary about the 17 years research by the group of Professor Giuseppe Orefici at the ruins of Cahuachi, Peru."
Aerial photos and ground pictures of the lines and Nazca locations.
This 2 day/1 night tour featurs an overflight of the Nazca lines.
This is Nasca, a unique place due to the mysteries of its marvelous lines and figures, drawn with spectacular perfection, by the gods... by aliens... by giants or by ordinary people? The beauty and magnitude of the lines must be observed from above.
"This ASTER sub-image covers an area of 14 x 18 km, and was acquired on December 22, 2000."
At some time before 1000 BCE, the Nazca Valley was inhabited by a people who developed advanced farming methods that allowed them to build an irrigation system, improve their crops, and expand the area of land they could farm
Was there a plan, a purpose to the enormous sweep of swirls and spirals and geometric shapes that make up the Nazca plain? The enigma of the Nazca lines has been called one of the most baffling in all archaeology, shrouded in myth and mystery.
"Nazca Lines are the most outstanding group of geoglyphs in the world. Etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand about 300 hundred figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes and pictures of animals and birds - and their patterns are only clearly visible from the air."
The Nazca lines are geoglyphs and geometric line clearings in the Peruvian desert. They were made by the Nazca people, who flourished between 200 BCE and 600 CE along rivers and streams that flow from the Andes.
Touring opportunities, in Spanish, English and Portuguese from Masi Travel.
"Nazca offers like destination a unique place in the world, full of mystery and mysticism, wonderful lines of immense figures and lines, of spectacular perfection, works of a very old Peruvian civilization, the lines of Nazca."
Descriptions, history, cultural heritage and more. In Spanish and Quechua.
In general, Nazca culture is considered to consist of three stages; Early, Middle, and Late stages, and also the Classic Nazca (approximately A.D. 250-750).
Photographs taken in Nazca, Peru in 1987
Click on "Un Portfolio" for a gallery of photos.
"Nazca is known primarily for the "lines" or "geoglyphs" in the desert, large depictions of animals and other designs etched into the surface by an ancient culture for reasons that continue to baffle scholars."
"On the pampa, south of the Nasca Lines, archaeologists have now uncovered the lost city of the line-builders, Cahuachi. It was built nearly two thousand years ago and was mysteriously abandoned 500 years later. New discoveries at Cahuachi are at last beginning to give us insight into the Nasca people and to unravel the mystery of the Nasca Lines."
Re-creation of a 440-foot Nazca figure on a Kentucky field shows how the Peruvian drawings were most likey made.
The Nazca Lines, particularly the biomorph geoglyphs depicting plants, animals, human figures, and perhaps most significantly. . . birds and "flowers", that archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni asserts "defy all explanation" are almost certainly an ancient response to the "Eye in the Sky."
Discussion of research, analysis, photos and links to more material about the ancient carved Stones that called “gliptoliths.”
"In the Peruvian desert, about 200 miles south of Lima, there lies a plain between the Inca and Nasca valleys. Across this plain, in an area measuring 37 miles long and 1 mile wide, is an assortment of perfectly straight lines, many running parallel, others intersecting, forming a grand geometric form."
