The Nazca Lines
The Nazca lines are one of the great archaeological riddles of modern times. These gigantic drawings cover 400 square miles of the Nazca desert, a high, arid plateau in southern Peru. The area is unusual in its ability to preserve these drawings. With only minutes of rainfall each year, the climate is one of the driest in the world. The surface of the plateau is exceptionally stony and flat which minimizes the effect of ground-level winds. As a result, there is minimal erosion due to either rain or wind and virtually no sand or dust to blanket the plain. Any lines scratched on the ground tend to become permanent features of the surface.
Age of Nazca Lines
Scientists believe the lines were etched on the ground by the Nazca people sometime between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D. In addition to geometric shapes and figures, the Nazca lines depict living creatures, imaginary beings, and stylized plants. The lines fall into two categories: geoglyphs and biomorphs. Geoglyphs are geometric in shape and include trapezoids, circles, triangles, spirals, and straight lines. Their size is enormous: one straight line was drawn nine miles across the plateau. The biomorphs encompass some 70 plant and animal figures such as a monkey, hummingbird, lizard, pelican, killer whale, and a condor with a wingspan of 130 feet. All of the biomorphs are located together in one region of the plain. Some archaeologists think the biomorphs may have been drawn as much as 500 years before the geoglyphs.
Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of the Nazca lines is that the various shapes, pictures and figures are clearly visible only from the air. The initial reports of their existence came in the 1920s when aircraft began flying across the Peruvian desert and passengers reported seeing something resembling primitive landing strips on the ground.
The surface colors of the desert plateau provided an enormous writing pad for the Nazca to create their drawings. The contrasting colors on the ground heighten the visibility of the figures from the air. The lines were drawn not by adding gravel or dirt but, instead, by removing part of the ground’s surface. The Nazca desert is covered with gravel primarily consisting of rust-colored pebbles. When the Nazca removed these pebbles, the lighter-colored soil underneath was exposed. Exposing the whiter earth caused lines to appear on the desert’s surface and the various shapes and figures to take form.
Purpose of Nazca Lines
Since their discovery, both scholarly and fantastic explanations have been advanced to explain the purpose of the Nazca lines. There is no consensus among archeologists as to why the Nazca sketched the lines. Early theories proposed they were a giant observatory, an astronomical chart or celestial calendar, created to show the direction of rising stars and important planetary happenings.
Currently, the most accepted theory is that the lines have a religious significance and, perhaps, were drawn to be seen by sky gods. The lines may have been messages to the gods, paths leading from one shrine to another, or enclosures for religious rituals. Given the arid landscape, another theory with potential is that the drawings were related to water. Research suggests some of the lines may be connected to ancient aqueducts, raising the possibility they were a map of underground water sources.
Since scientists have no definitive explanation, other theories have been put forth. Author Erick von Daniken contributed one of the most controversial: that the lines were runways for an ancient airfield where alien space craft landed.
Whatever their purpose, the Nazca lines are deteriorating due to tourist traffic as well as commercial endeavors. For now, preservation is losing out to economic necessity.
