Nazca geoglyphs

In 1553, Cieza de Leon was the first to report on the Nazca geoglyphs:

“In all of these valleys and in those that have already been passed, the beautiful, great Inca road goes along the entire length, and in some places among the sands there are signs to guess the paved path” ^[2] .

The drawings were seen in 1939, when the American archaeologist Paul Kosok flew over the plateau by plane. A huge contribution to the study of mysterious lines belongs to the German doctor of archeology, Maria Reich . Her work began in 1941. However, she was able to photograph the drawings from the air only in 1947, using the services of military aviation.

Using aerial photographs , the Americans made fairly accurate map diagrams of that part of the Nazca plateau, which depicts well-known animal figures, but detailed maps showing the whole picture of the geoglyphs of this area still do not exist ^[3] .

The image of a hermit thrush (formerly called a hummingbird ) ^[4] has a length of 50 meters, a spider measures 46 meters, a figure conventionally called a “ condor ” extends from its beak to the tail feathers for almost 120 meters, and a lizard has a length of up to 188 meters. On the Nazca plateau, only one drawing is known depicting a humanoid creature , the so-called “astronaut,” 30 meters high (on the Palpa plateau there are about a dozen images of human beings). Almost all the drawings are made on this huge scale in the same manner, when the contour is outlined by one continuous line. Perfectly straight lines and stripes go beyond the horizon, crossing dried riverbeds, climbing hills and at the same time not deviating from their direction (although modern geodetic methods do not allow drawing a straight line up to 8 kilometers long on rough terrain so that the deviation does not exceed 0, 1 degree) ^[3] . 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 humps-half-mountains ^{[to clarify ]} . But the higher you rise above the plateau, the more these patterns become smaller and turn into obscure scratches.

The lines themselves, stripes and patterns are drawn to the surface by excavation, in the form of furrows up to 135 centimeters wide and up to 40-50 centimeters deep (average depth 25-30 centimeters), in fact they are shallow trenches . At the same time, white stripes - lines form on a black rocky surface. Fine gravel inside the lines does not differ in color from the rest of the surface ^{[ specify ]} . However, the lines themselves are perfectly visible from a height and stand out clearly against the background of the general landscape ^[3] .

In the presence of tens of thousands of geoglyphs and despite the fact that the surface of the pampas is such that once a car passing through it leaves traces of wheels, there are almost no traces on the Nazca plateau. That is, people (numerous workers) who performed these excavation works to make strips several meters wide and hundreds meters long did not leave any marks of their feet, trodden paths. If paths can be found, it is only on the hillsides that they used to be before the organization of the reserve that local peasants do not exist on the plateau itself ^[3] .

Also, this fact is noted: since the white surface is heated less than the black one, a difference in pressure and temperature is created, which leads to the fact that these lines do not suffer in sandstorms .

The Nazca lines pose many questions to historians - who created them, when, why and how. In fact, many geoglyphs cannot be discerned from the earth, so it remains to be assumed that with the help of such patterns the ancient inhabitants of the valley communicated with the deity. In addition to the ritual , the astronomical significance of these lines is not excluded.

Regarding the time of the creation of the lines, scientists agree - until the XII century, when the Incas appeared in the valley. Most studies attribute their creation to the Nazca civilization , which inhabited the plateau until the 2nd century AD. e.

Long-term studies of Nazca's patterns and lines unequivocally revealed the fact that their relative position, proportions and sizes obey various strict mathematical laws ^{[ what? ] [ specify ]} . However, the situation is complicated by the fact that the Nazca geoglyphs were created at different times, according to dissimilar schemes and, possibly, for different purposes.

Leading geoglyph researcher Maria Reiche claims that the creators of the drawings first made small sketches and then reproduced them in the required large sizes (as evidence, Maria Reiche shows small sketches she discovered in the area). In addition, wooden piles driven into the soil were found at their ends, which formed the patterns, which played the role of coordinate points when applying the pattern. It has been established that piles date back to the VI — I centuries. BC e. - The remains of the Nazca culture settlements found not far from the mysterious drawings belong to the same period.

Lines and stripes intersect each other many times, stripes overlap patterns, geometric shapes intersect stripes. This suggests that the Nazca complex was covered with images not at one time, but in several stages. But at the same time, the images made later and superimposed on top do not destroy the contours of the geoglyphs that are beneath them (and there is a certain oddity - because when one “trench” crosses another, it is clear that it destroys the borders of the previous one, but this does not happen in Nazca) ^{[ 3] [to clarify ]} .

There is a version that animals and birds are the forerunners of stripes: many trapezoids, rectangles and straight lines cross more complex figures, partially crossing them out. The obvious conclusion from this is that the desert was painted in two steps. Moreover, we have to admit that the early phase was more perfect than the next. Performing zoomorphic figures required an incomparably higher skill and art than cutting straight lines.

Some scholars who do not support this version combine these two stages and suggest that the Nazca culture possessed the technique of artistic expression in both geometric and figurative forms, but these tribes that did not have written language disappeared from the Peruvian historical scene many centuries before the appearance of their more famous heirs, which are the Incas .

Constant and focused research in Nazca and Palpa is not currently underway. Responsibility for the study and protection of the Nazca complex is currently vested in the Peruvian Institute of Culture, but it does not have sufficient funds to conduct large-scale field research.

It seems likely that representatives of the Nazca culture could be observing astronomers, at least according to Dr. Phyllis Pitluga (an astronomer of the Chicago planetarium). After intensively studying the relative position of the stars in Nazca using computer methods, she came to the conclusion that the famous image of a spider was conceived as a diagram of a giant star cluster in the constellation Orion , and the lines connecting with this figure, like arrows, lines characterize the variation of the declination of three stars in the Orion Belt .

Maria Reiche , who devoted almost half a century to the study of the Nazca lines, also suggested that the entire macrocomplex of the Nazca plateau was oriented towards solving a variety of astronomical (lines may be the largest astronomical calendar in the world) or, possibly, astrological tasks.

But a major British archaeo-astronomy specialist Gerald Hawkins , having conducted several field studies on the plateau in the 1970s and using modern methods of measurement and computer modeling, came to the conclusion that only 20 percent of all Nazca lines can be unambiguously correlated with any celestial landmarks . Despite the fact that the lines and stripes on the plateau go in all possible directions, such an astronomical explanation cannot be recognized as determining and satisfactory.

Since all the drawings consist of a certain set of basic elements and there are combinations of lines that are reproduced in very close geometries but of very different sizes, Maria Reiche wrote on this subject: “Geometric figures give the impression of an encrypted text in which the same words sometimes marked with huge letters and sometimes tiny icons. "

In popular literature and ufology , explanations are popular that the stripes in the Nazca desert are intended for orienting and landing alien spaceships (after all, until the beginning of the 20th century, humanity was unable to fly) ^[5] . At the same time, it remains unexplained why aliens capable of overcoming the light years of interstellar spaces generally need unpaved runways and primitive visual landmarks. There is no evidence that stripes in Nazca were ever used for take-off or landing of aircraft.

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  Dog

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  Hermit Thrush (formerly called a Hummingbird)

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  Whale

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  Spider

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  Bird Conditionally Called "Condor"

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  "Astronaut"

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  Tree and hands

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  A monkey

Apparently, the closest analogue, at a distance of about 30 km from Nazca, is the little-known Palpa plateau. It is slightly smaller, but has a significantly different relief. Most of the geoglyphs are located on the flat peaks of artificially cut hills (the surrounding hills are completely untouched).

Near the city of Pisco (Peru) is the so-called. " Andean Candelabrum ", created by a similar technology.

The geoglyphs of North America near the city of Blythe (USA) are even less known and very similar. True, they are very few.

In 2007, NASA experts discovered ancient patterns in the steppes of Kazakhstan . They photographed from space giant geometric patterns covering several football fields. According to scientists, their age can exceed 8 thousand years ^[6] .

• The disposal of garbage in the pampas by the inhabitants of the city of Nazca negatively affects the state of the famous lines. The mayor wrote a statement protesting the lack of funding for the city. By order of President Alberto Fujimori, the city ​​received money to turn irrigation canals into a place of pilgrimage for tourists. Unfortunately, this consisted in the transfer and reconstruction of access points to the channels in places that, in their opinion, were more suitable for this. President Alejandro Toledo discontinued this funding.
• The surface of the pump is such that once a car passing through it leaves traces of wheels. That is why the territory of Nazca is carefully guarded, and for damage to the drawings, even unintentional, faces imprisonment for up to 5 years and a fine of several hundred thousand dollars. ^[3]
• The soil under the lines is compacted, which is a consequence of the passage along the lines of a large number of our contemporaries for ritual purposes ^[7] .
• On December 8, 2014, several Greenpeace activists placed a phrase in huge fabric letters on the plateau next to the hummingbird: “Time for change! The future is renewable. Greenpeace. " According to the Government of Peru, the geoglyph by these actions was spoiled with the dubious possibility of restoration. Greenpeace has already apologized for the actions of its activists, but the government did not accept them. An investigation is underway.
• At the end of January 2018, a truck from a neighboring quarry drove into the territory with geoglyphs. Its wheels left deep imprints on a section of 50 × 100 meters, which damaged parts of three geoglyphs. The actions of the detained truck driver were declared unintentional by the court, he was found not guilty ^[8] .

• Atacama Desert Giant
• Nazca Culture
• Nazca Plate

• Zhukov, A. Secret geometry // Itogi. - 2004. - No. 35.
• Figures of the Nazca desert as an archaeo-astronomical phenomenon // Latin America. - 1997. - No. 7. - S. 64—72.
• Aveni, Anthony F. Between the Lines : The Mystery of the Giant Ground Drawings of Ancient Nasca. - University of Texas Press, 2000. - ISBN 0-292-70496-8 .
• The Archeology and Pottery of Nazca, Peru: Alfred L. Kroeber's 1926 Expedition / Field Museum of Natural History. - Rowman Altamira, 1998 .-- ISBN 0-7619-8964-1 .

• Nazca Drawings: Earth Projections of Star Totems?
• Nazca Lines: mystical paintings
• Nazca Desert Pictures (link unavailable)
• The mystery of the Nazca lines has been solved // Lenta.ru, April 15, 2016

Filmography

• “ Memories of the Future ” ( German: Erinnerungen an die Zukunft ) is a popular science film based on the books of Swiss publicist and ufologist Erich von Daniken “ Chariots of the Gods ” and “Return to the Stars” ( Germany , 1970)
• “The Nazca lines. Decrypted "( eng. Nasca Lines. Decoded ) - National Geographic , 2009
• “The key to the secrets of the story with Ollie Steeds. Images in the Nazca desert "( Eng. Solving History with Olly Steeds. Images in the Nazca desert ) - Discovery , 2010