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Nazca Lines
The so-called Nazca lines, of which there are thousands, consist, according to investigator William H. Isbell, of five kinds of markings: long straight lines; large geometric figures; drawings of plants and animals; rock piles; and figures decorating hillsides. There are drawings of birds, spiders, fishes, even a monkey, and a few unidentifiable creatures. There are also rectangular shapes and a large number of straight lines that run apparently from nowhere to nowhere.
The Nasca Lines are located in the Pampa region of Peru, the desolate plain of the Peruvian coast 400 km south of Lima. The Lines were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920's. Passengers reported seeing 'primitive landing strips' on the ground below. The Lines were made by removing the iron-oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the desert. When the gravel is removed, they contrast with the light color underneath.
Nazca Birds: Hummingbird, Nazca Hummingbird is one of the earliest zoomorphic symbols found on the Nazca Plateau, and has become an icon on Peru. It is located on a extension of the plateau, surrounded by drop-offs on three sides. Its purpose remains undefined. |
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. The desert itself runs for over 1,400 miles along the Pacific Ocean. The area of the Nazca art is called the Pampa Colorada (Red Plain). It is 15 miles wide and runs some 37 miles parallel to the Andes and the sea. Dark red surface stones and soil have been cleared away, exposing the lighter-colored subsoil, creating the "lines". There is no sand in this desert. From the air, the "lines" include not only lines and geometric shapes, but also depictions of animals and plants in stylized forms. Some of the forms, including images of humans, grace the steep hillsides at the edge of the desert.
The Nazca lines are communal. Their creation took hundreds of years and required a large number of people working on the project. Their size and their purpose have led some to speculate that visitors from another planet either created or directed the project. Erich von Däniken thinks that the Nazca lines formed an airfield for alien spacecraft, an idea first proposed by James W. Moseley in the October 1955 issue of Fate and made popular in the early sixties by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier in The Morning of the Magicians. If Nazca was an alien airfield, it must have been a very confusing airfield, consisting as it does of giant lizards, spiders, monkeys, llamas, dogs, hummingbirds, etc., not to mention the zigzagging and crisscrossing lines and geometric designs. It was very considerate of the aliens to depict plants and animals of interest to the locals, even though it must have meant that navigation would be more difficult than a straight runway or a large clearing. Also, the airport must have been a very busy place, needing 37 miles of runway to handle all the traffic. However, it is unlikely spacecraft could have landed in the area without disturbing some of the artwork or the soil. There is no evidence of such disturbance.
The alien theory is proposed mainly because some people find it difficult to believe that a race of "primitive Indians" could have had the intelligence to conceive of such a project, much less the technology to bring the concept to fruition. The evidence points elsewhere, however. The Aztecs, the Toltecs, the Inca, the Maya, etc., are proof enough that the Nazca did not need extraterrestrial help to create their art gallery in the desert.
In any case, one does not need a very sophisticated technology to create large figures, geometrical shapes, and straight lines, as has been shown by the creators of so-called crop circles. The Nazca probably used grids for their giant geoglyphs, as their weavers did for their elaborate designs and patterns. The most difficult part of the project would have been moving all the stones and earth to reveal the lighter subsoil. There really is nothing mysterious about how the Nazca created their lines and figures.
Some think it is mysterious that the figures have remained intact for so many hundreds of years. However, the geology of the area solves that mystery.
"Stones (not sand) comprise the desert surface. Rusted by humidity, their darkened color increases heat absorption. The resulting cushion of warm surface air acts as a buffer against the wind; while minerals in the soil help to solidify the stones. On the "desert pavement" thus created in this dry, rainless environment, erosion is practically nil - making for remarkable preservation of the markings."
The mystery is why. Why did the Nazca engage in such a project involving so many people for so many years?
G. von Breunig thinks the lines were used for running footraces. He examined the curved pathways and determined that they were partially shaped by continuous running. Anthropologist Paul Kosok briefly maintained that the lines were part of an irrigation system, but soon rejected the notion as impossible. He then speculated that the lines formed a gigantic calendar. Maria Reiche, a German immigrant and apprentice archaeologist to Julio Tello of the University of San Marcos, developed Kosok's theory and spent most of her life collecting data to show that the lines represent the Nazca's astronomical knowledge. Reiche identified many interesting astronomical alignments, which had they been known to the Nazca might have been useful in planning their planting and harvesting. However, there are so many lines going in so many different directions that not finding many with interesting astronomical alignments would have been miraculous.
Construction
Who made the lines and why they did so is not definitively known. The leading mainstream theory is that the Nazca people made the lines using simple tools and surveying equipment. Wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines (which were used to carbon-date the figures) and ceramics found on the surface support this theory. Furthermore, researchers such as Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky, have reproduced, without aerial supervision, the figures using the technology available to the Nazca people of the time. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within days. Contrary to the claims of several commentators, the figures can be observed from the ground by standing on top of nearby foothills.
The lines were made by removing the iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is removed, the lines contrast sharply with the surroundings because of the light-colored earth underneath. There are several hundred simple lines and geometric patterns on the Nazca plateau, as well as over seventy curvilinear animal, insect, and human figures. The area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometers (200 square miles), and the largest figures can be nearly 900 feet (270 meters) long. The lines persist due to the extremely dry, windless, and constant climate of the Nazca region. The Nazca desert is one of the driest on Earth and maintains a temperature around 25°C (77°F) all year round, and the lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered to the present day.
Purpose
Why the figures were built remains a persistent mystery. A leading theory is that the Nazca people's motivations were religious, that the images were constructed so that only gods in the sky could see them. Kosok and Reiche advanced one of the earliest reasons given for the Nazca Lines: that they were intended to point to the places on the distant horizon where the Sun and other celestial bodies rose or set. This hypothesis was evaluated by two different experts in archaeoastronomy, Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni, and they both concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support an astronomical explanation.
In 1985, the archaeologist Johan Reinhard published archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources played a dominant role in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times. He presented the theory that the lines and figures can be explained as part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water and thus the fertility of crops. The lines were interpreted as being primarily used as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped and the figures as symbolically representing animals and objects meant to invoke their aid. However, the precise meanings of many of the individual geoglyphs remain unsolved.
Notwithstanding Gerald Hawkins' and Anthony Aveni's dismissal of an astronomical explanation of the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs, astronomer Robin Edgar has theorized that the Nazca Lines, particularly the biomorph geoglyphs that depict animals, human figures, birds and "flowers" are almost certainly an ancient response to the so-called "Eye of God" that is manifested in the sky during a total solar eclipse. An unusual series of total solar eclipses over southern Peru coincided with the time period during which the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs were created. The totally eclipsed sun distinctly resembles the pupil and iris of a gigantic eye looking down from the sky thus providing an explanation as to why the Nazca people created gigantic geoglyph artworks that are best viewed by an "Eye in the Sky".
Some (for example Jim Woodmann) have proposed that the Nazca lines presuppose some form of manned flight (in order to see them) and that a hot air balloon was the only possible available technology. Woodmann actually made a hot air balloon from materials and using techniques that would have been available to people at the time in order to test this hypothesis. The balloon flew (after a fashion) demonstrating that this hypothesis was possible, but there is no hard evidence either way and Woodman's work has been rebutted.
Another theory contends that the lines are the remains of "walking temples," where a large group of worshipers walked along a preset pattern dedicated to a particular holy entity, similar to the practice of labyrinth walking. Residents of the local villages say the ancient Nazca conducted rituals on these giant drawings to thank the gods and to ensure that water would continue to flow from the Andes. This view correlates with the purposes of North American geoglyphs.
Record setting hot air balloon aviator Julian Nott has proposed that Nazca tribal leaders could have been aloft in primitive hot air balloons, as long as two millennia ago, guiding the creation of the Nazca ground figures from above.
Theories
Here are theories proposed by various writers and scientists.
- Toribio Mejia Xespe, a Peruvian doctor and anthropologist was the first scientist, in 1927, to show interest in what he called "great Incan ceremonial artifacts".
- Maria Reiche was a German mathematician and archaeologist who was famous for researching the Nazca Lines. She believed the lines were an Astronomical Calendar indicating the direction of the rising of important stars and planetary events like sun solstices. Formations like the spider and the monkey could show star constellations like Orion and Ursa Mayor. The problem with all astronomical theories is the unknowing of the age. The direction of stars changes within centuries, explained by the precession of the equinoxes.
- Reiche led a determined effort to discredit theories of extraterrestrial visitors. She argued that the Nazca Indians constructed the Lines some time between 300 BC and AD 800. In support of this possibility, some scientists have put forward ingenious ideas on how the geoglyphs could theoretically have been designed from the ground. The more important evidence, however, is that which attempts to link the Lines definitively to the Nazcan culture. Here, neither of the two key pieces of evidence survive close scrutiny.
- The first piece of evidence is a series of radiocarbon dates, based on ceramic and wood remains which were left at the Lines by the Nazcan people. It is claimed that this proves that the Nazcans constructed the Lines. On the contrary, the dating of these materials tells us only that the Nazcans lived in the area of the Nazca Lines. Since the Lines themselves cannot be radiocarbon dated, the possibility remains that they already existed when the Nazcan culture emerged.
- The second piece of evidence is the alleged resemblance of the Nazca geoglyphs to certain features found on Nazcan pottery. This is an important issue because it potentially offers proof that the Nazcans had either designed the images or at least viewed them from the air.
- Maria Reiche died in 1998 at the age of 95. She is buried in the arid valley she loved so well.
- Professor Gerald Hawkins and his group went to Nazca to prove the astronomical Theory of Maria Reiche but was unsuccessful. In 1968, a study by the National Geographic Society determined that, while some of the Nazca lines did point to the positions of the Sun, Moon and certain stars two thousand years ago, it was no more than could be expected by mere chance. In 1973, Dr Gerald Hawkins studied 186 lines with a computer program and found that only 20 per cent had any astronomical orientation - again no more than by pure chance.
- In 1980 Georg Petersen pointed out that Reiche's theory did not explain the different lengths and widths of the lines.
- More recently, Johan Reinhard has noted that the surrounding mountains provided a ready-made and much more effective mechanism for the Nazcans to use as a solar calendar; the lines would thus have been quite superfluous to them.
- Simone Waisbard stated that the drawing of Nazca are a giant astronomical calendar. Further the Nazca-line-system was used to measure the precipitation value. Figures, especially seabirds, have a connection to the meteorological prophecy system of the Nazca-Culture. Her ideas for the trapezoid formations: places for holy animals before sacrifice them, or field claims connected with filter galleries, observatories or places for ritual ceremonies of the different clans.
- Swiss writer Erich von Daniken suggested, in his 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods, that the lines were built by ancient astronauts as a landing strip. But the soft clay soil and layer of brown and black rocks in the Nazca desert would seem an unsuitable site for landing and were blown away by the power of rocket propulsion. The aliens left - never to return - leaving the people confused. Like in the modern cargo cults they tried to call the Gods back by drawing lines, figures and trapezes.
- Alan F. Alford concluded that the Nazca-Lines was made by Negroid Slaves of the Tihuanaco Culture. After a revolution the Negroid population destroyed some figure, this is the explanation for overdrawn zigzag-formations. Later this people went in northern direction and founded Chavin and the Olmec culture.
- Robert Bast linked the lines to the Flood Stories in his book A Memory of the Deluge. The animal, plant and human-shaped figures are lying together on the ground as a memorial place of the big flood.
- Gilbert de Jong wrote A Nazcan Zodiac. He traveled to Nazca and measured the GGF by GPS. He obtained a length of the square side of about 54,7 Meter. In the formation he recognized a Zodiac.
- Robin Edgar beieved that the Nazca Figures were inspired by, and intended to be seen by, the (so-called) Eye of God that is manifested during total solar eclipses. An extraordinary series of solar eclipses coincided with the construction of the Nasca lines. Some Lines are aligned with the winter solstice, a less spectacular but more regular, death and rebirth of the Sun God.
- Michael Coe believes the Nazca Lines are sacred paths to walk by specific rites. The primary lines were an offering for elders, heaven, and mountain deities who gave them water for their fields.
- Siegfried Waxmann recognized a culture atlas of the human history in the Nazca-line-system.
- Archaeologist Frederico Kauffmann-Doig believes that the Nazca Lines are magic lines which originate from the cat cult in Chavin de Huantar.
- Markus Reindel's Dwsing Theory says that the Nazca Figures are markers for a subterranean waterflow. Trapezoides show the broadness of the waterstream, zigzaglines show where they end, lines show into direction of the puquitos. He explain the nature of the figures by rod-dowsing (to find the subterranean water) and shamanstic flights (to overview the figures).
- The Code of Carl Munck - The Ancient Geomatria of Numbers --The Nazca Line ground markings locate themselves on The Code Matrix system. Nazca Lines and Archaeocryptography The ancient sites around the world are very precisely positioned on a global coordinate system in relation to the position of the Great Pyramid at Giza. The positions of the sites are given in the geometry of their construction. A very ancient system of numbers was used in the system, which we will call Gematria. Gematrian numbers are found in ancient myths and religions, including the Bible. Gematrian numbers were used in systems of weights and measures by ancient peoples, including the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Babylonians and the Romans. The Code system uses mathematical constants, such as pi and the radian. The system also uses conventions that are still in use, such as the 360 degree circle, 60 minute degree, 60 second minute, the base-ten numbering system, the 12-inch foot, and the 5280-foot mile.
- The ancient Mayans used Gematrian numbers in their very accurate timekeeping.
- Professor Helmut Tributsch states that important cult places like Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Nazca Lines were built in power areas where often the Fata Morgana Phenomena occurs.
- Thomas Wick is a private researcher of ancient mysteries. In his book A Plan of a Cathedral he writes that when he saw the figure of the GGF, he recognized the ground principals of a cathedral.
- Henri Stierlin wrote that the Nazca Indians used the line-system as looms using strings. They sometimes organized hundreds of men who held the strings -- their positions defined by the Nazca Lines.
- Prof. Helaine Siverman says that the figures are clan signs of different Indian clans in the region of Nazca.
- Ellie's Theories -- The Nazca Lines will remain an enigma. I do not see them as a landing strip for returning space ships and creator gods. Some patterns are by human design but not all. The major Nazca Lines follow the same universal archetypes found all over the world extending throughout the universe. As human consciousnes is going through a process of evolution - the lines are one of many reminders and triggers of who we are and where we are going. Creation is part of a geometric blueprint that repeats in cycles of time created by the same consciousness. Stone markers are placed in power points around the planet - as they are places humans are drawn to explore on their quest for the truth about their creation and purpose for being here. The key is scared geometry and understand the holographic nature of our reality and how the Nazca Lines are an insert in the program.
Nazca Lines in Fiction
- Accurate descriptions and a speculative purpose of the lines are described in the novel Domain by Steve Alten.
- The Nazca Lines featured in the Anthony Horowitz novel Evil Star where they were an ancient gate which kept back a group of evil demons called the Old Ones. When the stars in the sky line up with the lines, the gate would open. The figures were to serve as a warning. At the end of the novel the Lines came to life and became real creatures.
- The Nazca Lines were also featured in a Nancy Drew novel, with the spiral tailed monkey being the focal point of the mystery The Clue in the Crossword Cypher.
- The Nazca Lines featured prominently in an episode of The Mysterious Cities of Gold entitled "The Nazca Plateau", where the supposition that the lines were designed to be viewed from above is underlined, with the main characters viewing the ground markings from the sky in their Golden Condor. There is also the implied suggestion the lines were part of an intentionally designed aerial runway as the flying bird lands at sunset along two parallel lines from the surface drawing.
- The Nazca Lines were used as a major plot point in the video game Shining Force II and were even referred to by name. In the game, a Nazca bird is actually a flying ship created by an ancient advanced civilization. One of the game's boss fights was fought on top of the Nazca bird.
- The Nazca Lines are featured prominently in an episode of the anime Master Mosquiton '99. In the episode, the main characters Inaho and Mosquiton must rescue a plane full of students. They can't land the plane as the airport runway has been flooded with sand that is covered with Nazca Lines (due to a curse from a Nazca mask). Upon inspecting the area, a Nazca spider comes to life and attacks them.
- Figures resembling Nazca Lines appear in the arcade game Xevious.
- The plot of the ninth episode of the anime series Cowboy Bebop is set in motion by the uncommanded recreation of the Nazca lines by a satellite-based defensive laser grid on the asteroid-pounded Earth.
- The Nazca Lines also feature at the end of the game Assassin's Creed where 'eagle vision' is used to reveal markings in blood, including the Nazca monkey, hummingbird and spider.
- The video game Illusion of Gaia contains an area named 'Nazca Plains', which contains references to the Nazca Lines.
- In the role-playing game Rifts, the Nazca lines were used to create giant energy constructs, ranging from the actual walls of structures to defensive measures against an ancient alien invasion. (The giant line-animals could even come alive to fight.) After a cataclysm destroys human civilization and returns magic to the earth, the descendants of the Nazca civilization ally with the returning gods of the Inca to form a new nation, just as the aliens who attempted to invade before attack again.
- The Nazca lines are mentioned in the 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods by Erich Von Daniken as evidentiary support for idea that advanced technologies and civilizations have existed before the current technological societies, and that it may have been an airport for our brothers from the stars or supposes that we may have had flight technology in BC times.
- In the video game We Love Katamari the player can pick up the Nazca Line item, that looks like a Nazca Line.
- The Nazca Lines are mentioned in passing in the book The Six Sacred Stones, leading some to believe they will play a role in the book's sequel.
- Ryusei Rockman 2 have a city with this symbols.
- The new Yu-Gi-Oh installment, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's centers around the Nazca Lines and other ancient South American cultures. The embodiments of evil were sealed in the earth in the form of the Nazca patterns by the Crimson Dragon.
- Ken Andrews' 2007 album, Secrets Of The Lost Satellite depicts the Nasca Lines on the cover throughout its packaging. Art direction and design by strange//attraktor:.
- In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Nazca Lines were used in locating the 'Lost City of Gold'.
Nazca Lines External Links
Nazca Lines: Geometry from the Land of the Incas
The Nazca Lines, are a set of zoomorphic, phytomorphic and geometric figures (lines, triangles, trapezoids, circles, spirals, birds, a spider, a monkey, flowers) that appear engraved in the surface of the desert plateaus.
The Lines & Drawings of Nazca
All along the cordillera of the Andes, from the Ecuador (Guayaquil) to beyond the tropic of the Capricorn in the desert of the Atacama in Chile (Antofagasta), lines and ground drawings, that the Peruvian authorities called "geoglyphs", neologism of Greek etymology (glyphe, from the Greek gluphê meaning carving.
Nazca Lines. Inca
Stretching across the Nazca plains, like a giant map or blueprint left by ancient astronauts, lie the famous Nazca Lines of Peru. It also known as Nazca figures, Nazca Pictures and Nazca Images.
The Nazca Lines: Introduction
The world is full of mysterious places that have outlived the history of their construction. These are the pyramids, citadels, stone circles and statues that are much written about and are visited by hordes of tourists.
The Nazca Lines Revisited: Creation of a Full-Sized Duplicate
Re-creation of a 440-foot Nazca figure on a Kentucky field shows how the Peruvian drawings were most likey made.
Nazca lines
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.
Nazca Lines and Archaeocryptography
The Nazca Lines in Peru, West South America - learn their secrets.
The Water Lines of Nazca by David Johnson
The province of Nazca on Perú's south coast is a severely arid region, watered only by scattered river valleys....
Nazca Lines, Peru
Stretching across the Nazca plains - like a giant map or blueprint left by ancient astronauts, lie the famous Nazca Lines of Peru.
Ancient Riddle: Peru's Nazca Lines Point to Water Sources
The Nazca lines have long invited theories on why they were carved into the rocky Peruvian desert as far back as 200 B.C. The straight lines, animal drawings, trapezoids and triangles have been called UFO landing strips, astrological charts and open-air churches.
The Mysterious Nazca Lines
The Great Nazca Line Drawings, in Peru.
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