The Nazca Lines: Markings in the Sand, Messages from the Past
The Nazca Lines (opposite), which cover an amazing 500 square kilometers of arid, rock-strewn plain in the Pampa Colorada (Red Plain), are still one of the greatest archaeological mysteries in the world. The Lines, which are nearly invisible from the ground up, are made up of more than 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures (geoglyphs), and about 70 amazing animal and plant drawings (biomorphs) that are gathered in a small area. Their remarkable network of massive stylized figures and channels, many of which radiate from a central axis, is only visible when viewed from above. While the surrounding geoglyphs form perfect triangles, rectangles, or straight lines that stretch across the desert for several kilometers, the figures are primarily etched out in single continuous lines. There are many different geometric shapes found in the Nazca Lines, such as triangles, spirals, rectangles, and straight lines. The sizes of these forms vary; some of them extend for hundreds of meters. Animal, bird, and plant shapes are also formed by the lines. Among the most well-known characters are a hummingbird, a lizard, a monkey, a spider, and a whale. Being able to view the Nazca Lines' forms from an elevated vantage point, like an airplane or observation tower, is one of their most remarkable features. It is challenging to distinguish the designs from the ground up. The Nazca lines were only discovered accidentally when a plane flew over the site in the mid 20th century and the surprised pilot suddenly noticed them from the air. From the vantage point of the sky however, there can be clearly seen the huge shapes of a monkey, a Hummingbird and one that really does look like an astronaut. And that’s just a few. There are many, many more, covering virtually the entire plateau.
The lines were made by the simple process of removing the dark sun-baked stones from the surface of the desert and piling them up on either side of the lines, thus exposing the lighter, powdery gypsum-laden soil below. The most elaborate designs represent animals, including a 180m-long lizard, a monkey with an extravagantly curled tail, and a condor with a 130m wingspan. There’s also a hummingbird, a spider and an intriguing owl-headed person on a hillside, popularly referred to as an astronaut because of its goldfish-bowl- shaped head, though some are of the opinion that it’s a priest with a mystical owl’s head. However, the techniques are different according to many scholars, so are the purposes, some theories suggest ritualistic or religious purposes, others suggest that the lines served astronomical or calendrical purposes. It is obvious that the Nazca Lines were intended to be seen from above. The enormous size of these pictograms really and truly cannot be understated and it is widely believed that the design blueprint for the Nasca site could only properly have been realized from the air. How else would the artist ever know if the design was correct?
Endless questions remain. Who constructed the Lines and why? And how did they know what they were doing when the Lines can only be properly appreciated from the air? How sophisticated were these Nazcan ‘primitives’? What kind of knowledge must they have possessed to inscribe their gigantic signatures on the plateau?
It therefore comes as no surprise, since humans are not supposed to have been able to fly until the beginning of the twentieth century. Lets agree that it's possible that the Nazca people made constant efforts to keep the geoglyphs visible. Nevertheless, given the size of the figures and the requirement for precise proportions, the Nazca Lines construction required a high degree of precision. The Nazca people did not use contemporary surveying instruments to attain this level of accuracy.
The Nazca Lines were made by extraterrestrial beings or that they are connected to ancient astronauts. The hypothesis that human ingenuity was used to create the lines is not really supported by archaeological evidence. Maria Reiche (1903–98), a German mathematician and long-time researcher of the Lines, theorized that they were made by the Paracas and Nazca cultures between 900 BC and AD 600, with some additions by the Wari settlers from the highlands in the 7th century. She further asserted that the Lines were mapped out using complex mathematics and an astronomical calendar created for agricultural purposes (along with a long rope). Scholars were not persuaded, though, by the small number of alignments Reiche found between the sun, stars, and Lines. The only evidence used by experts to declare Nazca's antiquity is fragments of pottery discovered embedded in the lines and radiocarbon dating of various organic remains discovered here.
The dog, geoglyph, Nazca Lines (UNESCO World Heritage List, 1994), Nazca, Peru/ Getty images
Furthermore, even though some of the Nazca lines appear to have been used as runways from above, there is really no evidence that they were ever used for anything other than flying saucers. When viewed from below, they resemble nothing more than surface scratches caused by thousands of tons of black volcanic rock being removed to reveal the lighter yellow sand and clay base of the desert. Wheeled flying vehicles could not have been able to land in any of the cleared areas because none of them is deeper than a few inches and they are all too soft. Few places on earth are as mysterious or perplexing as this one. Nobody really knows the true origins or significance of the massive and enigmatic Nazca Lines, nor the exact age of the Nazca civilization, which flourished in the region between 900 B.C. and 600 A.D.
In addition, the Nazca Lines are recognized as a work of art. The massively scaled figures may have symbolized elements of the worldview, cosmology, or mythology of the Nazca people. It's possible that the depicted animals and shapes have cultural significance. However, there has been speculation that the purpose of the Nazca Lines was to aid in communication with gods or the spirits of ancestors. It's probable that the figures were seen as offerings or messages to supernatural entities, pleading with them for support, safety, or wealth. However, it is plausible that the Nazca Lines fulfilled multiple functions. Anyone who happens to be able to witness it It has been determined that the Nazca lines serve as alien spaceship landing strips. However, it is also inconceivable that extraterrestrials with far more sophisticated technology and abilities would have chosen this location.
However, because of their incredibly massive size, none of the glyphs depicted at Nazca are visible to someone standing on the ground; instead, only someone looking at them from above can make out that they actually form shapes and pictures. There doesn't seem to be any purpose for someone to go to the trouble of covering a mountain plateau in enormous pictograms that nobody who couldn't fly could ever possibly be able to view in the first place.
The only thing that is almost certain is that the Nazca people started a debate that will likely keep archaeologists busy for decades or even centuries as they transformed their vast desert homeland into an intricate work of art. Although the archaeological and scientific community denied any extraterrestrial involvement, the Nazca Lines could only be seen from the air. For what reason is that the case?
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