Inscriptions in the Nazca desert. Nazca Desert: description, history, excursions, exact address. Prof. Frederico Kaufman-Doig – Magic Lines

Palpa plateau

The Palpa Plateau is located on the territory of the state of Peru (South America). It is 20 km north of the Nazca plateau, and its area is half its size. This is remarkable nature education geoglyphs (a geometric figure made in the ground and having a length of at least 4 meters), but is much less popular among people than its southern neighbor. This is explained by the fact that Nazca was the first. The mysterious drawings on it have been studied since 1946. Palpa became known to the general public in 1993, thanks to Erich von Daniken (born 1935).

He is Swiss and is a ufologist by training. In 1968, he published a bestseller called Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved mysteries of the past." The book's circulation was 60 million copies. This figure once again emphasizes the enormous interest people have in the mysteries and secrets of the past.

It was this man who drew public attention to the mysterious geoglyphs of Palpa, which in terms of quality and workmanship were significantly superior to the corresponding images on the Nazca Plateau. It seemed that craftsmen with higher qualifications worked in the north. At the same time, there is a strong opinion that Palpa’s drawings are much older than similar creations by Nazca. Therefore, the ancient civilization living in these places lost certain skills over time. This conclusion raises many questions to which no one has answers.

Flat top of a hill. Nature could not create this

What catches your eye first are the unusual hilltops. They are completely flat. It seems that all the irregularities on them are cut off by some unknown mechanism. At the same time, the slopes have the usual rugged natural relief. On flat tops and located mysterious lines and stripes. They intersect and overlap each other. This suggests that first some stripes were created, and then others were applied to them.

The width of some stripes reaches several hundred meters, and the length reaches 20 km. The edges are perfectly parallel. But it’s not just the geometric shapes that amaze. There are anthropomorphic geoglyphs on the plateau. These are images that resemble people. There are currently eight of them. There are also images of animals and birds available. All of them have different sizes and are made with high craftsmanship.

Anthropomorphic geoglyph

The main attraction of the Palpa plateau is, perhaps, its very complex geometric images. Even at first glance, you can feel that these creations contain some hidden information. But what kind, for whom and why? This is not clear.

You can consider, for example, a drawing consisting of three circles. They are located next to each other. The outer two have small diameters, and the central circle is significantly larger than them. The circles are connected to each other by lines and thus represent a single composition. The length of this image is a kilometer.

Circle images

The composition includes two triangles superimposed on each other to form a star with six points. In the center of the star there are two circles of different diameters. The smaller circle lies within the larger one. The latter, in turn, has two rectangles intersecting each other. They depict a square, and in its center there is an image resembling a star with 16 rays. Around these geometric designs are small circular pits. Some circles are made not of solid lines, but of similar round holes.

A kilometer away from these geoglyphs, complex in shape, there are other drawings that are no less complex and original. Together they also form a composition called a “sundial”. In the center there is a zigzag, turning into a spiral. It forms six turns, corresponding in shape to circles. Nearby there are stripes and lines randomly crossing each other. At the very edge of the composition there is a drawing that resembles a human head in its outline. It is crowned with horns, and a snake is depicted below it.

Complex geometric image "Sundial"

The image of this reptile is not typical for the Palpa plateau. It is also uncharacteristic of the paintings on the Nazca plateau. The Incas loved to depict snakes. They drew them wherever possible. They especially liked to paint poisonous creatures on the walls of residential buildings and palaces. This civilization associated the snake with wisdom and longevity.

Another geoglyph raises many questions. It is called "Table". And indeed, from above he very much resembles her. The table is located on a flat top and consists of 15 longitudinal and 36 transverse lines. Moreover, the lines are dotted, and crosses are formed at the places where they intersect. Nearby is an image of a person. There are many thin lines crossing it. And they, in turn, are covered by a circle. There are eight squares along it. What kind of composition this is and for what purpose it was made is a complete mystery.

The drawings are huge, so you can see them only by taking off in the air on an airplane, helicopter or in a hot air balloon, if you have one at hand. Why did the ancient civilization make such images? Even the artists themselves could not see the drawings in full, unless they had some kind of aircraft.

This is puzzling, but what amazes modern people even more is the accuracy of the images. The same circles have an ideal shape. It can be assumed that the ancient masters used ordinary rope. A peg was driven in, a rope was taken in hand, tied to it, and the man drew a perfect round line on the ground. Thus, masterpieces were created in those distant times.

The explanation is good, but it all comes down to the soil of the plateau. The climate in this area is dry, there is no rain, and there are no winds either. A trace left on the ground can retain its shape for centuries. It is not for nothing that geoglyphs have survived to this day. If ancient craftsmen used tools familiar to modern people, they were in close proximity to lines and figures. Accordingly, the soil should contain traces of ancient people.

But nothing like this is observed near geoglyphs. The soil is pristinely flat. It seems that no human has ever set foot on it. So how were images made on the ground? An ancient master could not fly to the work site by air, and then hang in a special cradle above the ground and create masterpieces whose age is estimated at a thousand years. No reasonable explanation for this comes to mind.

Maybe the aliens portrayed themselves

Only one version suggests itself - an alien one. Representatives from another planet visited Earth, came into contact with local residents and for some reason painted mysterious drawings on the ground. Naturally, some technologies unknown to modern man were used. Apparently, for the aliens, the drawings on the ground were very important, since the appropriate area with the most suitable climate was chosen.

But the Palpa and Nazca plateaus are by no means the only ones of their kind. Old residents of these places claim that if you go east into the mountains, you can find several more plateaus with mysterious geoglyphs. In their form, they are more intricate and incomprehensible. People of science and tourists, however, so far gravitate only to the Nazca plateau. It is the most popular and popular all over the world. The Palpa plateau and the unknown highland plains in the east are not yet of interest to anyone. However, it's a matter of time. Their turn will come. But will this help reveal the secret of the mysterious drawings? There is no clear and precise answer here.

In 1939, an American archaeologist Paul Kosok, flying over Nazca Desert, discovered strange lines and shapes. Previously, no one knew about them, because they can only be clearly seen with enough high altitude. From that moment on, the study of strange figures began. German doctor of archeology Maria Reiche dedicated her whole life to this. She also achieved protection of the lines from destruction at the highest level. Now lines And geoglyphs The Nazcas are a World Heritage Site cultural heritage UNESCO.

Thanks to the desert climate, the drawings have not disappeared over the centuries, although they are very easily destroyed: after all, they are simply the top layer of soil that has been removed. But there is something to protect the lines from. Lines that have lasted for centuries can easily be destroyed by humans, because both cars and people leave noticeable marks on the surface. And the route passing right through some geoglyphs Panamericana Sur poses an even greater threat.

Many lines extend over 8 kilometers in length, and the figures can reach 250 meters in size. In the photo below - circular (360 degrees) photo panorama Nazca desert high resolution taken from a hill near the highway.

Currently, about 30 basic and hundreds of lesser-known designs are known, about 700 geometric figures, most of which are spirals, and about 13,000 lines of various geometries. No less interesting geoglyphs were also discovered north of Nazca - near the city Palpa. Due to their obvious similarity, we will describe them together.

Major geoglyphs of Nazca

On the map below we have highlighted the most famous geoglyphs - drawings of the Nazca desert. You can also see numerous lines on the map. Please note: the “Astronaut” figure is made at a great distance from the others - on the map below on the right, moreover, on the slope of a hill and in a different manner, this may indicate a different nature of origin compared to other geoglyphs.

Types of Nazca and Palpa figures

Conventionally, all the figures of both the Nazca desert and the Palpa desert can be divided into 6 types according to geometry:

Mysteries of Nazca and Palpa

1. Overlay weirdness. Repeatedly intersecting and overlapping lines, figures and drawings refute the theory that the drawings were made later than the lines. Because somewhere the drawings are above the lines, and somewhere vice versa. But something else is strange: the drawings and lines located on top do not destroy the drawings and lines that are under them.

   

2. Passage through terrain. If you observe the view from space, then all the lines look absolutely even. But if you take pictures from an airplane, you can see that the lines often run through rough terrain. In this case, it is not clear how it was possible to execute the lines so accurately not from a height, but while on the ground.

   

3. The manner of drawing. Almost all the drawings are made with one line, which does not intersect anywhere. The manner in which the drawings are executed strongly resembles the manner in which zigzags, spirals and parallel lines are executed - as if they were drawn with one beam under the control of a computer program.

   

4. Location of drawings. Almost all drawings are located parallel or at right angles to nearby lines.

   

5. Incoming and Outgoing Drawing Lines. Many drawings such as Hummingbird, Spider, Monkey, are drawn not as a closed line, but as coming from somewhere and returning somewhere, as if the drawings were drawn “at the same time” with the lines. Often such entrances and exits are located in the area of ​​the genital organs of the animals depicted.
   

   

6. Location of drawings. Nazca and Palpa are not the only places of the lines. The lines are scattered throughout the desert part of almost all of Peru, many hundreds of kilometers from Nazca. Well known geoglyph " Chandelier", located in Paracas and clearly visible from the Ballestas Islands.
   

   

7. Interdependence of drawings. Thin lines suddenly turn into wide ones, the line can be continued with a pattern, and the wide line ends at the intersection of another wide one.

   

The lines represent a removed layer of soil from 20 to 50 cm. But there are no embankments nearby - only very minimal ones, and there are no piles of stones in the distance. And on smooth turns of wide lines when clearing, the sides on the outer circumferences of the sides should be wider than on the inner ones. In addition, it is worth understanding that in order to draw some large stripes, you need to remove thousands of tons of such rubble from the surface.



8. Dependence on relief. Thickening of the lines often occurs with a decrease in ground level. Thick lines often break at the base of mountains or rivers. And some wide lines are located on the mountains and seem to cut off their peaks, which are almost perfectly smooth.

   

9. Rows of embankments. The purpose of the rows of points - embankments - is not clear. In some places they fill wide swaths.

   

10. Unexplored artifacts. In the area of ​​the lines there are many strange formations - square and round depressions, geometrically evenly located rock formations, which scientists have not yet explored. Therefore, until this is done, it is difficult to give final versions of the purpose of the drawings.

    

11. There are no traces except lines. To draw such lines from the ground, you need to use some kind of equipment, you need the presence of people. All this would leave technological traces. Today you can see clear traces of cars and people. Even, for example, after Greenpeace carried out its unsuccessful action, and left traces, which greatly outraged the Peruvians. But the ancient lines have no traces except the lines themselves.

    

Versions of scientists

There are several main versions of the origin and purpose of the Nazca lines and geoglyphs. And they are all quite controversial.

1. Astronomical version. German researcher Maria Reiche, who devoted her life to studying the figures, came to the conclusion that the drawings were made by someone who lived in this area about 2,000 years ago. The drawings on their ceramic dishes, similar to geoglyphs, also speak for this. Radiocarbon dating proves approximately this period of origin of geoglyphs. The drawings, according to Reiche, represent a large astronomical calendar, an observatory under open air. The calendar served to determine the time of agricultural work. Doctor Phillips Pitlugi, for example, claims that the image of a spider and the lines diverging from it resembles a cluster of stars in the constellation Orion. Modern scientists (starting with the American Gerald Hawkins) dispute this version, citing the fact that there are so many lines that of course you can find those that resemble the arrangement of stars. But what to do with the rest is not clear.
2. Religious version. This version does not dispute the version of origin, but considers release rites to be their purpose. For example, shamans walked along these stripes and called out to the souls of the dead. Or the inhabitants of Nazca tried to appeal to the gods in this way so that they would give water in the form of rain. After all, the Nazca civilization presumably died out precisely because of climate change, which gradually dried out previously fertile lands.
3. Alien scanning. This version assumes that the lines and drawings, except for the clearly anthropomorphic ones ("Family", "Llamas"), were drawn from a great height - only in this case they could be so even. It is also assumed that a computer program was used that could draw such perfectly calibrated figures. Perhaps alien creatures took soil samples, zigzags and spirals indicate this. And thick lines may indicate the collection of minerals from the surface. For example, iron ore is present in the rocks on the desert surface. There is another interpretation of this version. An antediluvian civilization, not aliens, was looking for cities buried under layers of mud, scanning the area from above. The fact that there was a mudflow in this area is evidenced by the composition of the desert soil: rounded stones in clay, and in some places the peaks of former mountains stick out. The destroyed buildings of the city also tell a lot about the flood.
4. Alien ships. This version says that the lines were runways. However, it is not clear why there are so many of them, why in such viscous soil, and why then the patterns and zigzags. And no traces of a possible takeoff and landing were found. But it can be assumed that the numerous lines in the sand are scanning to find a place for ships to land or take off, and since the soil is soft, the scanning continued further until the ideal place was found - in the solid mountains of Palpa. This version is supported by the fact that it is there that the stripes do not represent the removal of a couple of tens of centimeters from the surface of the soil, but as if the top of the mountain was deliberately cut off and leveled.

How to observe

The best way to observe the Nazca and Palpa lines is, of course, from an airplane. If you have purchased a tour to Peru, please note that a flight over the Nazca Lines is included. Then you don't have to worry about organizing it. Those traveling on their own should note that you must register for the flight at least a day in advance. At the same time, you can spend the night in Nazca, Ica or Paracas - they are closest to the geoglyphs.

The second option is economical. When you drive through Panamericana Sur, there are two sightseeing spots you can't miss. If you come from the south, then the first place is Hill, next to which there is a parking lot. Our panorama photo was taken from the hill (at the beginning of the article). Plus, observing from a hill - unlike flying on an airplane, you can see the lines very close. In addition, some lines are very clearly visible from the hill.

Well, the third option is a little further north along Panamericana Sur. This was done on purpose, even under Maria Reichel. tower, from which you can see 3 figures. On the one side hands And tree, and on the other - from afar the tip reptiles. Near the tower, various souvenirs dedicated to the Nazca lines and geoglyphs are sold. Entrance to the tower is paid.

You can visit the Palpa drawings; we’ll drive a little further north, but to see them it’s better to leave Panamericana Sur.

About four and a half hundred kilometers south of Lima, the modern capital of Peru, and forty kilometers from the Pacific coast is the Nazca Plateau, the mystery of which has excited the imagination of many researchers for decades.

Now there is no problem getting here - a comfortable double-decker bus from Lima will take you along the smooth Pan-American highway to Nazca in just a few hours. A small town on the edge of the desert warmly welcomes tourists with very cozy hotels of various ranks. And in local restaurants you can not only have a snack and relax with a weak Peruvian cocktail “Pisca-sur” or stronger drinks, but also watch a colorful Indian show. And of course, listen to the famous “Condor” in the most unexpected arrangements.

Tourists are loved in Nazca because they provide the local population with the opportunity to live well in a very inhospitable area of ​​the country. After all, if there weren’t such a foreign flow here, it’s completely unclear how people could survive here.

The Nazca Plateau is a surprisingly flat and completely lifeless desert in one of the driest places on Earth. Rains fall here on average once every two years and last no more than half an hour, although even in this case it is sometimes difficult to call them rains. And the proximity to the equator leads to the fact that even during the local “winter” months, the plateau warms up so much during the day that streams of hot air become visible, rising upward from the hot stones, which over many years in these conditions have received the so-called “desert tan” - darkened by the heat and sun.

And yet here, where, it would seem, nothing else could exist, images of animals and people, geometric shapes and lines are intertwined on the surface of the plateau. Rectangles, trapezoids, triangles, figures of a whale, monkey, spider, condor, hummingbird, unknown animals and plants. Together, all this forms a strange, intricate pattern that covers a huge area - several hundred square kilometers. It is this pattern that attracts numerous tourists here, the flow of which is even enough to support the life of the local airport with small pleasure planes, from which tourists have the opportunity to examine the most impressive details of the mysterious pattern on the ground.

"Many centuries before the Incas, south coast Peru was created historical monument, which has no equal in the world... In terms of scale and precision of execution, it is not inferior to the Egyptian pyramids. But if there we look, raising our heads, at monumental three-dimensional structures of simple geometric shape, then here we have to look from a great height at wide open spaces, covered with mysterious lines and images that are drawn on the plain as if by a giant hand...” (M. Reiche. “ Secrets of the Desert").

Who created the giant “easel” - nature or man?.. Who, when and why painted the lifeless desert like that?.. Where did the strange drawings on the ground come from?..

Not only professional archaeologists and historians, but also amateur enthusiasts around the world have been trying to find the answer to these questions for many years. The versions that are put forward regarding the origin and purpose of the lines and drawings are so diverse and sometimes so fantastic that they form a mixture no less bizarre than the Nazca geoglyphs themselves. And the information about the desert plateau and the images on its surface is so seasoned with the most incredible rumors and conjectures that sometimes even a very experienced reader finds it extremely difficult to understand the real state of affairs on the Nazca plateau and understand which source presents the real facts and which contains nothing but outright fiction and fantasies of the author, who (alas, this is by no means uncommon) has never been to the plateau and has never seen geoglyphs...

In principle, it would seem that there is nothing particularly strange in the very fact of drawings, because people have always loved to draw. And he drew on everything that came to hand - on paper, on walls, on stones. This is his craving for self-expression, which can be traced from the earliest periods of the existence of humanity as such.

The human desire to draw is so great and has such ancient roots that researchers even use special terminology to distinguish one image from another. So frescoes are images on the walls (both natural caves and artificial structures). Petroglyphs are drawings on stones and rocks. Geoglyphs are images on earth...

Near the same Nazca plateau, on some of the surrounding mountains there are, for example, petroglyphs that are applied both directly to the rocks that form the mountain, and to large crumbled boulders.

What then is strange about the fact that there are also geoglyphs - drawings on the ground?.. And why such close attention to the Nazca Plateau?..

Geoglyphs are known on many different continents. They are found in Australia, in European England, in North American California. There are also several countries in South America - Chile, Peru, Bolivia. However, if in other regions of the planet these are isolated images of mainly animals and people, which do not represent anything particularly surprising, then in central regions In Peru we encounter lines, stripes and geometric shapes. In addition, on a rather large, but still limited space of the Nazca plateau, there is an incredible concentration of geoglyphs - their number is in the thousands!.. And this is the uniqueness of this region, its fundamental difference from all others places

First of all, Nazca attracts attention with images of animals, sometimes reaching tens and even hundreds of meters in size. So, let's say the pattern of a hummingbird is 50 meters long, a spider is 46 meters long, a condor is almost 120 meters long from beak to tail feathers, and a lizard is 188 meters long. These same images are the most famous.

But there are just over three dozen such informative drawings. Everything else is geometric shapes: Nazca now has 13 thousand lines, about a hundred different spirals, over seven hundred rectangular and trapezoidal areas. Scattered among these strict forms are countless “half-finished figures,” zigzags, strokes, segments, straight rays and curvilinear formations. On top of that, there are more than a dozen so-called “centers” on the plateau - points from which lines and stripes extend in different directions.

Literally a phantasmagoria on a huge “easel”, where a mass of “artists”, adherents of a wide variety of styles and movements, left their memories...

“Nazca is something mysterious, enigmatic. Nazca is shrouded in an impenetrable and incomprehensible shroud of mystery. This is something fascinating, deceptive, logical in its own way and at the same time completely absurd. The message that Nazca brings to us is incomprehensible and mysterious, and any hypotheses about it are contradictory. Nazca appears as something unthinkable and unsolved, almost meaningless and capable of driving you crazy. But if the graphic “messages” with which the lands in the vicinity of the modern city of Nazca are dotted are just cyclopean children’s drawings, completely devoid of any meaning and arose as a result of a strange whim or whim, this means that all laws of logic have been violated on the Nazca plateau” ( E. Däniken, “Signs facing eternity”).

Theories and hypotheses

During the study of Nazca geoglyphs, many different versions of both the creation of drawings on the ground and their purpose have been put forward. Here we will provide only their (far from complete) list with brief comments. And some of the most meaningful ones will be considered in more detail below.

So, here are some theories (even the most incredible ones) proposed by different people - archaeologists, historians, writers, scientists and simply enthusiasts, inspired by the secrets of the Nazca geoglyphs.

Erich von Däniken – Alien Cult

The theory of Erich von Däniken is the most famous. He put forward the idea that long ago aliens from other stars visited Earth. They were also noted on the Nazca Plateau. At this place they landed, and in the process of landing aircraft the stones were blown in all directions by rocket exhaust. When approaching the ground, the energy of the gases flying from the engines increased and a wider strip of soil was cleared. Thus the first trapezoids appeared. Later the aliens flew away and left people in the dark. Like modern cults, they tried to call upon the alien gods again by creating lines and shapes.

Paul Kosok – Observatory

Kosok suggested that the Nazca Plateau was something like an ancient observatory, where lines and stripes indicated the positions of celestial bodies (stars and planets) at a certain point in time. This hypothesis was completely refuted during the Hawkins expedition.

Maria Reiche – Astronomical theory

Maria Reiche, the most famous explorer of the Nazca Plateau, favored an astronomical theory in which the lines indicated the rising directions of important stars and planetary events such as the solar solstice, and the spider and monkey designs symbolized the constellations Orion and Ursa Major.

Alan F. Alford – Negroid Slaves

Alford hypothesized that the Nazca lines were created by some “Negroid slaves of the Tiahuanaco culture.” After the revolution, the Negroid population destroyed some of the figures, which, according to Alford, explains the formation of zigzag lines. Later these people went north and founded the Chavin culture in Peru and the Olmec culture in Mexico.

In my opinion, this hypothesis is completely made up. The Tiahuanaco, Chavin and Olmec cultures have absolutely nothing in common with each other. Moreover: in Tiwanaku and Chavin de Untara there are ruins of structures belonging to an ancient, highly technically advanced civilization (see the author’s book “Peru and Bolivia Long Before the Incas”), while the Olmec culture is completely primitive .

Robert Best – Memory of a Rainstorm

Robert Best from Australia put forward the idea that the Nazca drawings represent certain “ memorable places"about a great flood caused by a prolonged downpour from heaven (like the Old Testament Flood).

Gilbert de Jong – Zodiac

Gilbert de Jong, based on the results of his own measurements on the Nazca plateau, came to the conclusion that geoglyphs are images of the zodiac constellations.

Robin Edgar – Solar Eclipses

Robin Edgar from Canada believes that the Nazca figures and lines are intended to observe the so-called “Eye of God” during total solar eclipses.

Simone Weisbard – Astronomical and meteorological calendar

Simone Weisbard believes that the Nazca geoglyphs were originally a giant astronomical calendar. The system of lines and drawings was later used by the Nascan culture as a system for meteorological forecasts of the Nascan culture.

What forecast could there be in a desert like Nazca?.. Quite obvious - hot and dry. This is confirmed by the preservation of lines that otherwise would have been washed away by rain long ago. So creating a lot of lines and drawings for such an unambiguous forecast makes absolutely no sense.

Jim Woodman – Balloon Theory

Jim Woodmann experimented with launching a hot air balloon made by the Aymara Indians from local materials. After this experiment, Woodman proposed the theory that the Nazcans used balloons both to create geoglyphs and to bury their leaders.

Prof. Anthony Eveny – Water Cult

Anthony Eveny believes that there are connections between the lines and some kind of underground system of water channels. In this way, the Nazca Indians allegedly celebrated the cult of water. And figures and lines were used for ceremonial dances.

Prof. Gelan Siverman – Tribal Signs

Michael Ko – Ceremonial Places

The famous Mayan historian and researcher of Mesoamerican cultures Michael Ko believes that the lines are sacred paths for certain religious rites. And the first lines were created in honor of the oldest heavenly and mountain deities who brought water to the fields.

Prof. Frederico Kaufman-Doig – Magic Lines

A famous archaeologist has proposed a theory according to which the Nazca lines are magical lines that have their origins in the cult of the cat deity in Chavin de Huantar.

Georg A. von Brünig – Sports Stadium

Bruenig suggested that the Nazca plateau was used for races for ritual purposes. This theory was supported by Professor Heumar von Ditfurth.

Markus Reindel / David Johnson – Water Cult and Dowsing

David Johnson believes that the Nazca figures are markers for underground water. Trapezes show the flow of streams, zigzags show where they end, lines indicate the direction of the currents. Reindel, complementing Johnson's theory, explains the nature of the figures by using vines to find underground water.

Carl Munch – Ancient “geo-matrix of numbers”

According to Munch, ancient structures around the world are precisely located in a global coordinate system tied to the position of the Great Pyramid on the Giza Plateau in Egypt. The locations of these places correspond to the geometry of their construction, which was supposedly based on very ancient system numbers, called the “Geomatrix” by Munch. The Nazca Lines are also supposedly located in accordance with the “Geomatrix Code System”.

There are many variations of such theories. But alas. Any thorough examination of the “evidence” of such theories quickly reveals that the authors pull out from the general mass of ancient objects only those that are suitable to “substantiate” their theory, ignoring the fact of the existence of objects that do not fit into this “theory.”

Herman E. Bossi – Nazca Code

Bossy's theory is based on an analysis of a geoglyph called the Mandala or Zodiac (more commonly "Estrella"), which was discovered by Erich von Däniken in 1995. Bossy believes that this design contains encoded information about the star HD 42807 and its planetary system. In other drawings, in his opinion, this code is also used.

Thomas Wieck – Plan of the Cathedral

Vic saw the plan of the cathedral in the Estrella geoglyph.

It remains unclear which cathedral exactly, and what this drawing would do on a deserted plateau...

Prof. Henry Stirlin – The Loom

Stirlin believes that the Nazca Indians used the line system as a loom. In the neighboring Paracas culture, textiles were made from a single thread. But the Indians had neither wheels nor looms, so they organized hundreds of people who held this thread. Their position on the ground was determined by the lines.

Dr. Zoltan Zelko – Map

Hungarian mathematician Dr. Zoltán Zelko analyzed the Nazca line system in comparison with other ancient sites in Peru and hypothesized that the Nazca Plateau could be a 100 by 800 kilometer map depicting the area around Lake Titicaca at a scale of 1:16.

Evan Hadingham – Hallucinogens

Evan Hadingham believes that the solution to the Nazca mystery is the use of a powerful hallucinogenic plant such as Psilocybine. With its help, the Indians allegedly organized “shamanic flights” to view the surface of the plateau. And the lines themselves were created for the worship of a certain “mountain deity.”

Prof. Dr. Aldon Mason – Signs for the Gods

Mason's main interest is ancient burials and deformed skulls of the Nazcan culture. He considers geoglyphs as Signs for the Heavenly Gods.

Albrecht Kottmann – Writing System

Albrecht Kottmann tried a different approach to the Nazca mystery. He divided the drawings into separate parts and analyzed their geometry. So he divided the 286-meter-long bird into 22 parts and as a result “found” that the head consists of two parts, the neck of five parts, the body of three, and the remaining twelve parts form the beak. Kottman believes that geometric signs, designs and their parts are a writing system with giant and small letters.

William H. Isbell – Demographic Theory

According to this theory, the Nazca rulers ordered lines to be drawn to control the population. Isbell believes that the Nazcans could not store crops for long, and in fertile years the population increased sharply. When the Indians were working to create lines, they could not produce children at the same time.

Wolf-Galik – Signals from extraterrestrial life

The Canadian Galiki recognizes in the Nazca system undoubted signs of an extraterrestrial race. He believes that only with such a point of view can we explain such a grandiose plan and the work to implement it.

Siegfried Waxman – Cultural Atlas

Siegfried Waxman saw in the Nazcan system of lines cultural atlas human history.

Ivan Koltsov – Graves of leaders

In accordance with Koltsov's hypothesis, the drawings on the Nazca plateau indicate the burial places of local leaders.

Vladimir Babanin – Map of Ancient Civilizations

According to Babanin, the Nazca geoglyph system is a map of the Earth, where the places of ancient cultures are marked with specific geoglyphs. Including the lost continents of Atlantis and Mu.

Alla Belokon – Traces of an alien civilization

According to this version, the Nazca lines were created by streams of energy of an unknown nature from the aircraft of an alien civilization, which combines them with the so-called crop drawings produced by UFOs. According to Belokon, the Nazca geoglyph system reflects the diagram of our Solar system.

Dmitry Nechai – Connection with the Great Pyramid

The geoglyph “Estrella,” according to Nechai, displays geometric proportions Great Pyramid on the Giza plateau.

Eduard Vershinin – Navigation signs

Geoglyphs on the Nazca plateau served as navigational signs to train young pilots of aircraft of an ancient, highly developed civilization.

Igor Alekseev – Mining

Lines and drawings are a by-product of the activities of an alien civilization in the search and extraction of minerals or chemical elements.

Andrey Sklyarov and Andrey Zhukov – Scanning from aircraft

According to the version voiced in the film “Peru and Bolivia Long Before the Incas” (see video below), the plateau was partially created by people in different periods and, perhaps, some of the drawings were created by a highly developed civilization, which was destroyed as a result of the Flood. Sklyarov's group found traces of a mudflow that stopped here, descending from the mountains when returning to Pacific Ocean masses of water of a giant tsunami that hit South America.

As mentioned earlier, the list presented does not exhaust all existing versions.

Consequences of the Flood

When, even before the 2007 expedition of the Foundation for the Development of Science "III Millennium" in Peru (in search of any patterns in the arrangement of lines and figures), I tried to analyze photographs of the Nazca and Palpa plateaus taken from space, I discovered a very interesting detail that had previously for some reason no one paid attention. When viewed from space, this entire area looks like a dry river mouth, or like a stream frozen in place. Moreover, not only the Nazca and Palpa region itself looks like this, but also the region tens and even hundreds of kilometers to the north. The overall picture seemed to record or “photograph” huge water and mudflows that descended from the mountains in a powerful front.

There are no rivers of such width on Earth. Such powerful mudflows, which would have been generated by ordinary climatic factors and at the same time (and there is no doubt about this, looking at the frozen picture) would have descended from the mountains at a front hundreds of kilometers away, have also not been recorded. But there are features of the corresponding relief. Therefore, the idea arises that we are dealing here with traces of such an extraordinary and large-scale cataclysm as the Great Flood.

In the biblical version, the Great Flood is a punishment for people that God sent to them for their sins, flooding the entire Earth with a stream of water from heaven. All living things perished in the waters of the Flood. Only the righteous Noah was saved with his family and those animals that he, at the direction of God, took on board the floating Ark. Similar motifs can be traced in ancient legends and traditions on all continents.

Historical science previously actively denied the reality of the Flood. Nowadays, under quite strong pressure from facts, historians and archaeologists prefer to either attribute everything to local floods, or simply bypass the topic of the Flood “by default.”

According to the views of supporters of the so-called “alternative history”, the Great Flood is a cataclysm on a planetary scale that actually took place, but according to a completely different scenario than that reflected in the Old Testament.

As a number of researchers representing “alternative” trends in history believe, during the events of the Flood, a huge tsunami hit South America from the Pacific Ocean, which, being several kilometers high, reached even remote mountainous areas, leaving behind many “scars” "and consequences that have long been noted by researchers.

In particular, in Lake Titicaca, located on the border of Peru and Bolivia at an altitude of four kilometers, species of animals and plants were found that are characteristic not of fresh water bodies (which is what Titicaca is now), but of the deep sea. They were brought here by the flood tsunami.

The same destructive wave, sweeping away everything in its path, uprooted trees and bushes, killed people and animals, mixing their remains among themselves. This is precisely the picture that archaeologists discovered in many regions of South America - including on the high mountain plateau of the Altiplano, where Lake Titicaca is located...

Usually the description of the Flood is limited to this. But we can make simple logical reasoning by extending the analysis of the consequences of the cataclysm.

It is quite obvious that after all the dramatic events, the water brought here by the tsunami and covering a significant part of the continent naturally had to go somewhere. She could not evaporate instantly. It also could not be completely absorbed into the soil. So it is quite obvious that the bulk of the water that ended up on land due to the tsunami inevitably had to return back to the Pacific Ocean. Which is what she did.

Only upon returning it was no longer just water, but water that had absorbed dirt, clay, sand, small stones and other “garbage”. It was, in fact, just that powerful mudflow that rushed in a wide front from the mountains to the ocean and is now visible from space in the “scars” it left on the western edge of the South American mountains.

Getting into some hollows and depressions, this flow - actually a mudflow - stopped, forming a kind of “mud lakes”. Subsequently, the water from such “lakes” evaporated, exposing the “dirt”, which, according to all the laws of physics, had by this time settled to the bottom in such a way as to form a smooth surface, which was later used by the ancient “artists” as a “canvas” or an “easel” for your geoglyphs. This is exactly how such flat Nazca-type plateaus were formed, which seemed to be specially leveled by someone. Only this “someone” was, albeit catastrophic, but completely natural events...

This logical assumption was fully confirmed on site by a number of geological features that our 2007 expedition drew attention to.

For example, the Nazca plateau on its outskirts does not at all merge into the surrounding mountains as is usually the case in the foothills - more or less smoothly and gradually increasing its level. Instead, the picture is somewhat similar to the fact that the plateau seems to “flow out” from the gorges between the mountains.

Moreover. Peaks rise above the plateau here and there low mountains, which were flooded by a mudflow, but not completely. And the terrain here fully corresponds to the scenario of events that is associated with the return of the flood tsunami waters to the Pacific Ocean.

And finally, this development of events is fully confirmed by the actual mudflow nature of the sediments that make up the Nazca and Palpa plateaus. Where small rivers cut through the flat surface on the edge of the plateau (and even in places where modern road builders had a hand in digging deep into the geological layers), the structure of these deposits is visible, which absolutely exactly coincides with what should have been left after the descent a powerful mudflow - stones, clay, sand and other “garbage” mixed in a chaotic disorder. We saw a similar “section” of sediments just when we were going to inspect the petroglyphs in the surrounding mountains (see earlier) along the “tongue” of this mudflow “flowing” along the valley between the mountains...

However, if the Nazca and Palpa plateaus were formed as a result of the events of the Great Flood, then the geoglyphs, naturally, were created after these events. This is quite obvious - after all, you can’t draw on something that doesn’t exist yet. In addition, geoglyphs created before the Flood would have been simply washed away by the same tsunami that covered South America. It's simple...

But then it turns out (according to existing estimates of the time of the Flood) that the lines and drawings appeared no earlier than the middle of the 11th millennium BC. This is the lower limit of dating geoglyphs. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to determine how much later they formed based on the same geological features.

For those who are interested in the events of the Flood in more detail, I can recommend that they familiarize themselves with them in my book “The Inhabited Island of Earth” or “The Sensational History of the Earth,” which were published by the Veche publishing house. Electronic versions of these books can be found on the Internet. We will not delve into the unnecessary details of the Flood and return to the geoglyphs.

Archaeological dating

Archaeologists and historians believe that the geoglyphs of Palpa and Nazca are only about one and a half thousand years old - the same age as, in their opinion, the local culture, whose representatives supposedly created the geoglyphs. But in fact, this assumption is based on radiocarbon dating of the remains of just one single wooden peg, which was found on one of the lines. Meanwhile, it is quite obvious that the peg could have appeared here much later than the drawing - almost at any time, and it is possible that there is no connection at all between the peg and the drawing.

True, recently there have been reports of “confirmation” of this age during thermoluminescent dating of ceramic fragments found both in stone dumps and in some ancient ruins of primitive buildings on the lines. However, these results can also be questioned for the same reasons. Both ceramic fragments and buildings could have appeared here significantly later than the lines themselves. After all, literally fifty years ago or a little more on the Nazca Plateau, no one forbade construction (and outside the territory that is now a protected area, construction is still going on).

It would be a different matter if the find was made not from above the line, but below it. But even in this case, hopes for an accurate determination of the age of the line are not so great.

The radiocarbon dating method is based on measuring the amount of radioactive carbon isotope that accumulates, for example, in a plant during its life and decays after its end. The thermoluminescence method involves measuring the glow of a sample that occurs when it is heated. Both methods are used in archeology and are claimed to be "highly reliable". However, there are also adherents of a skeptical approach who claim that the real measurement error using these methods can even reach several hundred percent. I also adhere to a similar skeptical point of view and believe that these methods can only give the roughest estimates, and not at all accurate dating...

I recently came across the following information on the Internet about the measurements of a certain researcher named Bray Warwick:

“Stones heated to high temperatures leave a coating of manganese oxide, as well as traces of clay and iron. The bottom of the stone is covered with fungi, lichens and cyanobacteria. Such rocks adjacent to the lines can be used for organic analysis using Method C-14. It is assumed that these stones were moved during the process of drawing the lines. In this way the exact date could be determined between 190 BC. and 600 AD But only nine stones were analyzed!”

Let's leave aside the number of stones analyzed - nine pieces are really very few for any categorical conclusions. It is much worse that the author of the above quote clearly does not understand either the conditions on the Nazca Plateau or the methodology for conducting empirical research.

Firstly, there is no clay on the surface of the plateau. There are only stones and very fine, dust-like sand. Secondly, natural clay as such is simply useless for analysis of radiocarbon content. The radiocarbon analysis of ceramics, which, as is known, is created from clay, is based on the assumption that organic matter gets there directly during the process of creating ceramics. For stones near geoglyphs, there is simply no connection between the hypothetical clay (even if it could somehow end up there) and the movement of stones from place to place. Thirdly, the heat and extremely low humidity in the Nazca desert do not at all contribute to the formation of any fungi and lichens on the stones roasting in the sun (I won’t say anything about cyanobacteria - I don’t know). And fourthly, even if fungi and lichens miraculously ended up there, there is absolutely no guarantee that they would have formed precisely at the moment the stones were moved, and not earlier or later.

In general, we can say that Bray Warwick measured who knows what. And it is absolutely impossible to take his “dating” into account...

Since 1997, the Nazca Palpa project, led by the Peruvian archaeologist Joni Isla and Professor Markus Reindel of the German Archaeological Institute, with the support of the Swiss-Liechtenstein Foundation for Foreign Archaeological Research, has been at the forefront of official archaeological research. The main version based on the results of the work is that the geoglyphs were created by local Indians for ritual purposes associated with the cult of water and fertility. However, as far as one can judge from the available materials, no other version of the authorship of the drawings was seriously considered by archaeologists. So the “result” was actually predetermined...

Moreover. This international team of archaeologists conducts their main research not on the geoglyphs themselves, but nearby - in the places of ancient settlements of local cultures. As for the geoglyphs themselves, only one single attempt was made to conduct excavations on one of the stripes of the Palpa plateau. And during the 2007 expedition, when visiting an archaeological mission, we had the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the results of these excavations.

Alas. A very weighty report, abundantly supplied with photographs and diagrams, recorded only that under the geoglyph there was ordinary plateau soil. We couldn't find anything.

Therefore, the main basis for dating at one and a half thousand years remains the fact that the mysterious drawings are simply located in the territory inhabited by the Nazca and Paracas cultures known here. Although following similar logic one could easily attribute the construction Egyptian pyramids modern Arabs - they also live next to the pyramids...

Who came first?

The fact that a number of geoglyphs were created by our contemporaries is beyond doubt. This is not disputed even by historians who, as a rule, simply do not take them into account by default, considering only obviously ancient drawings.

But if there are ancient and modern geoglyphs, then their history already has a certain dynamics. And if so, then it would be quite logical to assume the presence of similar dynamics in the past. That is, to assume that ancient geoglyphs were created at different times.

It seems to be a rather banal logical consideration, but for some reason it is completely ignored by the overwhelming majority, not only by representatives of academic science, but also by those who adhere to the so-called alternative views of the past. For some reason, both of them are trying to look for a single authorship everywhere and in everything.

Meanwhile, the earlier comparison of styles already clearly reveals the different authors of different drawings. Moreover, the difference between the two groups of drawings on the ground is colossal!..

Then, in order to understand the entire historical picture of the life of geoglyphs precisely in its development, it is not at all enough to divide them only into “modern” and “ancient”. And even if we do not take into account the literally striking difference between drawings and geometric figures (lines, rectangles, trapezoids, etc.), then even in this case, with a slightly more or less careful look, you can notice the difference between different ancient geoglyphs.

For example, an analysis of the most popular and widely known drawings (and at the same time the most extensive in size), in addition to the “contour style,” reveals in them the presence of clear mathematical patterns, which was determined by Maria Reiche. She, alas, was not able to determine what exactly these patterns were (more on that a little later), but she nevertheless unequivocally stated their presence, having carried out careful measurements of many of the drawings.

However, along with these “mathematically verified” geoglyphs, there are also drawings in which there is no point in even looking for any patterns - the naked eye can see that they are not there. The drawings themselves are made very carelessly, and the lines and curves that make them up clearly wander from side to side. These are usually pretty drawings small size, which, in addition, gravitate towards the outskirts of the plateau. And if there are doubts about the execution of “mathematically verified” drawings by the Indians, then there is no longer any doubt about their ability to create simple crooked drawings. Here (albeit with a more detailed analysis) there is also a feeling of completely different authorship between the two different types or “subgroups” of drawings.

Meanwhile, there are very few drawings on the plateau - a little more than three dozen. There are tens of thousands of geometric shapes, lines, rectangles, trapezoids and other things. But literally a little closer look reveals the same situation with ancient lines and geometric figures. They can also be divided into two very different categories, clearly having completely different “authors”. One group of such geoglyphs is made very well and has smooth boundaries - as a rule, these are images that stretch for many kilometers, sometimes even crossing some small mountains, ravines and other relief features, completely ignoring elevation changes.

The second group of lines is made of much less quality. Stones that have a darker color were removed much less carefully from the main light surface - small stones remained in their place. As a result, such lines are even less visible (although they are visible against the general background). These geoglyphs are not very large in size and often have uneven boundaries, which is easily visible to the eye and does not require any precise measurements. And in comparison with large, high-quality lines, representatives of the second group leave the impression of almost hackwork.

Stripe with curved edges

The difference between large and high-quality on the one hand and small and shoddy on the other was so clearly evident to all members of the expedition that the very fact that neither academic historians nor alternativeists had yet mentioned this anywhere was surprising. Meanwhile, the consequences of this observation are literally global.

The difference between the two groups of geoglyphs upon closer examination is so obvious and so significant that it naturally gives rise to the version that they were created at different times by (at least) two completely different cultures. Not only by Indians or only by aliens, but by two completely different groups of “authors”!..

But the most important thing is that the difference is so great that it cannot be reduced to a simple difference in the size and quality of the geoglyphs. It indicates a strong difference in the technologies and capabilities of different “authors”, that is, a strong difference between the levels of development of those cultures that created geoglyphs at different times.

And here's what's interesting.

Currently, the dominant position in historical science is occupied by a kind of “linear” approach, according to which society develops “from simple to complex.” Deviations, of course, are allowed, but only those that are not of a fundamental nature. Individual cultures may experience ups and downs, but in general the level of development of civilization is increasing. Hence, as a consequence, more ancient societies are considered more primitive, and later cultures are correlated with more advanced technologies.

On the Nazca Plateau, the linear pattern of development “from simple to complex” is clearly violated.

If geoglyphs were the work of the Nazca and Paracas cultures, then (especially taking into account the enormous scale, which requires a long time to paint the entire plateau - see, at least, the calculations of Alla Belokon) most likely one would expect a gradual complication of geoglyphs and an increase in the quality of their execution - along with the Indians' experience in creating lines and drawings. Instead, the most complex large lines, stripes and trapezoids also have the greatest degree of wear due to later damage and natural erosion, which indicates their very venerable age.

Moreover, if you follow banal logic, then the area covered with drawings and lines most likely gradually increased around some very ancient center. Accordingly, from the center to the periphery the perfection of their execution should gradually increase. Meanwhile, the simplest and most carelessly executed geoglyphs clearly gravitate not to the center of the plateau, but to its outskirts.

And if we attribute the authorship of all ancient geoglyphs to the Indians, then from the relative position of various geometric figures and designs and their quality of execution, one would have to conclude that the Nazca and Paracas cultures did not develop over time at all, but, on the contrary, experienced some for unknown reasons, powerful degradation. Meanwhile, actual archaeological finds during excavations at the places of residence of representatives of these cultures reveal absolutely no signs of such degradation. And if the facts contradict the logical consequence of some initial assumption, then this initial assumption itself is erroneous.

Taking all this into account, it must be stated that in reality there was a completely different order of events on the plateau.

The “earliest author” was some very highly developed civilization, as a result of whose activities “mathematically verified” drawings appeared, as well as smooth, large and extended lines, stripes and figures that intersected sometimes complex relief details and required a lot of labor in their creation . It is these geoglyphs that most amaze researchers and ordinary viewers with their scope and precision of execution.

Apparently, they made a strong impression not only on modern tourists, but also on the Indian tribes who lived here, whose representatives tried to imitate the perfect ancient models. However, the Indians had incomparably fewer opportunities, and therefore they were only able to create smaller and less well-executed crooked “copies”. So the second group of “hacky” geoglyphs appeared...

By the way, the difference between the level of execution of the two groups of geoglyphs is so great that it makes us remember those whom our ancient ancestors called “gods.”

Historical science considers “gods” to be pure fiction, the fantasy of our ancestors, and categorically denies even the very possibility of the existence of a highly developed civilization in ancient times, although our ancestors themselves had absolutely no doubt about the reality of the “gods.” Meanwhile, over the past few years, during a number of expeditions of the Foundation for the Development of Science “III Millennium” in the most different countries We have already identified thousands of artifacts - signs of the real existence of such ancient civilization, which surpassed even modern humanity in terms of technology development. The number of discovered facts is so great that we consider it necessary to recognize the long-standing debate “whether such a civilization was or was not” is already a thing of yesterday. At the moment, the existence of an ancient, highly technologically advanced civilization has simply been PROVEN. And research has long shifted to the plane of studying the characteristics of this civilization, its origin, technologies and real possibilities.

And by the way, South America (especially the territory of Peru) is characterized by the fact that the brightest, most irrefutable evidence of the use of the highest technologies by a certain civilization, which in many ways exceeds our modern capabilities, is found here...

By the way, the version of imitation formulated a little earlier, to a certain extent, not only does not contradict, but is even completely consistent with the position of archaeologists and historians, who have now settled on the version of the “religious-mystical” purpose of geoglyphs.

The ancient inhabitants of Nazca and Palpa saw huge drawings of certain “gods” - that is, representatives of a highly developed civilization - and worshiped “divine creations”, copying them and performing some religious or cult rituals on the lines.

Could this be so?.. And why not?!.

However, there may be different variations of this version. For example, it is possible that even high-quality lines and figures could have been made in several stages by different, if not civilizations, then cultures (even “gods”). It is also possible that even the earliest lines may have been created by humans - but under the supervision and direction of "gods" who simply used local Indians as unskilled labor...

Be that as it may, the facts suggest that the oldest and largest lines were made by representatives of another civilization or with their direct participation. And it’s not even so important whether it was an earthly civilization or aliens from another planet. The main thing is that it was a very highly developed civilization, for which flying by air was absolutely no problem (see below). It was clearly not a problem to create such a huge number of lines on a desert plateau. Or at least organize their creation...

Signs of another civilization

Versions about the creation and use of Nazca geoglyphs by pilots of some fairly advanced aircraft imply a very highly developed civilization that visited these places in the distant past. Whether they are representatives of earthly civilization who survived the flood cataclysm, like Vershinin, or representatives of an alien civilization, like Daniken. And it is quite natural to expect that such a civilization should have left behind more significant evidence of its presence than strange patterns, stripes and geometric shapes on a desert plateau.

As mentioned in passing earlier, in South America There are not just many traces of the activity of an ancient, technologically highly developed civilization, but a lot. Moreover, it is in South America that these traces are most indicative - the difference between the quality of processing of hard rocks (such as granite, basalt, diorite and others) and the capabilities of local Indian civilizations is so obvious that it leaves no doubt. Almost all the most famous megaliths- that is, structures made of large and even huge stone blocks - on the South American continent were created by this highly developed civilization, which in a number of parameters exceeded even the capabilities of modern humanity.

I will not dwell here in detail on the features of local megaliths, since this is beyond the scope of the topic of this book. For those who are interested in a detailed description of South American ancient objects, I can recommend reading my book “Peru and Bolivia Long Before the Incas,” published by the Veche publishing house. Here I will only mention direct, immediate evidence of highly developed technologies left in ancient times.

Traces of the use of such technologies are visible, say, in Tiahuanaco (modern Bolivia) in the complex shapes of blocks of hard andesite (local granite) - the creation of such internal angles is a Herculean task for modern industry. This requires the use of very developed machine (namely machine -!) technologies and durable tools, which the local Indians did not and could not have. The fact that machine technology was used here is shown, for example, by a block on which ancient craftsmen left a shallow cut with neatly drilled recesses.

Similar cuts, also clearly made using a machine tool, can be seen on the horizontal surface of a small step carved into sheer cliff in Ollantaytambo in Peru. Moreover, in this case we are faced with double cuts only a millimeter wide, which are physically impossible to obtain using any “impact” methods (simply chopping off the material).

A deeper cut can be seen on the diorite rock at the Sacsayhuaman archaeological site, located near ancient capital Incas of Cusco and famous for its “jagged” three-tiered wall of huge sides. Here, for some reason, the ancient craftsmen cut the rock along a length of about ten meters and then broke off a “piece” of several hundred tons from it - just like we work with a glass cutter when cutting glass or ceramics. Only here the cut has a depth of about a centimeter or two, but it is made in the way required by the skill of a glass cutter - in one pass of the tool. This in such a hard material is only possible with the help of powerful stationary equipment using durable steel saws with diamond attachments. And here, it seems, something like our “grinder” was used (only a modern master can go deeper in one pass by only a millimeter and a half, but here the depth is an order of magnitude greater -!). The use of a “grinder” - that is, a circular saw - is clearly indicated by the preserved traces of just such a tool nearby on the same rock, from which in this case, for some reason, a small piece was cut off - see.

However, the main megaliths with signs of the use of highly developed technologies are concentrated in remote mountainous areas. But in the area of ​​geoglyphs there are no such obvious traces. There are no megalithic structures here at all in the usual sense of the word - that is, structures made of large blocks.

It is clear that such a highly developed civilization, which was able to create such megalithic structures in mountainous areas, had no problems covering a distance of several hundred kilometers to the Nazca Plateau. The level of its development is such that it should have mastered air flight long ago and created very advanced devices for this. So she could very well be here. But this is only a logical assumption, but I would still like to see something “more tangible.”

One of the albeit very indirect evidence of the presence of such a civilization here can be found in some features of the Nazca and Paracas cultures.

“The creators of the Paracas culture had a strange predilection for experimenting with their skulls. Infants were subjected to a painful operation to deform the skull, as a result of which the head of the Parakas acquired a wedge-shaped shape. Sometimes children could not withstand such severe tests, as evidenced by the tragic discovery in one of the burial grounds. Here, in 1931, a tiny child was discovered with his head tied with a cotton ribbon. Under the tightly wrapped tape there were two dense pads - one pressed on the frontal and the other on the occipital part of the skull. The result should have been a perfectly wedge-shaped head - but the baby no longer had the chance to rejoice at the result” (G. Ershova, “Ancient America: Flight in Time and Space”).

The fashion for such a strange (and very painful, by the way) execution, as a result of which a person’s head takes on an elongated shape, is found in various regions of the planet. But the largest number of such deformed skulls is found precisely in the area of ​​the Nazca and Paracas cultures. Here, such a practice took on a truly manic and all-encompassing scale.

And here's what's interesting. In the practice of head deformation everywhere, in all regions, a certain pattern is clearly visible: with all the variety of methods and methods of influencing the shape of the skull (from tight bandages-caps to special wooden devices), the desire to achieve only one result of deformation is clearly dominant - an elongated head. Nowhere and never has anyone strived for a different form...

A completely logical question arises: what are the origins of such a massive (and uniform in all regions!) desire for an elongated head shape?.. The question is far from idle, given the data of modern medicine that such an effect on the head, in addition to causing inconvenience and unpleasant sensations contributes to the occurrence of regular headaches and seriously increases the risk of negative consequences for a person’s mental and physical health.

Historians do not give any intelligible answer to this question, attributing everything at best to a cult ritual with an unclear motivation. However, even with all the power of influence of religion and cult on the entire way of life of people, it is clearly not enough. For such a “fanatical desire for ugliness” there must be a much more powerful incentive. And the incentive is quite stable, given the ubiquity and duration of this “tradition.”

Recently, more and more researchers are leaning towards the neurophysiological version. The fact is that a change in the shape of the skull also affects various areas of the cerebral cortex, which should, in theory, contribute to certain changes in the human psyche. However, all this is still only in the realm of hypothetical assumptions, and among the tribes practicing skull deformation, no special positive changes in mental abilities have been noticed. And clergy (shamans and priests), for whom the ability, for example, to fall into a trance or immerse in meditation is very important, do not at all strive for deformation of the skull, preferring less radical means...

And here it makes sense to pay attention to the version put forward by Erich von Däniken, a supporter of the version of the real existence of ancient “gods” who were representatives of an alien civilization.

Däniken suggested that the roots of the strange tradition of skull deformation lie in the desire of local Indians to resemble “gods,” that is, representatives of an alien civilization who had an elongated head shape. And this assumption, no matter how strange it may seem, has a very real basis.

The fact is that among the elongated skulls in South America, there were also found those that could well claim to be the skulls of the “gods” themselves!

Robert Connolly first drew serious attention to these skulls during his travels, during which he collected various materials about ancient civilizations. The discovery of these skulls came as a surprise to him.

The first thing that catches your eye is the abnormal shape and size, which have nothing in common with the skull of a modern person except the most basic features (“box” for the brain, jaw, holes for the eyes and nose)…

However, the main thing is that during deliberate deformation, only the shape of the skull can be changed, but not its volume. And the skulls that Conolly drew attention to are almost twice the volume of an ordinary human skull!..

Strictly speaking, among people there are cases of increased size of the skull - in some diseases. However, in cases of such a strong deviation of the head from normal sizes, people are close to the state of a “vegetable” and do not survive to adulthood, but here we are faced with the skulls of clearly adult individuals (which a specialist can easily determine at least by the condition of the teeth)…

Moreover, with artificial deformation, the bones of the skull diverge slightly at the joints. The displacement is not so great as to have any noticeable effect on the volume of the cranium, but it is very clearly noticeable to the eye. And such a displacement can be seen on deformed skulls by almost any tourist who looks, for example, into one of the museums in Peru.

Meanwhile, on those skulls that have a volume significantly larger than a human one and which Conolly drew attention to, in the places of articulation of the skull bones, no signs of their displacement are noticeable. And in general, they do not look deformed at all, but quite natural - even if they have an unusual shape for us.

Do these skulls belong to the same aircraft pilots who created geoglyphs on the Nazca plateau?.. It is unlikely that any definite answer can be given here. But the fact that these could be skulls of at least relatives of the very authors of the drawings on the ground is a completely acceptable hypothesis...

However, there are much more compelling arguments in favor of the version of the creation of geoglyphs by a highly developed civilization. The fact is that in some features of the drawings, lines and geometric figures on the Nazca plateau, oddities are found that are most logically explainable within the framework of this particular version.

Frozen mathematics

To a certain extent, the Nazca geoglyphs were very “lucky” that it was Maria Reiche who became interested in them at one time. The fact is that Reiche was a mathematician by training.

If only archaeologists and historians were involved in the study of drawings and lines on earth, then they, being strictly humanists, would undoubtedly only reproduce the general appearance of geoglyphs with varying degrees of accuracy of the resulting image and would, at best, only analyze iconography from the standpoint of comparing styles . This is how they are taught, and this is what ultimately shapes not only their approach to describing ancient objects, but also the very principle of their perception of objects, their thinking.

A mathematician thinks completely differently. It is not enough for him to simply reproduce something to scale. He tries to describe the object in his own mathematical language. That is why Reiche not only compiled a general map of the Nazca geoglyphs. Her sketches and diagrams of objects depicted in the desert are accompanied by numerous mathematical parameters of individual elements of these objects, including, for example, the radius of curvature, the location of the center of this curvature, the angles between tangents at different points, and the like.

But the thinking style of a mathematician is such that the researcher does not simply describe the object being studied. A mathematician looks for possible patterns. And Reiche, as a result of her many years of research, discovered that there are not just patterns in the patterns and lines - the Nazca geoglyphs are literally “permeated” with mathematics!..

“The method of making pictorial figures, and the arrangement of lines and “centers” on the surface of the plateau are subject to mathematical logic. Thus, the beauty and harmony of the drawings is explained by the fact that, as Maria Reiche established, all curves are ideally conjugated with each other and with straight lines, that is, they are made according to strict mathematical laws. The envelopes of sinusoidal elements, which are very often used in images, also obey mathematical laws” (A. Belokon, “Figures of the Nazca desert and circles in grain fields as a result of the energy impact of UFOs on the ground,” report at the 10th Anniversary Conference “Ufology and Bioenergy Informatics” , October 2002)

The subordination of geoglyphs to rigid mathematical logic made a strong impression on astronomer Gerald Hawkins, the leader of the 1973 expedition, during which the geodetic parameters of many lines were measured and the hypothesis of the ancient observatory was refuted. Describing this expedition to the hot Nazca desert, Hawkins used a very emotional but capacious expression - “life in the hell of frozen mathematics.”

However, for us, perhaps, what is more important is not Hawkins’ emotional state, but the fact that he discovered during his expedition. According to the measurements taken during this expedition, the large lines of the Nazca plateau were made at the limit of modern (!) techniques of geodesy and aerial photography. Their average deviation in direction does not exceed 9 arc minutes. That is, only two and a half meters for a whole kilometer of length! And this despite the fact that many of the lines cross ravines and small hills. For the primitive Nazca and Paracas cultures this is an impossible result. This requires highly developed measuring technologies!..

A number of researchers paid attention to one strange circumstance. Those images on the Nazca plateau, which, by all logic, should be symmetrical (spider, condor and others), in fact have very pronounced asymmetry. This oddity was so striking that it forced us to look for some logical explanation. And in last years A number of publications have appeared in which the authors independently come to the same conclusion - the violation of symmetry in the Nazca geoglyphs is not at all the result of the negligence of their creators, but an inevitable consequence of the fact that the ancient authors... drew projections of three-dimensional images!

Here is what I. Alekseev writes, for example, about this:

“The condor is drawn in two planes intersecting at a slight angle. The pelican appears to be in two perpendicular. Our spider has a very interesting 3-D appearance (1 – original image, 2 – straightened, taking into account the planes in the picture). And this is noticeable in some other drawings... And look how cleverly the three-dimensional volume is laid out in the tree. It’s like it’s made from a sheet of paper or foil, I just straightened one branch” (I. Alekseev, “Nazca Geoglyphs. Some Observations”).

Kiev geologist, specialist in historical artifacts R.S. Furduy and his colleagues have moved even further. They conducted a computer experiment with a condor image, which showed that a corresponding distortion in the shape of the picture could occur if the three-dimensional original was projected onto the desert surface at an angle of 14° to the horizon from a height of 355 meters above the ground!..

Just imagine the ancient Indian shamans who managed, one and a half thousand years ago, not only to create balloon and rise on it to a height of three and a half hundred meters, but also, holding a three-dimensional figurine of a condor in his hands, direct from this height the actions of the Indian workers on the ground so as to ultimately obtain an accurate projection of the figurine. It is unlikely that anyone will object to the fact that the picture turns out to be completely beyond reality...

I. Alekseev decided to try to make an initial three-dimensional figure of a strange creature, which, when projected onto the ground, would give the famous geoglyph, similar to a chicken with nine fingers, and received an interesting result.

“We had to play tricks with the paws; the ancients depicted them in a slightly exaggerated way, and no creature walks on tiptoes. But in general, it turned out right away, I didn’t even have to think about anything - everything is in the drawing (a specific joint, the curvature of the body, the position of the “ears”). What’s interesting is that the figure initially turned out to be balanced (standing on its feet). The question automatically arose, what kind of animal is this? And in general, where did the ancients get the subjects for their wonderful exercises on the plateau?” (I. Alekseev, “Geoglyphs of Nazca. Some observations”).

In 2010, Alekseev managed to solve a problem that Maria Reiche could not completely solve. He found the same mathematical patterns that are embedded in the Nazca geoglyphs. Moreover, he came to this decision literally in a semi-intuitive manner.

Trying to reproduce the Nazca drawings using a computer in a simple graphics editor Paint.net, he discovered that the fewer lines drawn by hand, and the more methods built into the editor to create lines with variable curvature, the greater the resemblance to real geoglyphs. As he himself writes, he even sometimes had the feeling that the authors of the drawings on the Nazca plateau used the same software when creating them!..

But to create lines with variable curvature, modern graphic editors widely use so-called Bezier curves.

The Bezier curve is a special case of Bernstein polynomials, described by Sergei Natanovich Bernstein in 1912. The Bezier curve method was developed independently in the 60s of the 20th century by Pierre Bezier from the Renault automobile company and Paul de Casteljo from the Citroen company, where this method was used to design car bodies. Due to the ease of defining and managing changes, Bezier curves are widely used in computer graphics for modeling smooth lines.

“And then, at one fine moment, I suddenly discovered that with a certain skill in working with Bezier curves, the program itself sometimes drew the contours quite similarly. At first this was noticeable on the roundings of the spider’s legs, when without my participation these roundings became almost identical to the original ones. Further, with the correct positions of the nodes and when they were combined into a curve, the line sometimes almost exactly followed the contour of the drawing. And the fewer nodes, but the more optimal their position and settings, the greater the similarity with the original.

In general, a spider is practically one Bezier curve (more correctly, a Bezier spline, a sequential connection of Bezier curves), without circles and straight lines. During further work, a feeling arose that grew into confidence that this unique “Nascan” design is a combination of Bezier curves and straight lines. Almost no regular circles or arcs were observed.

Was it not Bezier curves that Maria Reiche, a mathematician by training, tried to describe by making numerous measurements of radii?” (I. Alekseev, “Geoglyphs of Nazca. Some observations”).

“But I truly became inspired by the skill of the ancients when drawing large drawings, where there were almost perfect curves of enormous sizes. Let me remind you once again that the purpose of the drawings was an attempt to look at the sketch, at what the ancients had before drawing it on the plateau. I tried to minimize my own creativity, resorting to completing the drawing of damaged places only where the logic of the ancients was obvious (such as the tail of a condor, the protruding and clearly modern rounding on the body of a spider)" (I. Alekseev, "Nasca Geoglyphs. Some observations").

Alekseev managed to reproduce in this way almost all the main drawings known on the Nazca plateau. Subsequently, based on the materials of his article, a kind of “dynamic” experiment was conducted on the website of the Laboratory of Alternative History forum. The man tried to draw a freehand image of a spider on top of a photograph in a specialized graphics program. The hand, naturally, trembled and became confused. The program smoothed out “manual” flaws in accordance with the Bezier curve algorithm. In this case, the final curve automatically fit almost perfectly onto the original photograph!..

Reiche only just barely reached this solution to the problem she formulated of identifying the mathematical patterns of the geoglyphs of the Nazca Plateau, although the foundations of these patterns were prescribed by Bernstein at the dawn of her youth. She didn’t make it, most likely, only because she didn’t see the time when the computer use of Bezier curves became widely available.

It is clear that any speculation about the knowledge of the Nazca and Paracas Indians of the Bezier curves is far beyond any reasonable logic. They also did not have modern computers with graphics programs. Only a civilization that had a level of development at least comparable to ours could observe the corresponding mathematical laws.

It turns out that Däniken was right - geoglyphs are not only addressed to celestial viewers, but were also created by them. And the Indians of the local Nazca and Paracas cultures clearly have nothing to do with these heavenly spectators.

Only now this is no longer just an assumption, but a hypothesis that has a strict mathematical justification!

It is quite possible that if not the Indians themselves, then their ancestors knew that the Nazca geoglyphs were created by a highly developed civilization. And they were not created by hand at all, but with the help of special mechanisms.

“...in this regard, the following picture is of interest. Worthy competitor to the famous "astronaut" from the temple of the inscriptions in Mexican Palenque. It is possible that this is an episode from some Nascan myth that has not reached us, but the fact that the “cat god”, devouring objects similar to stones, is used as a kind of vehicle for a warrior with a spear thrower and full ammunition is depicted quite unambiguously” (I. Alekseev, “Geoglyphs of Nazca. Some observations”).

And one more point noted by Alekseev. While experimenting with Bezier curves while drawing the so-called “pelican” - a huge geoglyph covering an area of ​​280 by 400 meters, he discovered a rather strange detail.

“The only drawing that, due to its size and ideal lines, looks absolutely the same in the drawing as in the desert (and in the sketches of the ancients, respectively). Calling this image a pelican is not entirely correct. A long beak and something similar to a crop does not mean a pelican. The ancients did not indicate main detail What makes a bird a bird is its wings. And in general this image is non-functional from all sides. You can't walk on it - it's not closed. And how to catch the eye - jump again? It is inconvenient to view from the air due to the specificity of the parts. It doesn’t really fit in with the lines either. But, nevertheless, there is no doubt that this object was created intentionally - it looks harmonious, the ideal curve balances the trident (apparently transverse), the beak is balanced by diverging straight lines behind. I couldn’t understand why this drawing left a feeling of something very unusual. And everything is very simple. Small and subtle details are separated over a considerable distance, and in order to understand what is in front of us, we must move our gaze from one small detail to another. If you move a considerable distance away in order to take in the entire picture, then all this small detail seems to merge and the meaning of the image is lost. It seems that this drawing was created for perception by a creature with a different size of the “yellow” spot - the zone of greatest visual acuity in the retina. So if any drawing claims to be unearthly graphics, then our pelican is the first candidate” (I. Alekseev, “Nazca Geoglyphs. Some Observations”).

A little conclusion

As we see, if we do not confine ourselves to a very simplified version of the creation of geometric shapes, lines and patterns on the Nazca plateau by the Indians of local cultures and take into account the existing features of geoglyphs, the mystery of the Nazca plateau turns out to be closely connected with issues that go far beyond the limited desert area on the South American coast. And in order to find a solution to the riddle of geoglyphs, they need to be considered together with a whole mass of other, seemingly completely extraneous facts. Geoglyphs cannot be separated from the rest of history.

Just not the history that is written in textbooks. And history, rejected by modern academic science, but which finds a colossal amount of confirmation both in the form of real artifacts (no matter how archaeologists and historians reject them), and in ancient legends and traditions (no matter how many of them the same historians and archaeologists write off as empty fantasies our ancestors).

Will we ever be able to unravel all the secrets of geoglyphs?.. I don’t know.

So far, only one thing is clear - we cannot isolate ourselves within the framework of any one version. And even more so we must not neglect real facts for the sake of some pre-selected hypothesis.

If the facts indicate that the geoglyphs on the Nazca plateau, Palpa and other regions were created by different “authors”, then we need to look at this matter in dynamics - taking into account the development of the process over time (which does not necessarily have to be a development from simple to complex). It is necessary to separate some “authors” from others. And taking this into account, the main question in trying to understand the chaos of drawings on earth becomes the question of who created what from this. By lumping everything together, you certainly won’t be able to figure out the mystery of geoglyphs...

“So what is this... is Nazca?.. Nazca is like a hundred thunderclaps on the mind. If eyes could scream, they would do it in Nazca. The message of Nazca is veiled and confused, any theory about it is contradictory... This landscape seems unreasonable, insoluble, meaningless and shifts the brain to one side” (Erich von Däniken).

Detailed diagram. Part 6

In contact with

The Nazca Desert is located in the south of Peru, 450 kilometers from Lima. This is the region inhabited by the pre-Incan Nazca civilization (1st-6th centuries AD).

The Nazca people waged war and traded, but their main activities were fishing and farming. In addition, the Nazcas were excellent artists and architects - we can judge this from the found ceramic products of this culture and the ruins of ancient cities. There is plenty of evidence high level development of this civilization, the main of which, undoubtedly, are the Nazca Lines - huge geoglyphs in the desert, visible only from a bird's eye view.

What to see

Nazca Lines

Giant desert paintings depicting animals and various objects - the Nazca Lines - were discovered in 1926. Researchers suggest that the geoglyphs were created in 300-800 by the Nazca civilization. They were called “the largest calendar in the world”, “the most gigantic book about astronomy” - their exact purpose remains unknown.

The area where the Nazca Lines are located covers 500 km2 and is located in the desert, where it rains only half an hour a year. It is this fact that has allowed geoglyphs to survive to this day.

These drawings were first described in 1548, but for many years no one paid serious attention to them. Perhaps this was due to the fact that you can only get a good look at them from a height, and they began to fly airplanes over the desert much later. In the early 1940s, during the construction of the Pan-American Highway, an American professor invited to study coastal hydrology regularly flew small planes over the valleys. It was he who drew attention to the strange lines forming huge drawings. The sight that unfolded shocked and amazed him. Professor Kosok and other scientists have devoted many years to studying these lines. They were able to discover a connection between the location of the lines and the sun on the days of the summer and winter solstices, as well as indications of the moon, planets and bright constellations. It seemed that the Nazca civilization had built a giant observatory here.

The technique for creating geoglyphs was very simple: the top darkened layer was cut off from the soil and folded here, along the resulting light strip, creating a roller of a darker color framing the lines. Over time, the color of the lines has darkened and become less contrasting, but we can still see the drawings left by the Nazca civilization.

How to watch
Nazca has several companies that fly sightseeing flights in small planes over the desert. This is because due to the number of people wishing to inspect the Line, there may not be places available for the desired date at the last moment.

An alternative way to see the lines is to go up to the observation deck on the Panamericana Highway (El Mirador). The cost of lifting is 2 sols (20 rubles), but you will only be able to see 2 drawings.

Palpa Lines

Unlike the Nazca drawings, the Palpa Lines consist more of human images and geometric designs. According to archaeological research, the Palpa Lines date back to an earlier period than the Nazca Lines. Flying along the Palpa Lines you can see the image of a Pelican, an image of a woman, a man and a boy, whom archaeologists nicknamed “The Family”. One of the Palpa Lines is an image of a Hummingbird - similar to one of the Nazca Lines geoglyphs. The Other Line is read by archaeologists as an image of a Dog near the Square. Near the city of Palpa you can see the famous image Sundial and Tumi - a ritual knife.

Ruins of Cahuachi

The most important and powerful city of the Nazca civilization was Cahuachi, a city in the Nazca Valley, 24 km from the modern city of Nazca. Excavations are still underway here. Today all that remains of the city are:

• The Central Pyramid is 28 meters high and 100 meters wide, consisting of 7 steps. Religious ceremonies were held here.
• Step Temple 5 meters high and 25 meters wide
• 40 buildings made of adobe (unbaked brick)

Near the city there was a necropolis, in which scientists found untouched burials with various objects that were customary to be placed in graves (dishes, fabrics, jewelry, etc.). All finds can be seen in Archaeological Museum Antonini (Museo Arqueológico Antonini) in Nazca.

Necropolis of Chauchilla (El cementerio de Chauchilla)

The Necropolis of Chauchilla is located 30 km from the city of Nazca. This the only place in Peru, where you can see the mummies of an ancient civilization directly in the graves where they were found. This cemetery was used from the 3rd to 9th centuries AD, but the main burials date back to 600-700 years. The mummies were well preserved thanks to the arid desert climate, as well as the embalming technology used by the Nazcas: the bodies of deceased people were wrapped in cotton cloth, painted with paints and soaked in resins. It was the resins that helped avoid the decomposing effects of bacteria.
The necropolis was discovered in 1920, but was officially recognized as an archaeological site and taken under protection only in 1997. Before that, he suffered for many years from looters who stole a significant part of the Nazca treasures.

2-hour guided tour - 30 Soles

Entrance ticket to the Necropolis - 5 Soleils

San Fernando Nature Reserve (Bahía de San Fernando)

About 80 km from Nazca there is a reserve very similar to Paracas. Here you can also see penguins, sea lions, dolphins, and various birds. And in addition, Andean foxes, guanacos and condors are found in San Fernando.

It is difficult to get here and there are almost no tourists here.In San Fernando you can spend time alone with nature and the Pacific Ocean!

Cantayoc Aqueducts

The Nazcas were a very advanced civilization. In desert conditions, where the river is filled with water only for 40 days a year, Nazca farmers needed a system that would allow them to have water throughout the year. They solved this problem by creating a magnificent aqueduct system. One of them is the Cantayoc Aqueducts, located less than 5 km from the city of Nazca and are a chain of spiral wells.

When to go

Nazca is located in the desert, where it is almost always dry and sunny. December to March is the hottest time in this region, with average daily temperatures hovering around 27C. June to September are the coldest months of the year, with daytime temperatures as low as 18C.

How to get to Nazca

Nazca is located 450 kilometers south of Lima. You can get here by car along the Panamericana Highway, or by one of the many buses that go in this direction. The bus trip will take 7 hours.

We continue our series of stories about mysterious ancient objects. Today we will tell you about the Nazca geoglyphs in Peru, created many centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire, and which are the most important evidence of the existence of a mysterious ancient culture in Peru. These lines and geoglyphs are located on the Nazca plateau and reach tens of meters in length, so they are only visible from the air.

The German scientist Von Daniken, in his book “Answer to the Gods,” claims that these lines were created as signals for the landing of alien spaceships. And the German doctor of archeology Maria Reiche called these patterns a strange confirmation of the existence of the ancient Peruvian cult:

“The Nazca Lines are nothing less than the documented history of ancient Peruvian science. The ancient inhabitants of Peru created their own alphabet to describe the most important astronomical events. The Nazca Lines are pages of a book written in this strange alphabet.”

From the air you can observe various shapes such as large giant spiders, lizards, llamas, monkeys, dogs, hummingbirds, etc., not to mention zigzags and geometric designs. There are many unanswered questions regarding these lines. For example, how they remain intact after hundreds of years, or how they were created in such sizes, accurately recreating all the proportions.

In 1927, Mejia Hespe, a student of the famous Julio Tello, the father of Peruvian archaeology, reported mysterious, incomprehensible geoglyphs on the territory of the Peruvian plateau. Initially, this was not given any importance; scientists were engaged in research on other more significant sites, such as Machu Picchu

In the same year, US researcher Paul Kosok arrived in Peru, who was very attracted ancient history Peru. On one of his first trips to the south of the country, he stopped at the top of a plateau and saw vast lines on both sides of the road. After careful examination, he was amazed to discover that one of the figures depicted the ideal flight form of a bird. Kosok spent almost 20 years studying the Nazca Lines; in 1946, he returned home, offering to study the drawings of the Nazca tribes to the German doctor of archeology Maria Reiche. Maria devoted her entire life to this work.

Maria Reiche studied the Nazca Lines for 50 years. She explained how these lines were used by ancient Peruvian astronomers - they were a giant solar and lunar calendar, hidden in sand, legends and myths local residents.

The lines themselves are applied to the surface in the form of furrows up to 135 centimeters wide and up to 40-50 centimeters deep, while white stripes form on the black rocky surface. The following fact is also 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 hummingbird has a length of 50 meters, the spider - 46, the condor stretches from beak to tail feathers for almost 120 meters, and the lizard has a length of up to 188 meters. Such enormous sizes of the drawings are admirable; almost all the drawings are made on this huge scale in the same manner, when the outline is outlined by one continuous line. The true form of the images can only be observed from a bird's eye view. There is no such natural elevation nearby, but there are medium-sized hills. But the higher you rise above the plateau, the smaller these drawings become and turn into incomprehensible scratches.

 

It might be useful to read:

• How to get on an excursion to Antarctica?;
• Czech Republic Troy Castle. Troja Castle in Prague. Ancient winery and museum;
• Böcklin and his “island of the dead” A cultural phenomenon of its time;
• Air tickets to Crimea Air tickets to Crimea will become cheaper;
• What you can and cannot take with you;
• Open left menu Heviz How to get from Budapest to Lake Heviz;
• Cable car in Nha Trang (Vinpearl) The longest cable car in the world Vietnam;
• Kamenets-Podolsk fortress - a historical monument of Ukraine Life outside the walls of the Kamenets-Podolsk fortress;