Peru drawings in the Nazca desert. Nazca Lines. Another look. Alla Belokon – Traces of an alien civilization

Pampa Colorada Desert(Spanish: Desierto de la Pampa Colorado; “Red Plain”), located south of the Nazca River in, is more often called "Nazca Plateau"(Spanish: Nazca). This is a waterless and deserted desert plain, surrounded by low spurs of the Andes, stretching 450 km southeast of the Peruvian capital, (Spanish: Lima).

The vast, elongated plateau area with an area of ​​about 500 km² stretches from north to south for more than 50 km, from west to east - from 7 to 15 km. The valley was long mistakenly considered lifeless. The flat terrain with undulating relief in places is separated from other flat areas by clearly defined ledges.

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The name Nazca also refers to an ancient civilization that flourished from 300 BC. to 500 AD Perhaps it was this culture that created the mysterious “Nazca Lines”, the ancient ceremonial city of Cahuachi and the extensive system of “puquios” - unique underground aqueducts.

An important component of the region, in addition to the famous plateau, is the city of the same name, founded by the Spaniards in 1591. At the end of the last century, in 1996, the city of Nazca was razed to the ground by a powerful earthquake. Fortunately, there were few casualties (17 people died), since the rampant underground disaster occurred at noon, but about 100 thousand people were left homeless. Today the city has been rebuilt, modern multi-storey buildings have been erected here, and its center is decorated with a wonderful square.

Climate

The sparsely populated area has a very dry climate.

Winter on the vast plateau lasts from June to September; throughout the year the temperature in the desert does not drop below +16°C. In summer, the air temperature is stable and stays around +25°C. Despite the close location of the ocean, rain is extremely rare here. There are also practically no winds here; there are no rivers, lakes or streams surrounded by the plateau. The fact that these lands once saw water flows is told by numerous beds of long-dried rivers.

Mysterious geoglyphs (Nazca Lines)

However, this Peruvian region is notable primarily not for the city, but for the mysterious geoglyphs - unusual lines, geometric shapes and bizarre designs that decorate the surface of the plateau. For the modern scientific community, these drawings have been presenting more and more mysteries for centuries. Dozens of minds have been struggling for many years trying to answer numerous questions regarding the mysterious images.

Shape Map

In total, about 13 thousand different lines, more than 100 spirals, over 700 geometric shapes or areas (triangles, rectangles, trapezoids) and 788 images of people, birds and animals were discovered on the desert plain. The images of the plateau are long grooves of varying widths, 15 to 30 cm deep, dug in the top layer of soil - a mixture of clay and sand. The length of the longest lines reaches 10 km. The width of the drawings is also striking, in some cases reaching 150 - 200 m.

There are drawings here that resemble the outlines of animals - llamas, monkeys, killer whales, birds, etc. Single drawings (about 40) depict sharks, fish, lizards and spiders.

The figures amaze the imagination with their gigantic size, but people have still not been able to unravel their true purpose. The answer may lie in the depths of the desert. This means that in order to find out who created these amazing works of art and why, archaeological excavations are necessary, which are prohibited here, since the plateau is protected by the status "Sacred Zone"(related to the Divine, heavenly, otherworldly, mystical). So, to this day the origin of the Nazca drawings remains a secret behind seven seals.

Geoglyphs of the Nazca Plateau were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994.

But no matter how “sacred” the territory is, no one has yet canceled the dominant human trait - curiosity, which stimulates humanity to overcome any difficulties.

The first extremely curious person who became interested in these forbidden lands was Mejia Toribio Hesspe(Spanish: Toribio Mejía Xesspe), an archaeologist from Peru who in 1927 studied the Nazca Lines from the foothills surrounding the lifeless plateau. c In 1939, the unusual plateau gained worldwide fame thanks to a Peruvian scientist.

In 1930, anthropologists studied the mysterious desert area with mysterious lines by flying around the plateau in an airplane. The attention of archaeologists around the world was focused on the desert in the early 40s of the 20th century. So, in 1941, the American historian, professor of hydrogeology Paul Kosok (English Paul Kosok; 1896-1959) made several reconnaissance flights over the desert in a small plane. It was he who determined that gigantic lines and figures cover a vast territory stretching over 100 km.

Scientists were able to study the unique plateau more closely only in 1946, although this was not a targeted government program funded by the authorities, but individual expeditions of enthusiastic researchers. It turned out that the ancient “designers” created the Nazca trenches by removing the dark surface soil layer (the so-called “desert tan”) - clay saturated with iron oxide and manganese oxide. The gravel was completely removed from the line section, underneath which lay light-colored soil rich in lime. In the open air, the limestone soil instantly hardens, forming a protective layer that perfectly prevents erosion, which is why the lines are so striking and have retained their original shape for 1000 years. Despite the technical simplicity of execution, such a solution required excellent knowledge of geodesy. The longevity of the drawings was also facilitated by the usual calmness here, lack of precipitation and stable air temperature throughout the year. If the local climatic conditions had been different, then, undoubtedly, the drawings would have long ago disappeared from the face of the earth.

They continue to puzzle generations of researchers from all over the world.

Mystical civilization

Official science claims that all the images were created during the heyday of the ancient Nazca Empire, which had a very developed culture. The civilization was founded by the archaeological culture (Spanish Paracas), the indigenous Indians of southern Peru of the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BC. e. Many scholars agree that most of the lines and figures were created during a period of 1,100 years, during the “Golden Age” of the Nazca civilization (100-200 AD). The ancient civilization sank into oblivion at the end of the 8th century, the reason for this, presumably, was the floods that befell the plateau at the end of the first 1000 years. People were forced to leave their land, which was settled after several centuries.

If we assume that the mysterious drawings were created by an ancient people, then why and, most importantly, how the aborigines were able to do this remains a mystery. Even using modern technology, it is extremely difficult to draw a perfectly straight line across the surface of the earth, even 3-5 km long.

According to the scientists' findings, all this was done in a short time. Over the course of a couple of centuries, the Nazca Plateau turned from a lifeless valley into the most bizarre territory on the planet, dotted with geoglyphs. Unknown artists crossed the depressions and hills of the desert, but at the same time the lines remained perfectly regular and the edges of the grooves strictly parallel. How unknown masters created the figures of various animals, which can only be seen from the height of a bird’s flight, is completely unclear.

46 meter spider

For example, the image of a hummingbird reaches a length of 50 m, a condor bird - 120 m, and a spider, similar to its relatives living in the Amazon jungle, has a length of 46 m. ​​Interestingly, all these masterpieces can be seen only by rising into the air or climbing on a high mountain, which are not observed nearby.

It is obvious that the people who inhabited the plateau during the period of the emergence of art did not have flying machines. How could people create drawings with pinpoint precision without being able to see the full picture of the work done? How did the craftsmen manage to maintain the accuracy of all the lines? To do this, they would have needed a whole arsenal of modern geodetic equipment, not to mention the most perfect knowledge of mathematical laws, given that the images were created both on flat areas of land and on steep slopes and almost vertical cliffs!

Moreover, in the area of ​​the Nazca desert valley there are hills (Spanish: Palpa), the tops of some of which are cut off as if by a giant knife at one level. These huge sections are also decorated with patterns, lines and geometric shapes.

Maybe it’s generally difficult for us to understand the logic of our distant ancestors. Children do not understand their parents, much less understand the motives of people who lived 1000 - 2000 years ago. It is quite possible that the images of the plateau do not have any practical or religious component. Maybe the ancient people created them in order to show their descendants what they were capable of? But why waste a lot of energy and time on self-affirmation? In general, questions, questions to which there are no answers yet.

Alien intervention?

Scientists who are confident that the mysterious drawings were created by humans are no more than those who believe that it could not have happened without the intervention of aliens. According to the latter, the images on the plateau are alien runways. This version, of course, has a right to exist; it is only unclear why the alien aircraft did not have a vertical take-off system and why it was necessary to make runways in the shape of zigzags, spirals and terrestrial animals.

Another interesting thing is that many scientists believe that complex designs in the form of bizarre animals, birds and insects were applied much earlier than simpler geometric shapes, circles and lines. The conclusion naturally suggests itself that first unknown mysterious masters made complex forms, and only then earthly people began to practice creating straight lines.

Other hypotheses

Maria Reiche (German: Maria Reiche; 1903-1998), a German mathematician and archaeologist, who from 1946 for more than 40 years (until her death at the age of 95) methodically and meticulously studied the Nazca figures, believed that their the lines are a giant ancient calendar. In her opinion, many of the drawings are accurate representations of the constellations, and the lines correspond to the movement of the sun or are oriented towards the moon, planets of the solar system and some of the constellations. For example, a drawing in the shape of a spider, according to Reiche, reproduces a cluster of stars in the constellation Orion. Based on her astronomical calculations, she was the first to announce the time when the drawings were created - the 5th century. Later, radiocarbon analysis of a wooden marking peg found at the site of one of the geoglyphs confirmed the date indicated by M. Reiche.

There is another interesting theory regarding mystical drawings. The famous American archaeologist Johann Reinhard, professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Santa Maria (UCSM, Peru), believes that the giant Nazca lines were built to carry out certain religious rites. The figures of animals, birds and insects were presumably associated with the worship of deities. With the help of drawings, people pleased the Gods and asked them for water to irrigate their land. Some archaeologists believe that the lines and intricate designs represented sacred paths along which local priests walked during ritual ceremonies. As in any pagan religion (the ancient people were obviously followers of this faith), the cult of the gods occupies a central place not only in religion, but also in the life of people. But the question arises again: why did the ancient Peruvians decide to turn to deities in this remote place where there had never been cultivated land?

There is also a hypothesis that in ancient times Indian athletes ran along giant lines and stripes, which means that the South American sports Olympics were held on Nazca. Straight lines, of course, could be used as treadmills, but how can you run in a spiral and along images of birds or, for example, a monkey?

There were also publications that huge triangular and trapezoidal platforms were created for some ceremonies, during which sacrifices were made to the gods and mass celebrations took place. But why then did archaeologists, who searched all the surroundings of the plateau, not find a single artifact confirming this version?

There is even such an absurd idea that gigantic work was done solely for the purpose of a kind of labor education. To keep the idle ancient Peruvians busy... Another hypothesis says that all the drawings are a giant loom of ancient people who laid out the threads along the lines. It was also argued that this is a colossal encrypted map of the world, which so far no one has been able to decipher.

In recent years, voices have increasingly begun to be heard that incredible drawings are just the result of someone’s falsification. But then a whole army of counterfeiters had to work on the production of the largest fake in the history of mankind for decades. Yes, at the same time it was still necessary to keep everything secret. The question is - for what?

Today, unfortunately, the main attention of scientists from around the world is focused not on the Nazca drawings, shrouded in mystery, but on the serious environmental threat hanging over the mysterious plateau. Deforestation, harmful emissions into the atmosphere, environmental pollution - all this is not changing the stable climate of the desert for the better. It rains more and more often, leading to landslides and other troubles that have a destructive effect on the integrity of images.

If nothing is done in the next 5-10 years to overcome a serious threat, amazing drawings will be lost to humanity forever. Then there is no doubt that answers to the countless questions that concern us will NEVER be received. We will never know WHO and WHY created these unique creations.

Archaeological sites of the region

The capital and main ceremonial center of the Nazca civilization was the ancient settlement of Cahuachi. The city was a concentration of adobe residential buildings and outbuildings. In its center stood a pyramidal structure - the Great Temple, built on a hill about 30 m high. Around the main Temple there were squares, palaces and tombs.

In addition to Cahuachi, several other large architectural complexes of ancient civilization are known. The most unusual of them is “Bosque Muerto” (from Spanish “Dead Forest”) Estaceria, which consists of rows of 240 pillars up to 2 m high, mounted on a low platform. To the west and south of the platform there are pillars of smaller sizes, and they are arranged not in rows, but in chains. Near the “dead forest” there rose a stepped hill with 2 rows of terraces.

On the territory of Estaceria there are many burials in which preserved parts of robes were discovered. Based on the found fragments, the clothing of the Nazca people was recreated: long capes with a wide border and traditional South American ponchos - a rectangular cloth with a slot for the head. It is noteworthy that the color range of fabrics is unusually extensive, numbering up to 150 different shades.

The culture of the ancient civilization amazes with its unique polychrome vessels of excellent quality, while the Indians were not familiar with the potter's wheel. Cups, vases, figured jugs and bowls were painted with paints of 6-7 colors, which were applied before firing.

The mysteries of Nazca do not end there. If the surface of the valley is decorated with gigantic drawings that are still incomprehensible to the human mind, then in its depths lurk even more inconceivable puquios (Spanish Puquios; from Kech. source, spring) - ancient aqueduct systems near the city of Nazca. Of the 36 giant puquios, which are granite pipes of underground water pipes, most of them are still functioning normally. Today's Peruvian Indians attribute the creation of puquios to a divine creator (Quechua Wiraqucha, Spanish Huiracocha or Viracocha). Who, when and why created these titanic water structures under the ancient Nazca plateau are also part of the realm of eternal mysteries.

Curious facts

What miracles does ancient history contain? How many mysteries have not yet been solved, and how many of them will never be solved! However, as people step into the future, they understand the past more and more deeply and replace guesses and myths with real history. Thus, it is believed that archaeologists have already finally solved the mystery that the Nazca Desert concealed. The outskirts of Peru became famous back in 1947, when the first scientific publications about strange lines and mysterious drawings appeared. Later the idea arose that these were alien runways. Many inhabitants of the planet perceived this idea with interest. This is how the myth was born.

The Mystery of the Geoglyphs

For decades, scientists and amateurs have tried to explain the origin of geometric patterns in the desert, which occupy an area of ​​almost 500 square kilometers. Although at first glance the history of their origin in Southern Peru is quite clear. For several centuries, the Nazca Desert served as a canvas for the ancient Indians, on which for some reason they painted mysterious signs. There are dark stones on the surface, and if they are removed, light sedimentary rocks will be exposed. This sharp contrast of colors was used by the Peruvians to create geoglyph drawings: the background for the images was the dark color of the soil. They decorated desert areas with straight lines, trapezoids, spirals and huge animal figures.

Nazca Desert. Coordinates of the drawings

These signs are so huge that they can only be seen from an airplane. However, anyone today can admire the mysterious symbols without leaving home; just run any program on your computer that displays satellite images of the Earth. The coordinates of the desert are 14°41"18.31"S 75°07"23.01"W.

In 1994, the unusual drawings were included in the list of monuments that constitute the World Cultural Heritage. And then the whole world knew where the Nazca Desert was. People wondered who the mysterious gallery was intended for. To the gods in heaven who read human souls? Or maybe in this ancient country aliens once built a cosmodrome, and so the markings remain? Or is this the first astronomy textbook where the course of the planet Venus represents the wing of some bird? Or maybe these are family signs that clans used to mark the territories they inhabited? It was even suggested that in this way the Indians designated the flow of underground streams, supposedly this was a secret map of water sources. In general, there were a great many hypotheses, the best minds competed to interpret the meaning of what was written, but no one was in a hurry to select the facts. Almost all assumptions were made speculatively - rarely anyone dared to go to the utter distance. So the Nazca Desert (photo below) remained one of the most mysterious places on the planet, and its ancient inhabitants remained one of the most interesting cultures of pre-Columbian America.

The path to the solution

From 1997 to 2006, scientists from a variety of disciplines conducted extensive research in the Peruvian desert. The facts that they collected completely debunked all the explanations of the esotericists. There are no cosmic secrets left! The Nazca desert turned out to be quite earthly. Her drawings also speak of the earthly, even too earthly. But first things first.

Expedition to Peru

In 1997, an expedition organized by the German Archaeological Institute began to study geoglyphs and the culture of the Nazca inhabitants in the vicinity of the settlement of Palpa. The place was chosen based on the fact that it is located in close proximity to the villages where the ancient Indians lived. “To understand the meaning of the drawings, you need to look closely at the people who created them,” the scientists said.

Landscape exploration

As part of the project, the climatic features of the area were studied. This clarified the origin of the symbols. Previously, in the place where the Nazca Desert now lies, there was a flat steppe area. It was formed from a basin separating the Andes and the Coastal Cordillera (another mountain range). During the Pleistocene, it was filled with sedimentary rocks and pebbles. Here comes the ideal “canvas” for applying all kinds of drawings.

A couple of thousand years ago, palm trees grew here, llamas grazed, and people lived as if in the Garden of Eden. Where the Nazca Desert stretches today, there used to be even heavy rains and floods. But around 1800 BC. e. The climate became much drier. The drought burned the grassy steppe, so people had to settle in river valleys - natural oases. But the desert continued its advance and came close to the mountain ranges. Its eastern edge moved 20 kilometers towards the Andes, and the Indians were forced to leave for mountain valleys located at an altitude of 400-800 meters above sea level. And when the climate became even drier (around 600 AD), the Nazca culture disappeared completely. All that remained of her were the mysterious signs inscribed on the ground. Thanks to the extremely dry climate, they survived for thousands of years.

Nazca Desert. Drawings

Having studied the living environment of the creators of the mysterious geoglyphs, the researchers were able to interpret them. The earliest lineages appeared about 3800 years ago, when the first settlements arose in the area of ​​the city of Palpa. Southern Peruvians created their “art gallery” in the open air, among the rocks. They carved and scratched various patterns on the brown-red stones, chimeras of both people and animals. The “Revolution in Art” took place in the Peruvian desert around 200 BC. e. Artists, who previously covered only rocks with paintings, began to paint the largest canvas given to them by nature itself - the plateau stretching before their eyes. Here the masters had room to expand. But instead of figurative compositions, artists now gave preference to lines and geometric shapes.

Geoglyphs - part of the ritual

So why were these signs created? Certainly not for us to admire them today. Scientists believe that the drawings were part of the “sanctuary”; these are so-called ceremonial figures that have a purely mystical meaning. Geophysicists examined the soil along the lines (their depth is almost 30 centimeters) and found that it was highly compacted. 70 geoglyphs depicting some creatures and animals are significantly trampled, as if crowds of people had been walking here for centuries. In fact, various festivals related to the cult of water and fertility were held here. The drier the plateau became, the more often the priests performed magical ceremonies in order to call for rain. Of the ten trapezoids and lines, nine are facing the mountains, where the saving precipitation came from. Magic helped for a long time, and the clouds carrying moisture returned. However, in 600 AD the gods became completely angry with the people who settled in this region.

Debunking the myth

The largest paintings in the Nazca Desert appeared at a time when the rains almost stopped. Most likely, people thus asked the stern Indian god to heed their suffering; they hoped that at least he would notice such signals. But God remained deaf and blind to the prayers. It didn't rain. In the end, the Indians left their native land and went to look for a prosperous country. And after a couple of centuries, when the climate became milder, the Nazca desert regained its inhabitants. People settled here who knew nothing about the previous owners of these lands. Only the lines on the ground stretching into the distance reminded us that once here a man tried to speak to the gods. However, the meaning of the drawings had already been forgotten. Now only scientists are beginning to understand the reason for the appearance of these writings - huge signs that seem ready to survive eternity.

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 from a sufficiently 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 UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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 in 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 by 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 flat.

   

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

   

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 distinct 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 the same period of origin of geoglyphs. The drawings, according to Reiche, represent a large astronomical calendar, an open-air observatory. 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, arguing 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. Also, the destroyed buildings of the city speak 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 figures 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, a historical monument was created on the southern coast of Peru, 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 single images of mainly animals and people, which do not represent anything particularly surprising, then in the central regions of Peru we are faced with 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 drawing 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. They landed at this place, and in the process of landing the 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 Tiahuanaco 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” of a great flood caused by a prolonged downpour from heaven (such as 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 long been washed away by rain. 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 sites correspond to the geometry of their construction, which was supposedly based on a very ancient number system, 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

Bossi's theory is based on the analysis of a geoglyph called the Mandala or Zodiac (more commonly "Estrella"), which was discovered by Erich von Däniken in 1995. Bossi 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 only unclear which cathedral, and what this drawing would do on a desert 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 line system a cultural atlas of 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, reflects the geometric proportions of the Great Pyramid on the Giza Plateau.

Eduard Vershinin – Navigation signs

Geoglyphs on the Nazca plateau served as navigational signs for training 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 masses of water from a giant tsunami that hit South America returned to the Pacific Ocean.

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 the help of 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. Above the plateau level here and there rise the peaks of low mountains, which were flooded by the 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 going deep into the geological layers), the structure of these deposits is visible, which absolutely 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 can be judged 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, while visiting the 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 this logic, one could easily attribute the construction of the Egyptian pyramids to modern Arabs - after all, they also live next to the pyramids...

Who came first?

The fact that a number of geoglyphs were created by our contemporaries is beyond any 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, as a rule, drawings of a rather 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 in 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 of their creation at different times (at least) by 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 respectable 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, they 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” to various countries, we have already identified thousands of artifacts - signs of the real existence of such an 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 already mentioned in passing earlier, in South America there are not just many, but very many traces of the activity of an ancient, highly technologically advanced civilization. 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 of 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 technologies were 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 with a machine tool, can be seen on the horizontal surface of a small step carved into a cliff at 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 archaeological site of Sacsayhuaman, located near the ancient Inca capital 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 is possible in such a hard material only 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 just 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, so far all this is 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 strive for deformation of the skull at all, 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 cranium - 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 has visited, for example, 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 engaged 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 recent 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 a hot air 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 their hands, to direct from this height the actions of the Indian workers on the ground so as to ultimately obtain an accurate projection of the figure. 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 was 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. A worthy competitor to the famous “astronaut” from the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque, Mexico. 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 identify the main detail that makes a bird a bird - 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 can 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, one cannot neglect real facts for the sake of some pre-selected hypothesis.

If the facts indicate that geoglyphs on the Nazca plateau, Palpa and in 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

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Beneath the Nazca Plateau means a plain located on a hill. This area, as a rule, has a flat or undulating, slightly dissected topography. From other plain spaces of Nazcaseparated by obvious ledges. This natural formation is located in Peru, in its southern part, 450 km southeast of Lima, the capital of the country. However, this territory is notable not for its unusual location, but for its Nazca paintings., located over an area of ​​80 kilometers. These images or as they are also called the Nazca lines, made in a bizarre form: from the outlines of animals, spiders and birds, to geometric shapes. Drawings in the Nazca Desertare one of the most important mysteries for the modern research community. Dozens of activists struggle every day in so far aimless attempts to answer at least some questions regarding the mysterious images.

Nazca is a geoglyphic territory.

The plateau is vast and extends for many kilometers. This valley was considered lifeless for a long time, however, the researchers were wrong, but more on that later. Nazca coordinates, where the geoglyphs are located: 14° 45′ south latitude and 75° 05′ west longitude. The Nazca plate has an elongated shape. From north to south the length reaches approximately fifty kilometers, from west to east from 5 to 7 kilometers. The Nazca area is practically uninhabited by people and has an extremely dry climate.

Winter in the vast Nazca area lasts from June to September. This is because in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons do not coincide with those in the Northern Hemisphere. At the same time, the temperature in Nazca never drops below 16 degrees Celsius. In summer, the temperature is stable and stays around 25 degrees Celsius. Rain, despite the close location of the ocean, is a rarity for Nazca. There is also virtually no wind. There are no rivers, streams or lakes in the Nazca region and there cannot be such conditions. The presence of water in these lands is signaled only by the numerous beds of the Nazca rivers that dried up long ago and no less numerous dried up canals.

No less important component of this region than the Nazca Valley is the city with the corresponding name. It was founded by the Spaniards in 1591. In 1996, the city was completely destroyed by a strong earthquake. But, fortunately, there were few casualties, since the tremors began at noon and people were prepared. A total of 17 people died during the Nazca earthquake. And about 100 thousand people were left homeless. To date, the city of Nazca has been completely rebuilt. Multi-storey buildings were built on its territory, and the center of the city of Nazca is now decorated with a beautiful square.

However, this area is notable not for its city or plain, but for its mysterious geoglyphs, lines and drawings, which are believed to have been made by skillful human hands. However, the last statement is very, very controversial. There is a popular theory regarding Nazca, according to which the lines on the plateau were not drawn by man, but by an alien intelligence or some other unknown force.

Stunning drawings in the Nazca desert.

In total, specialists discovered 13 thousand various lines and stripes on the plateau. In science, these drawings have their own name - geoglyphs (geometric figures of bizarre shape, made in the earth's soil and having a length of at least four meters). In our case, the drawings in the Nazca Desert are shallow and long grooves of varying widths dug in the soil, which is a mixture of sand and clay. Shallow by Nazca standards - this is from 15 to 30 cm. But the length of individual lines reaches several kilometers: the longest reach 10 kilometers in length. The width of the drawings in the Nazca desert is also striking: In some cases, it ranges from 150 to 200 meters.

In addition to lines, all sorts of figures were found on the territory of the plateau, well known to every person from geometry - triangles and quadrangles. Some Nazca Desert patterns are trapezoidal because they only have two parallel sides. There are about seven hundred such creations of unknown origin on the plateau. There are also figures that resemble animals: monkeys, birds, killer whales, llamas and other inhabitants of flora and fauna. Single drawings in the Nazca desert depict fish, spiders, lizards and sharks. There are not many of them in total, no more than forty.

The figures amaze the imagination with their enormous size, but people are unable to understand their true purpose. Obviously, the answer may lie in the depths of the plain, which means that in order to understand who created the drawings in the Nazca desert and why, it is necessary to begin excavations. The problem is that archaeological excavations are prohibited here, since the plain has the status of a sacred zone. So the mystery of the drawings in the Nazca desert remains unsolved. And something tells me that it will remain like this for a very, very long time, until the scientific community comes to its senses.

Mysterious Nazca Lines.

However, no matter how sacred this land is, human curiosity has never stopped at anything and is not going to stop. The first person suffering from the “vice” of curiosity found himself in these forbidden lands in 1927. He was an archaeologist from Peru, Mejia Toribio Hesspe. He studied the Nazca Lines from the foothills surrounding the plateau.

In 1930, a mysterious plot of land where Nazca lines, anthropologists studied from a bird's eye view, flying around on an airplane. They, in fact, confirmed the fact of the presence of lines in Nazca. Archaeologists got the opportunity to closely study such unique creations only in 1946. But this was not a targeted government or research program with appropriate funding, but individual expeditions of enthusiastic scientists.

It turned out that our distant ancestors or alien entities made the Nazca lines and small trenches by removing the surface of a clay soil layer rich in iron oxide. The gravel has been almost completely removed from the Nazca Lines section, and underneath is light-colored soil. As a result, the Nazca lines became so catchy and at the same time durable.

The light-colored soil of the local lands surrounding the paintings on the Nazca plateau boasts a high lime content. In the open air, it hardens almost instantly and forms a durable protective layer that perfectly prevents erosion. For this reason, the mysterious Nazca Lines have been preserved in their original form for thousands of years, at least this is the opinion of researchers. The longevity of the Nazca lines was also facilitated by the absence of winds as such, precipitation and stable air temperatures. If the climate had been different, these drawings would have disappeared from the face of the earth long before they were discovered.

However, they exist and their presence has puzzled more than one generation of researchers, archaeologists and simply scientists from all over the world. Official science, which has long formed its attitude towards the Nazca lines, claims that all these geoglyphs, lines and drawings were created during the Nazca civilization. This ancient empire is believed to have existed in the period from 300 BC to 800 AD. A significant part of scientists agree that most of the drawings were created during this period of 1100 years. It is believed that the Nazca Civilization had a very developed culture, the golden age of which dates back to 100-200 AD.

The Nazca Plateau and its mystical civilization.

The Nazca civilization sank into oblivion presumably at the end of the 8th century. The reason for this was allegedly the floods that the Nazca plateau encountered towards the end of the first millennium. The waters flooded and destroyed the agricultural lands of the ancient people. Some people died of hunger, the rest were forced to leave the poor land. A few centuries later, the Nazca plateau was inhabited by the Incas. However, this was already a completely different, and a different culture, whose customs certainly did not include drawing giant lines on the ground.

Well, let's say the ancient people Nazca plateau really created mysterious creations on this earth, but why were they created, and most importantly, how could the aborigines make trenches several kilometers long on rough terrain. Even using modern techniques and devices, it is extremely difficult to draw an ideal straight line along the ground, say, 5-8 kilometers long.

In accordance with the theory of scientists, they did all this once or twice. Over the course of some centuries, the Nazca Plateau has turned from a lifeless valley into the most bizarre and richest territory in geoglyphs on the whole Earth. The first settlers crossed ravines and hills, but at the same time their geometric lines, Nazca geoglyphs, remained perfectly correct, and the edges were strictly parallel, which seems incredible. In addition to the stripes and trenches in the Nazca plateau, unknown artists also created figures of various animals. From the air they appear, although bizarre, but easily recognizable. Again, how the first people in these lands managed to depict, say, hummingbirds with such accuracy is categorically unclear.

The mentioned hummingbird, by the way, like many Nazcas, reaches fifty meters in length. Another picture bird, the condor, is 120 meters long. And the spider, similar to its relatives living in the Amazon jungle, boasts a length of 46 meters. It is noteworthy that all these masterpieces of the Nazca plateau can only be seen by rising high into the air or climbing some mountain, which, unfortunately, is not nearby. From the ground and small hills, these patterns are indistinguishable and appear as a simple series of lines and trenches. Of course, you can make out individual silhouettes and strokes, however, the full picture is only visible from the air.

Obviously, the civilization that inhabited the Nazca plateau did not have any aircraft. There were no hot air balloons, no airplanes, much less rockets in prehistoric times. So how could they recreate their drawings with such precision, without being able to evaluate the work done and identify flaws in order to correct them?! This remains as much a mystery as the functionality of the images of the Nazca plateau. Why were they created? Is it really just for the sake of aesthetic beauty or maybe for some religious purposes? Question, question and another unanswered question.

It is generally difficult for modern people to understand the logic of their distant ancestors. We don’t understand people who lived a hundred years ago; how can we understand the motives of those who lived thousands, two thousand years ago. It is quite possible that all the lines and images of the Nazca Plateau have no practical component at all? The ancient people created them to show that they were capable of this. But why was it necessary to spend so much effort and time on self-affirmation?! Wouldn’t it be easier to start another war; in ancient times this seemed to be a much more common practice?!

Nazca drawings and related theories.

There are no less scientists who are confident that a person is behind the creation of mysterious drawings on the territory of the plateau than those who believe that Nazca drawings were created by an alien race. In their opinion, all the images and lines on the plateau are nothing more than runways. The version involving Peru, the Nazca Plateau, of course, has a right to life, it remains unclear why the alien spaceships did not have a vertical take-off, or why create runways in the bizarre shape of terrestrial animals? If you wanted to stand out in this way, why not make a couple of Nazca drawings in the shape of the fauna that live in your world? However, it is better not to focus on this, because theories and guesses regarding the motives of alien creators seem even more elusive than the motivation of the first people.

It is better to pay attention to this: Nazca drawings in the form of animals, birds and insects were created much earlier than simple triangles and other geometric shapes. This is not a confirmed fact, the theory is still under development, however, even now most scientists agree that this is true, complex Nazca drawings were created before simple images and trenches. Be that as it may, a simple conclusion suggests itself: did unknown masters first make more complex forms, obviously created in several stages, and only then other people began to practice drawing straight lines and trapezoids. Or maybe over the long centuries it took to create the drawings for which the desert is famous Nazca on the map, did the masters of ancient civilization lose technology or simply forget how to create complex images? All these are just more questions, the answers to which we, apparently, will not get very, very soon, if ever.

At the same time, there are a few people in the scientific community who believe that all Nazca drawings were made in the same period. But what scientists agree on is the idea that certain representatives of the ancient Nazca people had knowledge of astronomy.

For example, Maria Reiche (1903-1998), a German mathematician and archaeologist who worked on mysterious lines for almost 50 years, once claimed that the Nazca drawing in the form of a huge spider is very reminiscent of a star cluster in the constellation Orion. Three straight lines lead to the figure; they presumably served to track changes in the declinations of the three brightest stars in Orion's Belt: Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

There is another very interesting theory involving the Nazca figures. Archaeologist Johan Reinhard, who is American by birth, believes that the lines and figures of the animals were part of religious rites or, at least, were built for some religious purposes. The figures of animals, insects and birds were supposedly associated with the worship of gods. With the help of Nazca drawings, people asked the celestials for water to irrigate their lands. It’s not entirely clear how exactly this ritual took place, but it doesn’t matter; what’s more important is whether it took place at all? It is obvious that the ancient people were novices of the pagan faith and, as in any such religion, the cult of the gods occupies a central place not only in religion, but also in the everyday life of people. It is likely that the Nazca civilization actually carried out certain rituals to worship its deities, but it is almost impossible to prove this.

Today, the attention of researchers from all over the world is not focused on the Nazca drawings or even on the mysteries surrounding them. While people are speculating and guessing, a serious environmental threat looms over the plateau. Deforestation and pollution of the surrounding atmosphere are changing the balanced and practically unchanged climate of the plain for the worse. The Nazca Plate is facing problems: it rains more and more often, landslides and other misfortunes occur, one way or another affecting the integrity of the images. This is a very serious threat and if nothing is done in the next 5-10 years, or maybe less, the Nazca drawings will be lost forever, and then there is no doubt that answers to the questions posed by the research community will never be obtained. We will certainly never know who and why created this, without exaggeration, wonderful and unique phenomenon.

 

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