The drawings of the Nazca desert are simply amazing! Their lines stretch from horizon to horizon, occasionally converge, intersect; it involuntarily gives the impression that this is the runway of ancient aircraft. Here you can clearly distinguish flying birds, spiders, monkeys, fish, lizards...
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Nazca is a desert in Peru, surrounded by low spurs of the Andes and bare and lifeless hills of dense dark sand. This desert stretches between the valleys of the Nazca and Ingenio rivers, 450 kilometers south of the Peruvian city of Lima.

"Many centuries before the Incas, on the southern coast of Peru, a historical monument was created that has no equal in the world and is intended for posterity. In terms of size and accuracy of execution, it is not inferior to Egyptian pyramids. But if there we look, raising our heads, at monumental three-dimensional structures of a simple geometric shape, then here, on the contrary, we have to look from high altitude to the wide expanses covered with mysterious hieroglyphs, as if drawn on the plain by a giant hand. "With these words, the book of the Nazca desert explorer Maria Reiche begins. "The Secret of the Desert." Mathematician and astronomer Maria Reiche specially moved from Germany to Peru to study the mysterious drawings. Perhaps, she is the main explorer and guardian of the desert plateau, where, thanks to her efforts, a protected area was created.Reiche was the first to draw up maps and plans of all lines, sites and drawings.

Extremely impressive are giant drawings scattered between abstract figures and spirals, the size of which reaches tens, and sometimes hundreds of meters. Of all animals the largest number- birds. Fantastic and quite authentically drawn, in total 18 birds are depicted in the desert. But there are also completely mysterious animals, such as, for example, a dog-like creature with thin legs and a long tail. Images of people are also found, although they are drawn less expressively. Among the images of people there is a bird-man with the head of an owl, the size of this drawing is more than 30 meters. And the size of the so-called "big lizard" is 110 meters!

The area of ​​the desert is approximately 500 square kilometers. The surface of the soil here is amazing in that it is covered with a kind of engraving, reminiscent of a tattoo. This "tattoo" on the surface of the desert is not deep, but huge in size lines and figures. There are 13,000 lines, more than 100 spirals, over 700 geometric platforms (trapezoids and triangles) and 788 figures depicting animals and birds. This "engraving" of the earth stretches about 100 kilometers deep in a winding ribbon, the width of which is from 8 to 15 kilometers. These drawings were discovered thanks to photographs taken from an airplane. From a bird's eye view, it can be seen that the figures were created by removing brown stones from the light sandy subsoil, covered with a thin black layer of the so-called "desert tan", which is formed by manganese and iron oxide.

The figures and lines are perfectly preserved due to the arid climate of the area. A wooden stake found in the desert, driven into the ground, was carefully examined and radiocarbon dated, which showed that the tree had been felled in 526 AD. Official science believes that all these figures were created by one of the Indian cultures of the pre-Inca period, which existed in the south of Peru and which flourished in 300-900 years. AD the technique of executing the lines of these huge "drawings" is very simple. As soon as you remove the top layer of dark rubble that has darkened with time from the lighter bottom layer, a contrasting stripe appears. The ancient Indians first made a sketch of the future drawing 2 by 2 meters in size on the ground. Such sketches have been preserved not far from some figures. In the sketch, each straight line was divided into its constituent segments. Then, on an enlarged scale, the segments were transferred to the surface with the help of stakes and a wooden rope. Curved lines were much more difficult, but the ancients managed to do it too, breaking each curve into many short arcs. It must be said that each drawing is outlined by only one continuous line. And perhaps the greatest mystery Nazca drawings lies in the fact that their creators have never seen and could not see them in their entirety.

The question is quite natural: for whom did the ancient Indians do such a titanic work? Paul Kosok, a researcher of these drawings, estimates that it took more than 100,000 years of working days to create the Nazca complex by hand. Even if this working day lasted 12 hours. Paul Kosok suggested that these lines and drawings are nothing more than a giant calendar that accurately shows the change of seasons. Maria Reiche tested Kosok's hypothesis and gathered irrefutable evidence that the drawings are related to the summer and winter solstices. The beak of a fantastic bird, with a neck length of 100 meters, is located at the point of sunrise during the winter solstice.

Some scientists put forward a version that the drawings had an exclusively cult significance, but such a version is rather doubtful, because a religious building must certainly affect people, and huge drawings on the ground are not perceived at all. The Hungarian cartographer Zoltan Zelke believes that the Nazca objects are just a 1:16 map of the Titicaca region. Exploring the desert for several years, he found a lot of evidence for the complete confirmation of his hypothesis. In that case, who was this super-giant card intended for? The mystery of the Nazca drawings remains unsolved to the end.

VEDIC SECRETS OF THE NASCA DESERT

The first incomprehensible lines on Nazca were discovered in 1927 by the Peruvian archaeologist Mejia Xesspe, when he accidentally glanced from a steep mountainside onto a plateau. By 1940, he had discovered several more incredible ancient signs and published the first sensational article. On June 22, 1941 (the day the Great Patriotic War began!!!), the American historian Paul Kosok lifted a light plane into the air and discovered a giant stylized bird with a wingspan of more than 200 meters, and next to it something resembling a runway. Then he discovered a giant spider, a monkey with a strangely curled tail, a whale, and finally, on a gentle mountain slope, a 30-meter figure of a man, with his hand raised in greeting. Thus, perhaps the most mysterious “picture book in the history of mankind” was discovered.
Over the next sixty years, Nazca was fairly well studied. The number of discovered drawings has long exceeded several hundred, and the vast majority of them are various geometric shapes. At the same time, some lines reach a length of up to 23 kilometers.
And today, the solution to the mystery has not become closer. What versions and hypotheses have not been put forward during this time! They tried to present the drawings as some kind of giant ancient calendar, but no mathematical justification was ever presented to the scientific world.
One of the hypotheses defined the drawings as some kind of designation of the zones of influence of the Indian clans. But the plateau has never been inhabited, and who could deal with these "ger-
bami clans, when they are only visible from a bird's eye view?
There is a version that the Nazca images are nothing more than an alien airfield. There are no words, a number of stripes indeed incredibly resemble modern runways, but where is at least some evidence of alien interference? Others argue that the Nazca are signals from an alien mind.
Recently, voices have begun to be heard that Nazca is generally the brainchild of someone's falsification. But then, over the course of decades, a whole army of falsifiers had to work hard to make the most gigantic fake in the history of mankind. How could they keep the secret in this case, and why, in the end, were they so disfigured?
The most conservative part of scientists insists that all the variety of drawings and figures was dedicated to a certain god of water: “probably! represented a kind of sacrifice to the ancestors or the gods of the sky and mountains, who sent people the water so necessary for irrigating the fields. But why was it necessary to turn to the god of water in such a remote place, where there was never any permanent residence, no agriculture, no cultivated fields? From the rain shed on Nazca, there was no particular benefit for the ancient Peruvians.
It is believed that ancient Indian athletes once ran along the giant ancient lines, that is, some ancient South American Olympiads were held on Nazca. Let's say that athletes could run in straight lines, but how could they run in spirals and in a pattern, for example, monkeys?
There were publications that huge trapezoidal areas were created for the sake of some mass ceremonies, during which sacrifices were made to the gods and mass festivities were carried out. But then why didn't the archaeologists who searched all the neighborhoods find a single confirmation of this artifact? In addition, some of the giant trapeziums are located on mountain peaks, where it is not so easy for a professional climber to climb.
There is even a completely absurd version that all the gigantic work was done solely for the purpose of a kind of occupational therapy, in order to at least something to occupy the idle ancient Peruvians ... They say that all Nazca images are nothing more than a giant loom of the ancient Peruvians, who they laid out their threads along the lines, since in the pre-Columbian era, the Americans did not know the wheel and did not have a spinning wheel ... It was even argued that the Nazca drawings were a huge encrypted map of the world. Alas, so far no one has undertaken to decipher it.
The most cautious part of historians defines the drawings and lines of Nazca as some kind of "paths that had a sacred meaning, along which ritual processions were made." But then again, who could see these trails from the ground?
Until now, scientists have not come to an opinion how the Nazca drawings were created, because the production of images of such a huge scale is of great technical difficulty even today. Only the technology of direct creation of stripes has been more or less accurately established. It was quite simple: the surface layer of stones was removed from the ground, under which the ground had a lighter color. However, the creators of the drawings had to first create sketches of future giant images on a small scale and only then transfer them to the area. How at the same time they managed to maintain the accuracy and correctness of all the lines is a mystery! To do this, at a minimum, they had to have at hand the entire arsenal of modern geodetic equipment, not to mention the most perfect mathematical knowledge. By the way, today's experimenters were only able to repeat the creation of straight lines, but they were powerless before ideal circles and spirals... Except
This, the images were created not only on flat areas of the earth. They were applied on very steep slopes and even on almost sheer cliffs! But that's not all! In the Nazca region, there are Palpa mountains, some of which are cut like a table, as if some monster had gnawed their top. Drawings, lines and geometric images are also placed on these giant artificial sections.
Regarding the time of construction, there is also no unity. Now it is customary to divide everything created on the plateau into seven conditional cultures very spaced apart in time from Nazca-1 to Nazca-7. Some archaeologists are inclined to attribute the creation of the Nazca drawings to the time interval from 500 AD. before 1200 AD Others categorically object, since the Inca Indians inhabiting this region of Peru do not have even distant legends regarding Nazca, which gives reason to attribute the time of the creation of images to almost 100,000 years BC. They tried to determine the age of the bands from the remains of fragments of clay shards found nearby. It was believed that ancient builders drank from clay jugs, and then sometimes they broke them. However, sherds of all seven cultures were found everywhere in the same strip, and, in the end, this dating attempt was considered unsuccessful.
The scientific study of Nazca today is hindered by the prohibitions of the authorities. Due to the fact that after the discovery of the drawings, the plateau was subjected to a real invasion of "wild" tourists, who traveled all over the plateau in cars and motorcycles, spoiling the drawings, now it is strictly forbidden for anyone to appear directly on the Nazca plateau. Nazca was declared an archaeological park and taken under the protection of the state, and the fine for unauthorized entry into the park is an astronomical amount - 1 million US dollars. Everyone, however, can admire the giant ancient images from the board of tourist planes, which continuously circle over the mysterious plateau. But for real scientific research, this, you see, is still not enough.
But the secrets of Nazca do not end there. If on the surface of the plateau there are gigantic drawings that are still incomprehensible to human understanding, then in the depths of the caves there are even more incredible pukios - the oldest underground water pipes in granite pipes. There are 29 giant puquios in the Nazca Valley. The current Indians attribute their creation to the creator god Viracocha, but the canals are the work of human hands. At the same time, one of the canals was drawn under the local river Rio de Nasca, so much so that its purest water did not in any way mix with the dirty water of the river! From the description of an eyewitness: “Sometimes stone spirals lead deep into the earth, and watercourses have an artificial channel lined with slabs and smoothly hewn blocks. Sometimes the inlet is a deep shaft, going into the thickness of the earth ... Everywhere and everywhere these underground channels are artificial structures .. ”Pukios is also from the realm of eternal mysteries. Who, when and why created these gigantic water structures under a deserted plateau? Who used them?

Ancient clay figurine depicting a dinosaur operation.

In the capital of the province of Nazca, the town of Ica, lives the owner of the most incredible collection in the world, professor of medicine, Hanviera Cabrera. He has more than two and a half thousand figurines made of unbaked clay, which the professor gets from local Indians. The figurines depict the ancient inhabitants of Peru next to dinosaurs and pterodactyls. At the same time, the ancient Peruvians perform operations on dinosaurs, fly on pterodactyls and look into space through a telescope. The figurines are estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000 years old, perhaps even more. As for the radiocarbon method, it gave very contradictory results. In addition to figurines, Professor Cabrera's collection contains similar drawings on stones, including those depicting aircraft in the starry sky. The collection of Professor Cabrera is no exception. The famous Mexican collection of Acambaro also contains dinosaurs, including flying ones. The same is in the Ecuadorian collection of Father Crecy. In addition, there is also a collection of Russell Burrows, who found statues with strikingly similar subjects in the caves of Illinois. The same was found not so long ago in Japan. Falsification in this case is impossible even theoretically! Well, and, finally, the most scandalous find on the Paluxy River in the US state of Texas, where archaeologists discovered dinosaur bones and fossilized human footprints in the same rock! So people lived already in the era of dinosaurs, or, conversely, dinosaurs lived in the era of people! But both completely change our ideas about the beginning of the human era, and therefore one can imagine how much irritation, misunderstanding and simply outright opposition these findings cause among the elite of the scientific world, who have made a name for themselves on those hypotheses that are now completely crossed out by the finds of recent years!
And how not to recall here the seemingly absurd assumptions of the Crimean academician A.V. Gokh, who says that it is necessary to create a huge number of repeaters Crimean pyramids protein, was obtained from huge dinosaur eggs. It should be recognized that the statements of the Crimean academician now do not look so groundless.
Now, I think, it's time to present to the readers the hypothesis of the Emil Bagirov Institute regarding giant geoglyphs in the Nazca desert. However, to begin with, two more facts.
First. More recently, the German researcher Erich von Daniken (known to us from the sensational journalistic film "Memories of the Future") was discovered in Nazca by a giant ... classic MANDALA! Yes Yes! The same sacred man-dapa with which today's Tibetans and Hindus designate the pictures they contemplate during meditation! The same mandala, which was once the sacred sign of the Aryans and one of the main Vedic symbols. Coincidence? No way!
Second. The ancient texts of the Old World everywhere tell about some aircraft, and devices of completely earthly origin.
For example, in The Book of the Majesty of Kings, the flights of King Solomon are described in great detail: in one day they made a journey of three months ... He (Solomon) gave her all sorts of curiosities and treasures that you could wish for and a chariot that moves through the air and which he created according to the wisdom bestowed on him by God ...
And the inhabitants of the land of Egypt told them: in ancient times the Ethiopians visited here; they moved on a chariot like an angel, and at the same time they flew faster than an eagle in the sky. Quotations from the famous “Mahatbharata” are no less indicative: “l / i then the king (Rumanvat) with his servants and harem, with his wives and nobles entered the heavenly chariot. They circled the entire expanse of the sky, following the direction of the wind. The heavenly chariot circled the whole earth, (flying) over the oceans, and headed towards the city of Avantis, where the festival was just taking place. After a short stop, the king again took to the air in front of countless onlookers, who were amazed at the sight of the heavenly chariot.
Or here's another: “Arjuna, the terror of the enemies, desired that Indra send his celestial chariot after him. And then, in the radiance of light, a chariot suddenly appeared, illuminating the airy twilight and illuminating the clouds around and all the surroundings were filled with a roar similar to thunder ... "
So, all Indian sources claim that the ancient Aryan civilization had airships - vimanas. We find echoes of these unusual vehicles in the legends of the peoples of the Aryan area, for example, the famous Russian fairy tales about a flying ship and so on. But for the takeoff and landing of vimanas, runways and runways were needed. Are there traces of them in the Old World? As it turns out there is! At the present time, at least three are already known: one in England, the second on the Ustyurt plateau near the Aral Sea, and the third in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, similar giant geoglyphs were found everywhere, as in Nazca, although in smaller numbers. And this despite the fact that no purposeful searches for airports of antiquity have ever been carried out anywhere.
So what can you guess? After destruction Tower of Babel, that is, after the collapse of a single ancient Vedic faith into several concessions, an energetic migration of Aryan tribes began, and with it the export of Vedic religion and knowledge. Of course, the main settlement of the Aryans went on land. It spread throughout Eurasia, where the Vedic influence is felt everywhere to this day. However, most likely, some of the Aryans also used the mysterious vimanas, which, as we already know, had a long flight range and could fly over the oceans. It was then, most likely, that a heroic throw across Africa and the Atlantic followed South America. But why was the landing made on Nazca? It can be assumed that for some time this area attracted the Aryans because the Nazca region is rich in deposits of iron and copper ore, gold and silver. Let us also pay attention to the fact that it was in the Nazca region that very ancient abandoned mines for the extraction of all these metals were discovered.
Apparently, for some time the Aryans from the arrived Vimans lived in these places. They brought the local residents into obedience, organized the mining of metals, introduced and spread among the ancient Peruvians the cult of the Great Mother Goddess, the Holy Logo of the Sun-Khorsa, the immortality of the soul and rebirth. It was then that the runways and geometric signs were built, allowing the vimanas to be guided correctly on them, underground water conduits, facilitating the provision of water. It seems that the Vimanas actively carried out the export of mined metals to Egypt or some other countries that were in the area of ​​the then Aryan influence. It is possible that the Aryans also used tamed local pterodactyls for short flights, which was captured in the ancient clay figurines of Peru. Such an experience, too, apparently, was. Suffice it to recall the same "Avesta" and "Rig Veda", numerous European-Aryan mythology, where heroes very often use flying lizards as a completely suitable means of transportation. The same Russian heroes, for example, on occasion willingly used the legendary Serpent Gorynych for this purpose ...
However, the time has come and the Aryans who settled on Nazca, having fulfilled their mission, forever left the place, which was not very suitable for permanent residence, leaving local residents Vedic cults, knowledge of crafts and a firm belief that the departed people-gods will someday return. It was then, apparently, that the intensive creation of many drawings began, so that the people-gods flying in the skies past Nazca could see that they were still waiting here, as, indeed, in other places in America, where similar geoglyphs have now been found. At the same time, they drew what, according to the Indians, most of all liked those who flew away, which once surprised and amused them: unusual monkeys, hummingbirds, whales, iguanas.
Fortunately, the Aryans left the secrets of the technology for creating grandiose images to the local residents. That is why, among other drawings, the Indians also placed a grandiose mandala - the sacred Vedic sign of the Aryans, quite logically assuming that when they see it, the people-gods will definitely return to this earth, where they are so loved and so devotedly awaited. But, alas, none of the gods ever returned.

Centuries passed, millennia. The foundations of the Vedic faith, once laid here by the Aryan priests, over time, intricately intertwined with local cults. However, the pyramids, and the cult of the Sun, and many priestly rituals today strikingly resemble their Vedic foundations. All this time, the Indians were patiently waiting for the fair-haired bearded people-gods, carrying great faith and great knowledge, to return from the west from across the ocean. The time has come and the bearded men clad in iron did indeed come from the west, but instead of the long-awaited benefits, they brought destruction and death. However, that's a completely different story...

Nazca drawings are located on Nazca Plateau- one of the most mysterious places on Earth. It is located 450 km south of the capital Peru, between cities Nazca And Palpa. Here the whole territory is 500 sq. km. covered with lines and drawings of unknown origin. They are nothing special if you look at them standing next to each other.

Map of Nazca drawings

In 1553 Cieza de Leon first reported the Nazca drawings. From his words: “Across all these valleys and along those that have already been passed, the beautiful, great road of the Incas goes along its entire length, and in some places among the sands signs are seen to guess the path that has been laid.”

ABOUTbezyan, Nazca drawing

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

In 1994, the Nazca geoglyphs were listed world heritage UNESCO.

Tree and handsNazca drawing

Nazca Plateau occupies 60 kilometers and approximately 500 square meters of its territory is covered with a tie of strange lines that form into bizarre figures. The main mystery of Nazca is geometric figures in the form of triangles and more than thirty huge drawings of animals, birds, fish, insects and unusual people. All images on the surface of Nazca are dug in sandy soil, the depth of the lines varies from 10 to 30 centimeters, and the width of the stripes can reach as much as 100 meters. The lines of the drawings stretch for kilometers, while not changing at all under the influence of the relief - the lines rise to the hills and descend from them, while remaining almost perfectly smooth and continuous. Who and why created these drawings - unknown tribes or aliens from outer space - there is still no answer to this question. To date, there are many hypotheses, but none of them can be a clue.

Dog, Nazca drawing

Whale, Nazca drawing

hummingbird has a length of 50 meters, spider — 46, condor extends from beak to tail feathers for almost 120 meters, and heron has a length of up to 188 meters. Nearly all the drawings are done on this huge scale in the same manner, with the outline outlined by one continuous line. Ideally straight lines and stripes go beyond the horizon, crossing dry riverbeds, climbing hills and at the same time not deviating from their direction (although modern geodetic methods do not allow drawing a straight line up to 8 kilometers long on rough terrain so that the deviation does not exceed 0, 1 degree). The true shape of the images can only be observed from a bird's eye view. Such a natural elevation does not exist nearby, but there are semi-mountain humps. But the higher you rise above the plateau, the smaller these drawings become and turn into incomprehensible scratches.

hummingbird,Nazca drawing

Spider, Nazca drawing

Condor, Nazca drawing

Heron, Nazca drawing

What scientists managed to establish more or less accurately is the age of the images. Based on the ceramic fragments found here and the analysis of organic remains, they found that between 350 BC. and 600 AD there was a civilization here. However, this theory cannot be accurate either, since the objects of civilization could have been brought here much later than the appearance of images. One theory says that these are the works of the Nazca Indians who inhabited the regions of Peru before the formation of the Inca Empire. The Nazca did not leave behind anything but burial places, so it is not known whether they had a written language and whether they “painted” the desert.

"Astronaut", Nazca drawing

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

Do you know what a Nazca is? This is an ancient Indian civilization. It got its name from the river, in the valley of which one can still admire numerous cultural monuments. The heyday of this civilization was observed in the first millennium BC. Later, the name Nazca was worn by a small Indian village in the south of Peru, located behind the mountain ranges. In order to get to it from the capital of the state of Lima, it was necessary to drive many kilometers through a dusty, rocky and sandy wasteland.

Today, the city of Nazca is connected by a four-lane freeway. Moreover, that part of it that passes through the bare hills and the desert is paved with wild stones. A small and quiet village in the past, today it is a small but very neat town. It has its own museum and a small park, various shops and even two banks. There are hotels of various classes in the town that accept tourists who have gone to this area in order to get acquainted with the world-famous "Pampa de Nasca".

Geography

What attracts tourists from all over the world small town in southern Peru? Travelers come here to look at the amazing and mysterious Nazca plateau. This is a plain, located on a certain hill. For her, as for all plateaus, a flat, and sometimes wavy relief is characteristic. It is slightly dissected in places. Distinct ledges separate the plateau from other plains.

Where is Nazca located? This plateau is located in the south of Peru. It is separated from the capital of the country, Lima, by 450 km, which must be overcome in a southeasterly direction. on the map is located almost in the coastal zone Pacific Ocean. From the plateau to its boundless waters - no more than eighty kilometers.

Nazca coordinates will help you find this area on the map faster. They are 14° 41' 18" South latitude and 75° 7' 22" West longitude.

The Nazca plateau has an elongated shape from north to south. Its length is 50 km. But the width of the terrain from western to eastern borders ranges from five to seven kilometers.

natural conditions

The Nazca coordinates are such that the area is located in a dry climate zone. As a result, it is sparsely populated. Winter here lasts from June to September. For us, this is surprising, but in the Southern Hemisphere it does not coincide with that which is typical for the zone located north of the equator.

As for the air temperature, it is practically stable in this area. In the winter months, its value does not fall below sixteen degrees. In the summer, the thermometer is almost constantly kept at around +25.

The Nazca plateau, as mentioned above, is located in close proximity to the waters of the Pacific Ocean. However, despite this, rains are very rare here. There are no winds on the plateau either, since it is protected from air masses by mountain ranges. There are no rivers and streams in this desert either. You can see here only their dried-up channels.

Nazca lines

However, it is not its location that attracts many tourists to this region. The Nazca plateau beckons with mysterious drawings and lines located right on earth's surface. Scientists call them geoglyphs. This concept means a geometric figure made in the earth's soil, the length of which is at least four meters.

The Nazca geoglyphs are grooves made of a mixture of sand and pebbles dug into the soil. They are not deep (15-30 cm), but long (up to 10 km), having different widths (from 150 to 200 m). Geoglyphs, or, as they are also called, Nazca lines, are made in a very bizarre form. Here you can see the outlines of birds, spiders and animals, as well as geometric shapes. In total, there are about 13 thousand such lines on the plateau.

What is this? Secrets of history? Mysteries of the past? There is no single answer to these questions. Some scientists believe that the Nazca drawings are applied to the earth's surface by skillful human hands. However, it is still impossible to confirm this assumption. There is another, rather stable opinion, according to which the stripes and lines were applied not by people, but by representatives of an alien mind. This is the greatest secret of the Nazca desert, over which dozens of scientists are struggling. However, despite this, the mystery of the Peruvian plateau remains unsolved for the modern world.

Discovery history

The Nazca Desert (Peru) is known for its huge paintings located on the plateau. These drawings, created by unknown creators, belong to the greatest achievements of world culture and are an undoubted monument of art throughout our planet.

For the first time ground giant paintings were noticed by pilots in 1927. But the geoglyphs of Nazca became known to the scientific community only twenty years later. It was then that the American historian Paul Kosok published a whole series of photographs of amazing and mysterious drawings that were made from the air.

Creation technology

Nazca drawings were created by removing debris, brown stones and volcanic pebbles, covered with a thin coating of black, from a light subsoil, consisting of a mixture of calcite, clay and sand. That is why the contours of giant figures are clearly visible from a helicopter or plane.

From the air, all the lines against the background of the soil look lighter, although from the ground or from low mountains such patterns merge with the ground, and it is impossible to distinguish them.

Lines and geometric shapes

All images that can be observed in the Nazca desert have a different shape. Some of them are stripes or lines, the width of which is in the range from fifteen centimeters to ten or more meters. Such deepenings of the soil are quite long. They can stretch from one to three or even more kilometers. The stripes can also expand smoothly along their length.

Some Nazca lines are elongated or truncated triangles. This is the most common view on the plateau. Moreover, their sizes are very diverse and range from one to three kilometers. Such triangles are often called trapezoids. Some Nazca drawings are large squares that have a rectangular or irregular shape.
You can also see such quadrangles familiar to us from geometry as trapezoids (with two parallel sides) on the plateau. There are about seven hundred such creations with clear forms in the desert.

Many lines and platforms have some deepening of the arcuate profile up to thirty or more centimeters. Moreover, all these grooves have clear boundaries, resembling a curb.

Feature of the Nazca lines

The geoglyphs of the Peruvian desert are widely known for their straightness. The imagination of travelers is literally amazed by the lines stretching for many kilometers along the plateau, easily overcoming all the features of the relief. In addition, the Nazca figures have peculiar centers, located, as a rule, on hills. At these points, different types of lines converge and diverge. Often, recesses in the ground are connected to each other, while combining in various combinations. It happens that shapes and lines overlap each other.

The location of the trapezoids is also interesting. Their bases, as a rule, are turned towards the river valleys and are located below the narrow part.

It is also surprising that:

• the edges of all lines have the highest accuracy, the spread of which is within only five centimeters over a length of several kilometers;
• the visibility of the contours is preserved even when the figures are superimposed on each other;
• there is a strict limitation of figures in width with significant lengths of the strips;
• the visibility of the stripes is maintained even with changes in the characteristics of the soil;
• there is a similarity of the configuration and arrangement of ray-shaped figures with optical schemes;
• the geometry of the figures is preserved even with complex terrain;
• there are lines that are astronomical in nature, indicating the cardinal points or the days of the equinoxes.

Various drawings

A kind of decoration of large-scale areas of the Nazca plateau are zigzags and whip-shaped figures. Among 13,000 lines, 800 platforms and hundreds of different spirals in the amazing and mysterious Peruvian desert, you can see semantic drawings. These are three dozen figures of animals and birds, including:

• a lizard 200 meters long, crossed by a ribbon of an American highway, the builders of which did not notice the drawing;
• a bird with a snake neck, stretching for 300 m;
• hundred meter condor;
• eighty meter spider.

In addition to these images, you can see fish and birds, a monkey and a flower, something similar to a tree, as well as a thirty-meter figure of a man, made not at all on a plateau, but as if carved on one of the steep slopes of a mountain.

From the ground, all these drawings are nothing but separate strokes and stripes. You can admire the giant images only by rising into the air. These greatest secrets history, the mysteries of the past have not yet been clarified by scientists. How did an ancient civilization that does not have aircraft manage to create such complex drawings, and what are their purposes?

Features of Nazca drawings

Contour images of birds and animals have different sizes, ranging from 45 to 300 m. The width of the contour line of the drawings is from 15 cm to 3 m. All semantic images that can be seen on the Nazca plateau are concentrated along its edge, located above the river valley Ingenio.

Among the features of these drawings are:

• execution of one continuous, nowhere intersecting and non-closing line;
• the beginning and end of the deepening of the soil are located on the site;
• the "output" and "input" of the circuits are two parallel lines;
• there is an ideal conjugation between curved drawings and straight lines, which, as established by scientists, are made according to the strict laws of mathematics, which explains their harmony and beauty;
• mechanical execution (except for the image of a monkey), which deprives the figures of animals of any emotional coloring;
• the presence of asymmetry, which is explained by the imperfection of the work on enlarging the sketches;
• the presence of secant lines parallel to one of the contour segments, which is explained by the complex execution of the internal space of the figure.

Assumptions and versions

Who is the author of the amazing creations located in the Nazca desert? So far, scientists can only build their own versions and put forward various hypotheses. So, there are many supporters of the assumption of the extraterrestrial origin of geoglyphs. They suggest that the wide lines served as runways for extraterrestrial civilization. However, such a hypothesis has many opponents who put forward their very weighty argument - the nature of the drawings. Yes, they are impressive and far from terrestrial in size, but their plot suggests that they were made by people, and not at all by aliens.

However, even in this case, many unresolved mysteries remain. How did unknown artists manage to create such gigantic images that are visible only from the air? Why did they do it? What techniques were used to keep the proportions of the giant models?

Hypotheses about the origin of drawings on the Nazca plateau are varied, and some of them are simply fantastic. However, among the existing versions there are those that deserve special attention.

So, according to some scientists, the entire system of Nazca lines is a huge calendar. One of the first to put forward this assumption was Paul Kosok. This American scientist was the first to discover the mysterious pile various forms and lines. His whole life after that was devoted to unraveling the mystery of the Peruvian desert. Once Kosok noticed that the setting sun had set directly at the intersection of the horizon with one of the straight lines. He also discovered a band indicating a winter opposition. There is also Kosok's assumption that certain drawings correspond to certain cosmic bodies. This hypothesis has existed for a long time. Moreover, it was supported by many famous scientists from all over the world. However, later it was proved that the percentage of coincidence of the Nazca drawings with certain planets is extremely small in order to consider this system as a calendar.

There is another very plausible version. According to her, the Nazca lines indicate the location of an extensive system of underground water channels. This hypothesis can be confirmed by the fact that the location of ancient wells coincides with the strips dug in the ground. But it is possible that this is just a coincidence.

Or maybe the purpose of the Nazca lines is of a cult nature? Excavations of archaeologists have found ancient human burials and altars in places where drawings were made. However, all ritual objects have always been built in such a way that they can evoke certain emotions and influence a person. The drawings, viewed only from a height, do not evoke any feelings in those who are on the ground.

Be that as it may, the one who created these amazing figures had the ability to somehow move through the air and was remarkably oriented in space. Maybe ancient people knew how to build balloons and flew on them?

All existing hypotheses have not yet brought humanity closer to unraveling the mystery of the Nazca desert. Maybe soon scientists will answer the question about the origin of amazing lines? Or maybe this mystery will remain unsolved ...

The Nazca Desert is located in the south of Peru, 450 kilometers from Lima. This is the region of residence of the pre-Inca civilization of Nazca (I-VI centuries AD).

The Nazca people waged wars and engaged in trade, but the main activity for them was fishing and farming. In addition, the Nazca were excellent artists and architects - we can judge this from the found ceramics of this culture and the ruins of ancient cities. There is a lot of evidence of the high level of development of this civilization, the main of which, of course, are the Nazca Lines - huge geoglyphs in the desert, visible only from a bird's eye view.

What to see

Nazca lines

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

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

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

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

How to watch
In Nazca, there are several companies that make sightseeing flights in small planes over the desert. Such, because due to the number of people who want to see the Lines of Places, it may not be at the last moment at the right date.

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

Palpa Lines

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

Ruins of Cahuachi

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

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

There was a necropolis near the city, where scientists found untouched graves with various items that were customary to put in graves (dishes, fabrics, jewelry, etc.). All finds can be seen in the Antonini Archaeological Museum (Museo Arqueológico Antonini) in Nazca.

Necropolis of Chauchilla (El cementerio de Chauchilla)

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

2 hour guided tour - 30 Sols

Entrance ticket to the Necropolis - 5 soles

San Fernando Nature Reserve (Bahía de San Fernando)

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

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

Cantayoc aqueducts

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

When to go

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

How to get to Nazca

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

The Nazca Desert is located in the department of Ica in the south of Peru, between the Ingenio and Nazca rivers. This is an area of ​​500 square kilometers, covered with huge images of people and animals, lines, spirals and geometric shapes, the size of which reaches up to 300m in length. These signs are so huge that they can only be seen from an airplane. However, today everyone can admire the mysterious symbols without leaving home, just run any program on the computer that displays satellite images of the Earth. Desert coordinates - 14°41"18.31"S 75°07"23.01"W.

The mystery of the Nazca desert was discovered in 1927, when a Peruvian pilot flying over a desert valley in southern Peru saw that the land was drawn with long lines and painted with images of animals. Such geometric patterns appeared on the Nazca plateau during the Nazca civilization. It belongs to the pre-Columbian civilizations, II-IV centuries BC.

Geoglyphs are a big mystery, because no one knows why the representatives of the ancient civilization of the Indians, who disappeared without a trace, painted huge pictures that are visible only from the air. The images seem to be scratched into the sparse, stony soil of the desert. At first glance, they are hardly distinguishable and represent a chaotic plexus of lines drawn by someone on the reddish surface of the desert, but from a bird's eye view, this randomness makes sense.

Despite the fact that geoglyphs were discovered in the last century, the purpose of these amazing drawings is still unknown. Researchers A. Krebe and T. Mejia consider them part of the ancient irrigation system. T. Mejia also later also later suggested that the images are connected with the holy path of the Incas. Some signs, such as mounds of stones at the intersections of the lines, indicate that the figures were used for cult purposes.

P. Kozok, who visited the Nazca Valley in 1941, drew attention to the special role of lines in the rays of the setting sun during the summer solstice and called these lines the largest astronomy textbook on earth. Later, this theory was developed by the German researcher M. Reiche in her research. In her opinion, some of the geometric figures symbolize the constellations, and the images of animals - the location of the planets.

The study of astronomy for ancient civilizations made a lot of sense. Among other things, it also had a practical function - it helped to predict rainy periods important for agriculture, but archaeologist H. Lancho suggested that the drawings were maps showing the way to vital places, for example, to underground water sources.

The most incredible and at the same time the most popular theory belongs to the famous Swiss researcher Erich von Daniken. He suggested that the images are nothing more than markings on the earth's surface for aliens from other planets.

No less surprising is another hypothesis, according to which the representatives of the ancient Nazca civilization mastered aeronautics, which is why the drawings are distinguishable only from a height. In support of this theory, several dark spots that are present on the surface of the plateau are interpreted as traces of fires on the grounds for balloons. In addition, the pottery of the Nazca Indians has patterns resembling balloons or kites.

The exact age of the geoglyphs is unknown. According to the results of archaeological research, the images were created in different periods. The earliest, most straight lines appeared probably in the sixth century BC, the latest - drawings of animals - in the first century AD.

Scientists have proven that the figures were created by hand. The drawings were drawn on the surface of the desert in the form of furrows 130 cm wide and 50 cm deep. On dark soil, the lines form white stripes. Since the light lines heat up less than the surrounding surface, there is a difference in pressure and temperature, which leads to the fact that the lines do not suffer during sandstorms.

Who and why painted these pictures on the surface in ancient times, distinguishable only from a great height, still remains a mystery. A huge number of theories have been put forward, but none of them has yet received scientific confirmation.