Nazca Lines - a collection of huge geoglyphs - the projects or motives imprinted to the earth - located in the Peruvian coastal simple about 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of Lima, Peru. Naski created by ancient culture in South America and the image of various plants, animals and forms, 2.000-year Nazca Lines can be realized only when they are considered from air, considering their considerable size. Despite the fact that to be studied more than 80 years, geoglyphs - which were defined the UNESCO world heritage site in 1994 - are still secret to researchers.

What to be Nazca Lines?

There are three main types of Nazca Lines: straight lines, geometrical projects and the illustrated representations.

On the coastal plain there are more than 800 straight lines some of which 30 miles (48 km) length. Besides, there are more than 300 geometrical projects which include the main forms, such as triangles, rectangles, and trapezoids and also spirals, arrows, zigzags and wavy lines.

Nazca Lines, perhaps, are known first of all for representations about 70 animals and plants some of which have the sizes of 1.200 feet (370 meters) length. It is possible to give as an example a spider, a humming-bird, a cactus, a monkey, a whale, a lama, a duck, a flower, a tree, a lizard and a dog.

Naski's people also created other forms, such as humanoid number (the called "Astronaut"), hands and some not identified descriptions.

In 2011 the Japanese team found a new geoglyph which, apparently, represents the place of beheading which, approximately 4.2 meters long and 3.1 meters wide is, much less, than other indicators of Naski and not easily noticed on aerial photo shoots. Naski's people, as it was known, collected "the top parts of a trophy", and the research in 2009 showed that the majority of skulls of a trophy arrived from the same population as people, they were buried with (but not out of cultures).

In 2016 the same team found other geoglyph, this time that which represents a mythical being (length of 30 meters) 98 feet long which has many legs and certain markings, and suffers its language.

And in 2018, the Peruvian archeologists declared that they found more than 50 new geoglyphs in the region, using technology of the drone to plot sights in unprecedented details.

Picture Copyright: The Nasca Lines, Peru

As Nazca Lines were created

Anthropologists trust the culture of Naski which began about 100 BC and prospered from our era 1 - 700, created the majority of Nazca Lines. The cultures of Chavin and Parakas who precede Nask perhaps, also created some geoglyphs.

Nazca Lines are located in plains of the desert of a river basin of Rio Grande de Nasca, the place of archeological excavations which covers more than 75.000 hectares and is one of the driest places on Earth.

The bottom of the desert is covered with a layer of the pebble of deep color of rust covered with oxide of iron. The ancient people created the projects, having removed the best 12 - 15 inches of the rock, having shown lighter sand is lower. They probably began with small models and carefully increased proportions of models to create big projects.

The majority of the known geoglyphs was created, having removed rocks only from border of numbers (creating some kind of scheme) while others were created, having removed rocks from an interior.

Considering the low sum of a rain, winds and erosion in the desert, geoglyphs remained generally safe within centuries.

Nazca Lines and foreigners?

Toribio Mejia Csesspe, the Peruvian archeologist, began a systematic research of lines in 1926, but geoglyphs only drew widespread attention when pilots flew over them in the 1930th. Experts discussed the purpose of Nazca Lines since then.

In the late thirties and in the early forties, the American historian Paul Kozok studied geoglyphs from the earth and air. On the basis of relative arrangement of one of lines he studied to the sun around a winter solstice, he came to conclusion that geoglyphs had a purpose connected with astronomy.

Soon after Maria Reiche, the German archeologist and the translator, also I came to conclusion that projects had astronomical also calendrical the purpose. She believed further that some geoglyphs of animals were representative for groups of stars in the sky.

In the late sixties and in the early seventies, however, other researchers, including the American astronomer Gerald Hawkins, investigated Nazca Lines and didn't agree with an astronomical explanation of geoglyphs. They also stuck openings in other far explanations, such as those which concern foreigners or ancient astronauts.

Picture Copyright: The Nasca Lines, Peru

Purpose of Nazca Lines

Fresher research assumed that the purpose of Nazca Lines was connected to irrigate, valuable goods in barren lands of the Peruvian coastal plain. Geoglyphs weren't used as an irrigational system or the guide to find water, and it is rather as a part of a ritual to gods - effort to bring very necessary rain.

Some scientists point to descriptions of animals - some of which are symbols for a rain, water or abundance and were found on other ancient Peruvian places and on pottery - as proofs of this theory.

In 2015 the researchers representing on the 80th annual social gathering of the American Archeology claimed that the purpose of the Nazca Lines changed over time. Originally, the pilgrims going to the Peruvian complexes of the temple used geoglyphs as the ritual routes relating to a procession. Later groups as a part of a religious practice, broke ceramic pots on the earth when crossing between lines.

Preservation problems

Unlike other relics around the world, Nazca Lines are generally saved from unintentional destruction thanks to their arrangement. But geoglyphs aren't absolutely safe.

In 2009 the Nazca Lines transferred the first registered damage case from a rain. The heavy rains flowing from the panamerican Highway - network of roads which connects almost all countries in America to the Pacific coast - the deposited sand and clay on three fingers of a geoglyph of a manual form.

Five years later the group of environmentalists Greenpeace hurt area about a humming-bird geoglyph during a trick of media. Activists broke the top layer of rocks of a humming-bird when they crushed through forbidden area of the desert to establish the big sign which advances renewable energy.

And in 2018, the commercial truck driver was arrested after he went on a portion of Nazca Lines, imprinting deep scars to the area about 100 feet on 330 feet (about 50 meters by 100 meters). Damage caused by the truck driver renewed appeals to bigger safety and on-site observation.

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