The Nazca Lines are one of the biggest mysteries of the ancient world. The Nasca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Pampa region of Peru. The Nazca Desert is located more than 80 kilometers between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. These lines aren't the only geoglyphs in the world. The drawings at Nazca, however, are unique because it consists of 300 figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes and pictures of animals and birds. They range in size up to 300 m across. Because of their size, they can only be recognized as coherent figures from the air.
The Lines were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920's. In 1939, Paul Kosok, an American Scientist began to investigate the Nazca Lines. According to the researchers, Nazca lines were created by the Nazcans 2,000 years ago. The Nazcan culture flourished between 200 BCE and 600 CE along rivers that flow from the Andes. Archaeologists have now uncovered Cahuachi, the lost city of the Nazcans. This city was mysteriously abandoned 1,500 ago. The creation of Nazca lines took hundreds of years and required a large number of workers.
How did primitive people such as the Nazcans were able to make these lines so precise? For whom? And why?
Were the Nazcans Able to Fly?
Nazca lines can only be recognized from the air so, how did the Nazcans was able to build them? Julian Nott, has suggested that Nazcan's chiefs could have been aloft in a hot air balloons. This theory was based on two sources. First, figures of what may have been balloons or kites on pottery found in Cahuachi. Second, the findings of burn pits at the end of many of the lines, which may have been launch sites for hot air balloons.
Ancient Astronomy
According to Maria Reiche, a German mathematician, the Nazca lines was a giant astronomical calendar. She believed that these figures correspond to constellations and the annual change of the seasons. Unfortunately, many scientist disagree with Maria Reiche's theory, because there almost infinite number of possible astronomical correlations.
Anthony Aveni, an astronomer at Colgate University, found similarities between the Nazca lines and the ceque system of the Incas. The ceque system has several functions. It provided a calendar and also functioned as astronomical sight lines.
Religious Purposes
Some researchers believe that the Nazca Lines were created for religious purposes. According to archeologist Johan Reinhard, the straight lines are sacred pathways to a place, from which the Nazcans worshipped the water source. He also proposes that the animal figures represent the forms taken on by the mountain gods. The figures were created in large size, so that they would be clearly visible to the mountain gods, presumed to exist up above.
Alan Sawyer, an art historian, suggested that the Nazca lines were probably a path of a ritual maze. A large group of worshipers walked along a preset pattern dedicated to a particular holy entity. This theory is supported by the residents of the local villages; they believed that the Nazcans conducted rituals on these giant drawings to thank the gods in order to ensure that water would continue to flow from the Andes.
Alien Airfield
The Nazca lines attracted public attention not long after the UFO sightings began. James W. Moseley suggested that the Nazca lines were constructed as signals to interplanetary visitors. In the early 1960s, Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier suggested that the aliens have visited the earth early in human history and played a part in the development of human intelligence and technology.
These theories were supported by Erich von Daniken's book “Chariot of the Gods?” Von Daniken believed that the Nazca lines marked out an "airfield" on which spacecraft landed and took off. He argued that the Nazca lines and figures could have been built based on instructions from alien's spacecraft. He views the large figures as signals and the lines as landing strips.
Some scientist criticized von Daniken statement because; it seems unreasonable that Nazca's soft, sandy soil was suitable for an airport. The alien theory is proposed mainly because it is very difficult to believe that primitive Indians could have had the intelligence to conceive of such a project,
The Nazca Lines are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and also the most popular tourist destinations in Peru.
