Plateau Nazca is located in the south of the state of Peru. Due to its dry climate and lack of water and vegetation, the area is also called the Nazca Desert. The name of the plateau is associated with

Pre-Columbian civilization,
existed in these places in the time period of 500 years. BC . and 500 g. AD Its fame plateau Nazca received thanks to geoglyphs - huge drawings drawn on the ground, which can only be seen from the air.

Discovery of the Nazca geoglyphs.
Mysterious drawings in the desert plateau became known back in 1553 from the Spanish priest Pedro Cieza de Leon. Traveling through the territory of the modern state of Peru, he wrote in his notes about the many lines drawn on the ground, which he called the “Inca Road,” and about certain signs also drawn in the sand. The first to see these signs from the air was the American archaeologist Paul Kosok, who was flying over the vast plateau in 1939. A major contribution to the study of Nazca paintings was made by the German archaeologist Maria Reiche. In 1947, she flew over the plateau in an airplane took a photo geoglyphs from the air.

Description of the drawings on the Nazca plateau
Geoglyphs measure several tens of meters in size, and the Nazca lines extend for many kilometers and sometimes even go beyond the horizon, crossing hills and dried up river beds. Images are applied to the surface by extracting soil. They form furrows about 135 cm wide and 30 -50 cm deep. The drawings have survived to this day due to the dry semi-desert climate. Today we know about 30 drawings depicting geometric figures, animals, and only one depicts humanoid a creature about 30 meters high, similar to an astronaut. Among the animal images, the most famous are the spider, hummingbird, whale, condor and monkey. The geoglyph depicting a condor is one of the largest in the desert. Its length from beak to tail is 120 meters. For comparison: the size of a spider is 46 meters, and a hummingbird is 50 meters.

Mysteries of the Nazca Desert geoglyphs
The mysterious drawings have left archaeologists and historians with many questions. Who created them? How and for what purpose? It is impossible to see geoglyphs from the ground. They are visible only from the air, and there are no mountains nearby from which these lines and drawings could be seen. Another question that arises is that next to the drawings and lines there are no traces of ancient artists, although if a car passes over the surface, traces will remain. It is noteworthy that the monkey and whale depicted on the geoglyphs do not live in this area.

Exploring the Nazca Plateau
Some scientists believe that geoglyphs had ritual significance for the ancient inhabitants of the valley. Since they could only be seen from the air, only the gods, whom people addressed with the help of drawings, could see them. Many researchers adhere to the hypothesis that the Nazca images were created by the civilization of the same name, which lived in these places in the 2nd century BC. Explorer Maria Reiche believes that geoglyphs were first made on small sketches, and only then applied to the surface in full size. As evidence, she provided a sketch found in these places. In addition, at the ends of the lines depicting the drawings, wooden posts driven into the ground were found. They could serve as coordinates of points when drawing geoglyphs. The research results showed that the images were created at different times. The intersecting and overlapping lines indicate that ancient painting covered the land of the valley in several stages.

Various versions of the origin of Geglyphs
Many historians and archaeologists adhere to astronomical versions of drawings. The ancient inhabitants of the Nazca Desert may have been well versed in astronomy. The created gallery is a kind of star map. This version was supported by the German archaeologist Maria Reiche. American astronomer Phyllis Pitlugi cites in favor of this version the fact that the geoglyph depicting a spider is a drawing showing a cluster of stars in the constellation Orion. However, British researcher Gerald Hawkins is confident that only a small part of the lines and patterns of the Nazca Desert are associated with astronomy. Some ufologists suggest that the drawings were a guide for landing alien alien ships, and the lines of the Nazca Plateau served as runways. Skeptics do not agree with this version, if only because alien spaceships capable of traveling tens of light years do not require acceleration to take off. They can rise into the air vertically. Jim Woodman, who studied the Nazca plateau in the 70s of the last century, came to the conclusion that the ancient inhabitants who created these drawings could fly in a hot air balloon. He explains this by the depiction of this flying object on clay figurines preserved from ancient times. To prove it, Woodman made a balloon from by-products that could only be obtained in the immediate area. Hot air was supplied to the balloon and it was able to fly a fairly long distance. The German archaeologist Maria Reiche, mentioned above, called the geometric figures and lines of the Nazca plateau an encrypted text, similar to a set of letters and signs.
There is still no consensus on the origin and purpose of the mysterious geoglyphs. The Nazca Plateau remains one of the greatest mysteries on our planet...

Many centuries ago, on the territory of an exotic country in which mysterious pyramids and places of worship, there was a highly developed...

From Masterweb

15.04.2018 02:00

Many centuries ago, on the territory of an exotic country in which the main attractions of Peru - mysterious pyramids and religious buildings - were perfectly preserved, there was a highly developed Inca civilization. However, even before its appearance, it was founded great empire Nazca, which appeared in the desert of the same name and existed until the 2nd century AD in the south of the country. The ancient Indians had a deep knowledge of irrigation and land reclamation.

Giant drawings

The people who disappeared from the face of the earth gained fame thanks to mysterious hieroglyphs that aroused the interest of scientists. Even opinions were expressed regarding the alien origin of figures and lines discovered quite accidentally in the 20th century. Nazca geoglyphs are huge drawings painted on the surface of the earth and not intended for public viewing. Thanks to the arid climate, they are perfectly preserved.

Bizarre and invisible from the ground, the signs are made in a single manner on a huge scale. At first glance, these patterns are barely distinguishable and represent an incomprehensible interweaving of all the lines scratched in the ground. The true form of the images can only be observed from above, when the chaos takes on meaning.

Craving for self-expression

People have always loved to draw and did it on rocks, cave walls, and then on paper. From the earliest period of human existence, they have had a craving for self-expression. The oldest images are considered to be petroglyphs (symbols on rocks) and geoglyphs (signs on the ground). The unusual patterns discovered in the desert are, according to scientists, an unparalleled historical monument, the inscriptions of which were written by giant hands. At the ends forming the drawings, wooden piles were found driven into the soil, which played the role of coordinate points when starting work.

The lifeless Nazca desert, which holds secrets

Surrounded by the Andes and sandy hills, the desert is located almost 500 km from the small city of Lima. The coordinates of the Nazca geoglyphs and the mysterious plateau on which they were discovered are 14°41"18.31"S 75°07"23.01"W. The uninhabited space of the earth, shrouded in secrecy, covers an area of ​​500 square kilometers. Rare drops of rain falling on the hot surface immediately evaporated.

The ancient Indians realized that the lifeless desert is ideal place for burials, and built tombs in dry layers that ensured incorruptibility. Archaeologists have discovered more than 200 thousand hollow ceramic vessels decorated with patterns and stylized designs. It is believed that the finds are doubles of small bowls that served as the so-called receptacle for the soul in the grave of the deceased.

Plateau covered with intricate patterns

The surface of the natural area, covered with an unusual “engraving”, slightly reminiscent of a tattoo, is surprising. The geoglyphs of the Nazca desert are not very deep, but gigantic in size, reaching tens and hundreds of meters. Mysterious lines intersect and overlap each other, combining into intricate patterns. One of the most mysterious places on our planet looks like a gigantic drawing board.

From the nearby foothills, it is not possible to see the giant images dug into the earth's firmament: they look like separate stripes or shapeless strokes. And you can only see them from above. Thus, a bird resembling a hummingbird is about 50 meters long, and a flying condor is more than 120 meters long.

Mysterious symbols

In total, about 13 thousand Nazca lines and geoglyphs, made in the soil, were found on the plateau. They are grooves of varying widths dug into the desert surface. Surprisingly, the lines do not change due to uneven terrain, remaining perfectly smooth and continuous. Among the images there are mysterious, but very authentically drawn birds and animals. There are also figures of people, but they are less expressive.

The mysterious symbols, which upon closer inspection turn out to be huge scratches on the surface of the desert, were discovered thanks to photographs taken from an airplane in 1930. From a bird's eye view, it is clear that the mysterious drawings were created by removing the upper crushed stone, darkened by time, from the light lower layer. The black deposit is called “desert tan” and is made up of a compound of iron and manganese. The exposed light soil has this shade due to the large amount of lime, which quickly hardens in the fresh air. In addition, the preservation of the geoglyphs of the Nazca Plateau was facilitated by high temperatures and the absence of winds with precipitation.

Technique for making giant drawings

This is a rather interesting technique: first, the Indians made a sketch on the ground of the future work, and each straight line of the image was divided into segments. Then they were transferred to the desert surface using stakes in the form of furrows up to 50 centimeters deep. And if it was necessary to draw a curve, then it was divided into many short arcs. Each resulting drawing was outlined with a continuous line, and the creators of the unique creations included in the List World Heritage UNESCO, have never seen them in their entirety. Since 1946, scientists began to seriously study unusual masterpieces.

Another secret

It is curious that the Nazca geoglyphs in Peru were applied by hand in two stages: images of animals and birds appeared much earlier than the lines and stripes superimposed on complex figures. And it must be admitted that the early phase was more advanced, because the creation of zoomorphic images required very high skill than simply cutting straight lines in the ground.

The difference between very high-quality and not very skillfully executed images is quite large, which gave rise to rumors about the creation of symbols in different time(possibly other cultures). In addition, scientists even remembered those whom our ancestors called their gods, although official science considers them fiction, denying the existence of an ancient developed civilization. Numerous artifacts indicate the opposite, and those who lived several thousand years before us possessed the highest technologies, surpassing modern capabilities.

This discrepancy indicates a difference both in the capabilities of the “artists” and in the technique of execution. If we consider that any society develops from simple to complex, experiencing ups and downs, then the level of civilization always increases. However, in this case, the scheme is violated, and primitive technologies replace developed technologies.

Indians who imitated the drawings

It is believed that the early author of all Nazca geoglyphs (photos presented in the article) was a highly developed civilization. Precisely calibrated drawings crossing complex terrain required enormous labor costs and special skill. It is these signs that amaze scientists and tourists with their careful execution and their scope. And the Indian tribes who lived on the plateau simply tried to imitate the remaining examples. But they didn’t have many opportunities, which is why shoddy copies appeared. The facts speak of one thing: the oldest drawings were made either by representatives of another civilization, or with their direct participation.

However, not all researchers agree with this theory. They combine the two stages, making a cautious assumption that the Nazca civilization possessed a special technique of artistic expression.

Has the mystery of the Nazca geoglyphs been solved?

The images, the true purpose of which scientists cannot yet understand, are striking in their size. But why did the Indians do such a titanic job? Some researchers believe that this is a giant calendar that accurately shows the change of seasons, and all the drawings are in one way or another connected with the winter and summer solstices. Perhaps representatives of the Nazca culture were astronomers who observed celestial bodies. For example, a huge image of a spider, according to a scientist at the Chicago Planetarium, is a diagram of the star cluster of the constellation Orion.

Others are confident that the Nazca geoglyphs, which are impossible to see from the ground, have a cult meaning: this is how the Indians communicated with their gods. The famous archaeologist J. Reinhard is among them. He sees in the kilometer-long lines of roads that led to the place of worship of deities. And all the figures of animals, insects or birds are the personification of living creatures dying without water. And he draws his conclusion: the Indians asked for life-giving moisture - the basis of life. However, most scientists do not support the version, considering it doubtful.

Still others believe that this is a kind of map of the Lake Titicaca area, only its scale is 1:16. However, no one can answer who it was intended for. And some see in the bizarre patterns a map of the starry sky transferred to the surface of the desert.

Still others, who saw the crossed lines, suggested that this was how the runway of ancient spaceships was designated. Scientists examined an ancient cosmodrome in a plateau formed by mudflow deposits. But why do aliens navigating interstellar space need such primitive visual cues? In addition, there is not a single evidence of the use of the desert for takeoff or landing of aircraft. But the number of supporters of the alien version is not decreasing.

Still others claim that all images of people, animals and birds were made in memory of the Flood.

Sixth put forward a hypothesis according to which the ancient Nazca Indians mastered aeronautics, which is confirmed by the found ceramic products. They clearly show symbols resembling balloons. That is why all Nazca geoglyphs are visible only from a great height.

Trident on the Paracas Peninsula (Peru)

To date, there are approximately 30 hypotheses, each of which tries to explain the strange masterpieces of the Indians. One cannot fail to mention another interesting hypothesis. Some archaeologists who saw the image of the giant trident El Candelabro, more than 128 meters long, on the slope of the Pisco rock on the Paracas Peninsula, believed that it contained the key to the solution. The gigantic figure is visible only from the sea or air. If you mentally draw a straight line from the middle prong, it will turn out that it is directed towards the Nazca Desert (Peru) covered with strange lines. The geoglyph was made several hundred years before the birth of Christ.

Nobody knows who created it and why. Researchers believe that it is a symbol of the mythical Atlantis, which contains important information about our planet.

An ancient irrigation system?

Several years ago, archaeologists who studied the geoglyphs of the Nazca Desert, visible even from space, stated that the spiral lines that ended in funnels were the oldest aqueducts. Thanks to an unusual hydraulic system, water appeared on the plateau, where drought had always reigned.

An extensive system of canals distributed life-giving moisture to those areas where it was needed. Wind entered through holes in the ground, which helped drive away the remaining water.

The craftsmanship of the ancient Indians

Other questions arise regarding mystical patterns. Our contemporaries are amazed how the ancient Indians created trenches more than a kilometer long in rough terrain. Even using modern geodetic measurement methods, drawing a perfectly straight line on the ground is quite difficult. But the Nazca Indians (or representatives of another civilization) did it very easily, cutting ditches through ravines or hills. Moreover, the edges of all lines are ideal parallel.

Unusual find

Recently, not far from the desert, in which unique drawings were found that are traces of an ancient civilization, an international expedition discovered an unusual mummy with three fingers and toes. It is the limbs that look very strange. The sensational find, strewn with white powder, looks a bit like a plaster sculpture containing a skeleton with organ remains inside. Studies have shown that the age of the mummy is more than 6 thousand years, and the powder has embalming properties.

The genome of the individual was solved by Russian scientists, who stated that it was not a human mutant, but a representative of an extraterrestrial race. According to experts, next to the mummified body there were drawings depicting a three-fingered creature. His face can also be found on the surface of the desert.

However, not all scientists believed the Russians' findings. Many are still convinced that this is a skillfully executed fake, and the find has all the signs of a hoax.

New drawings and riddles without answers

In April of this year, the scientific world was rocked by information that new Nazca geoglyphs had been discovered using drones. 50 unknown images, damaged by time, cannot be seen with the naked eye. They were discovered not only by aerial photographs, but also by subsequent analysis using the latest technologies. It is curious that most of the half-erased drawings of various sizes are abstract patterns and warriors of the Paracas civilization.

Scientists have stated that some of the discovered symbols were made by the ancestors of the Nazca Indians. Soil erosion previously prevented the discovery: the crumbling soil of the plateau made the intricate patterns blurred. Therefore, it was not possible to view the Nazca geoglyphs from a satellite or from an airplane. And only thanks to high-resolution cameras installed on drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), clear images were obtained.

Ecological problems

For now, the mystery of the Nazca geoglyphs remains unsolved. The matter is further complicated by the fact that the plateau now has the status of a sacred zone, where archaeological excavations are prohibited. Access to the anomalous territory, reminiscent of a giant easel on which ancient “artists” left their messages, is closed.

In addition, the desert faces an environmental threat: deforestation and pollution. environment change its climate. Due to frequent rains, unique creations on earth can fall into oblivion. And descendants will never know the whole truth. Unfortunately, nothing has been done to save them yet.

Everyone can admire the mysterious patterns of the desert

Travelers planning to visit Peru should remember that the plateau belongs to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site and it is prohibited to visit it without permission. But tourists are loved in Nazca because they allow local residents to live well in a very inhospitable area. Thanks to the constant flow of foreigners, people survive.

However, anyone who wants to admire the mysterious signs can do so without even leaving home. It is necessary to launch a special program demonstrating satellite images of the planet. Let us recall once again the coordinates of geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert – 14°41"18.31"S 75°07"23.01"W.

Kievyan Street, 16 0016 Armenia, Yerevan +374 11 233 255

The aliens' runways have already served their purpose. Archaeologists have finally solved the mystery of the Nazca Desert. An unknown ancient culture was revealed to them.

Figures of public rhetoric

It has been fourteen centuries since silence reigned on this rocky stage. The Nazca Desert maintains unshakable peace.

Fame came to this remote outskirts of Peru in 1947, when the first scientific publication dedicated to the “Nazca Desert Lines” appeared. When, in 1968, Erich von Däniken declared the mysterious drawings as “alien runways” in his book “Memoirs of the Future,” this idea became firmly entrenched in the minds of many people. Thus a myth was born.

For decades, scientists and amateurs have been trying to explain the mystery of these geometric patterns, which stretch for kilometers and cover an area of ​​about 500 square kilometers. IN general outline the history of their origin is clear. For several centuries, the inhabitants of southern Peru decorated the desert areas near the coast with mysterious signs drawn on the ground. The surface of the desert is covered with dark stones, but once they are removed to the side, the light-colored sedimentary rocks underneath are exposed. It was this sharp color contrast that the ancient Indians used to create their drawings - geoglyphs. The dark soil served as a background for huge figures, images of animals, and above all trapezoids, spirals, and straight lines.

But why are they here?

These signs are so large that it is believed that you can understand what they represent only by taking to the skies on an airplane. The mysterious lines of the Nazca Desert, included in the list of World Heritage Sites in 1994 cultural heritage, have long attracted the attention of lovers of esotericism. Who was this mysterious gallery intended for? For the gods, who are accustomed, while in heaven, to read in the souls of people and look at the creations of their hands? Or maybe this is the markings of an antediluvian spaceport built by aliens in this distant country? Or the prehistoric calendar, and the rays of the sun, falling on the earth at midday on the day of some equinox, certainly illuminated one of the lines to the delight of the priests and their fellow tribesmen? Or was it a real astronomy textbook, where the wing of some bird personified the course of the planet Venus? Or maybe these are “family signs” with the help of which one or another clan marked the lands it occupied? Or, when drawing lines on the ground, the savage Indians thought not about the heavenly and not even about the heavenly, but about the underground, and these straight lines, going into the distance of the desert, actually marked the flow of underground streams, a secret map of water sources, revealed with such daring openness, that scientific minds even now cannot guess the meaning of what was written.

There were many hypotheses, but they were in no hurry to select facts. Almost the entire history of scientific research into mysterious drawings came down to the work of the German mathematician Maria Reiche, who, starting in 1946, studied them almost single-handedly, recording their sizes and coordinates. She also defended this ancient monument, when in 1955 it was decided to turn the Nazca plateau into a cotton plantation by installing an artificial irrigation system. It would ruin an amazing gallery under open air(However, some of the drawings were already destroyed during the construction of highways).

Over time - thanks to all sorts of searchers for traces of “space aliens” - this desert came to world fame. However, oddly enough, a comprehensive scientific analysis of the drawings themselves and the history of their origin has not been carried out. It has not been studied how the desert climate has changed over the past millennia. Surprisingly, almost all guesses about the origin of the secret signs that decorated the distant plateau were speculative. Few people were in a hurry to come to this utter distance in order to descend to the ground of facts. But this could probably clarify a lot in the history of the so-called Nazca culture (200 BC -600 AD) - according to experts, “one of the most interesting and in many ways mysterious cultures of the pre-Columbian America."

It is not even clear what is fraught with more mysteries - people or the huge drawings left by them. Anthropologists studying the ancient Indians who inhabited this region of Peru have at their disposal only mummies, remains of settlements, and samples of ceramics and textiles. In addition, not far from the open-air gallery, in the town of Cahuachi, there are the ruins of a large settlement with pyramids and platforms built from raw brick (see “З-С”, 10/90). Researchers believe that this is where the capital of the Nazca culture was located. The ceramic samples she left behind are particularly elegant. They are characterized by a variety of colors: the vessels are painted in red, black, brown and white. These painted vessels were considered the most beautiful in all of Ancient Peru. Their shiny walls are covered with images of severed human heads, demonic creatures, wild cats, predatory fish, centipedes and birds. Obviously, these paintings reflect the mythical ideas of the ancient inhabitants of the country, but historians can only guess about this. After all, no written evidence has survived.

Thousands of years of Nazca

All the more reason to talk about the painstaking research carried out in this desert in 1997 - 2006 by specialists from various scientific disciplines. The collected facts debunk the popular explanations of esotericists. No cosmic secrets! The Nazca geoglyphs are earthly, too earthly.

In 1997, an expedition organized by the German Archaeological Institute with the support of the Swiss-Liechtenstein Fund for Foreign Archaeological Research began studying geoglyphs and settlements of the Nazca culture in the area of ​​Palpa, forty kilometers north of the town of Nazca. The place was not chosen by chance, because here the signs inscribed by the ancient Indians were located in close proximity to their settlements. The leader of the group, German historian Markus Reindel, was convinced: “If we want to understand geoglyphs, we need to look closely at the people who created them.”

Near Palpa, archaeologists have found numerous remains of settlements dating back to various eras, including the ruins of stone houses and well-kept tombs, however, they had long since been plundered. All this testified to the complex hierarchy established in a society that belonged to the Nazca culture. Fine ceramics and gold chains with figurines of fish and whales found in the burials refuted the usual idea of ​​​​the peasant character of this culture. It already has its own elite, an aristocracy. Without her participation, the geoglyphs would not have been constructed.

During the excavations, Reindel and his Peruvian colleague Joni Isla constantly encountered monuments of the so-called Paracas culture. It dates back to 800 - 200 years BC new era. This culture became known in 1927, when Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello discovered 423 mummies on the deserted, barren Paracas Peninsula, perfectly preserved in the local climate.

It was believed that only the late phase of this culture was represented in Nazca territory. However, this turned out to be a fallacy. During excavations, settlements and burial grounds were discovered dating back to all phases of the Paracas culture. Moreover, the similarity of ceramics and textile fabrics, burial traditions and housing construction clearly prove that the Nazca culture is its direct heir. Thus, civilization in southern Peru arose many centuries earlier than was generally believed. Perhaps one of its centers was the Palpa oasis.

Nearby, in the town of Pernil Alto, on the banks of the Rio Grande River, a German archaeologist found monuments of “early Paracas” and along with this ceramics, “which we could not yet attribute to any era.” This ceramic tradition appears to predate the Paracas culture. It is dated very approximately - 1800 - 800 BC (according to radiocarbon dating, 1400 - 860 BC).

These are the earliest examples of fired pottery discovered in the entire Andean region. They were left by an unknown civilization that existed in the south of Peru in the 2nd millennium BC. It is to this that the art of creating geoglyphs dates back.

"Wednesday is stuck"

As part of this project, the history of the local landscape was explored for the first time. This clarified the origin of the “signs of the Nazca desert.” Here, unlike other coastal regions of Peru, another mountain range lies between the western ridge of the Andes and the coastline - the Coastal Cordillera. The 40-kilometer-wide basin separating this mountain range and the Andes was filled with pebbles and sedimentary rocks during the Pleistocene era. A flat steppe area was formed - an ideal “canvas” for applying various designs.

Several thousand years ago, at the foot of the Andes, on the Nazca plateau, grass grew and llamas grazed. In this climate, people lived as if “in the Garden of Eden” (M. Reindel). The archaeologist even discovered traces of a flood nearby. Where the desert stretches today, mud avalanches once occurred after heavy rains.

However, around 1800 BC the climate became noticeably drier. The onset of drought burned the grassy steppe, and people were forced to settle in natural oases - river valleys. By the way, almost at the same time, the first examples of ceramics appeared in the Nazca desert.

Subsequently, the desert continued its advance, getting close to the mountain ranges. Its eastern edge has moved 20 kilometers towards the Andes. People had to move to mountain valleys located at an altitude of 400 to 800 meters above sea level.

When, around 600 AD, the climate changed again and became even drier, the Nazca culture disappeared altogether. All that was left of her were mysterious signs inscribed on the ground - signs that there was no one to destroy. In an extremely dry climate, they survived for thousands of years.

The history of the development of the Nazca Desert once again demonstrates what a formidable force the desert represents in its age-old confrontation with man. A slight change in climate, a slight reduction in precipitation that will go unnoticed by residents of temperate zones, is enough, and then in the desert, as expedition member, geographer Bernhard Eitel emphasizes, “dramatic changes in the ecosystem will occur that will have a huge impact on the lives of the people inhabiting it.”

The Nazca culture did not die as a result of an instant catastrophe, such as war, but was - like the Mayan culture (see “Z-S”, 1/07) - gradually “strangled” due to changing environmental conditions. A long drought killed her.

Happiness is when spondylus comes back

Now, having studied the very environment in which the creators of the mysterious geoglyphs lived, researchers could begin to interpret them.

The earliest lines and drawings appeared about 3800 years ago, when the first settlements appeared in the vicinity of Palpa. The inhabitants of Southern Peru created this open-air gallery among the rocks. On the brown-red stones they scratched and carved various geometric patterns, images of people and animals, chimeras and mythological creatures. Archaeologists have found thousands of rock paintings in the area ranging in size from a few centimeters to several meters. This grandiose exhibition of petroglyphs began to be explored only in the last ten years. Presumably all of them were created in the 2nd millennium BC, “but this cannot be stated with certainty” (M. Reindel).

No later than 700 BC an important event. Petroglyphs are being replaced by drawings drawn not on rocks, but on the ground. By clearing away the top layer of pebbles, unknown artists of the Paracas culture create “graffiti” ranging in size from 10 to 30 meters on the slopes of river valleys - mainly images of people and animals, sometimes stars. For that time, these paintings were grandiose. But this is just the beginning. Many more centuries will pass before the famous “alien runways” appear.

Presumably around 200 BC, a real “revolution in art” took place in the Nazca desert. Artists, who previously covered only rocks and slopes with paintings, are starting to paint the largest “canvas” given to them by nature - the plateau stretched out before them. “A certain creator was drawing the contours of a future figure, and his assistants were removing stones from the surface,” this is how Markus Reindel imagines the progress of the work.

For the masters of monumental graphics, who had a thousand-year tradition behind them, there was room to expand here. True, now instead of figurative compositions they give preference to works a la Mondrian: geometric figures and lines. They reach gigantic sizes, but, in essence, there is nothing extravagant or “cosmic” about them. A pair of straight lines, no matter how you extend them, will remain just a pair of straight lines, and you don’t need to sit in the cockpit of a sports plane to understand this. Of course, in the Nazca Desert there are also huge images of animals (monkey, spider, whale), which are best admired from somewhere higher up, but these images are rare.

“Everywhere, including in the archaeological literature, it is certainly said that geoglyphs can be viewed at best from a bird’s eye view,” says archaeologist Karsten Lambers, a member of the expedition. - This is wrong! It’s enough to visit the area to make sure that these signs are clearly visible from the ground.”

Approximately two-thirds of the geoglyphs are clearly visible from any point in the surrounding area. “In general, they were not created to be looked at,” Reindel emphasizes. Rather, they were part of an open-air “sanctuary.” They can be called "ceremonial figures". Archaeological research has shown that these lines have a purely practical (more precisely, mystical) purpose.

At the corners and ends of the drawings there were structures made of stone, clay and raw brick (in total, researchers counted about a hundred such ruins). They contained remains of textile fabrics, plants, crayfish, guinea pigs and spondylus shells - presumably sacrificial gifts. Archaeologists have interpreted these finds as altars or miniature temples that were used in certain rituals. Which ones?

The shells of the spondylus attracted particular attention. Throughout the Andean region, these beautiful shells were considered symbols of water and fertility. However, this mollusk lives in tropical waters - almost 2000 kilometers north of the Nazca Desert - and penetrates its shores only when El Niño arrives. Then the warm sea current deviates far to the south, and heavy rainfall falls on the coast of Peru. Apparently, since ancient times, people have associated the appearance of spondylus with approaching rainstorms. The unusual shell brought water to the fields and happiness to families. By sacrificing it on the altar, the desert inhabitants hoped to beg rain from the sky.

Next to the drawings, the researchers found many vessels buried in the ground, apparently during the performance of some rituals. Holes were also noticed, into which - judging by their diameter and depth - masts up to ten meters high were erected; banners must have fluttered on them (on ceramic vessels we have already seen images of similar masts decorated with flags).

According to geophysical research, the soil along the lines (their depth reaches almost 30 centimeters) is very compacted. Especially trampled are 70 drawings depicting animals and certain creatures (they make up about a tenth of all ground “graffiti”). It looks like crowds of people have been walking here for centuries! This entire area was the site of various festivals associated with the cults of water and fertility. “Some kind of processions were held here, perhaps with music and dancing, as evidenced by the drawings left on the ceramic vessels,” Reindel believes. These images are reminiscent of how those celebrations (or “conversations with the gods”?) were held. We see people drinking maize beer or playing the pipe, marching or dancing, making sacrifices and praying to the gods to give them rain. Such processions can still be seen in the Andes.

Such ceremonies were important symbolic meaning. When a clan created or changed geoglyphs, it openly demonstrated to its neighbors: this is where we live! This action was truly a religious act. “That is why we do not find any sanctuaries in Indian settlements - not even in Cahuachi. For them, all nature was a temple,” Reindel believes.

The creation of huge drawings, like, for example, the construction of pyramids in other parts of America, required the joint efforts of a large number of people. Again, recent studies have shown that these drawings did not arise once and for all in the form in which scientists and enthusiasts of “cosmic messages” discovered them. Geoglyphs have been repeatedly redesigned, expanded, and transformed.

The arid climate turned the inhabitants of the Nazca Desert into excellent artists and engineers. Even Maria Reiche, describing the drawings found in the desert, noted: “The length and direction of each segment were carefully measured and recorded. Approximate measurements would not be enough to reproduce such perfect outlines as we see thanks to aerial photography; a deviation of just a few inches would distort the proportions of the design.”

Already in the first millennium BC, the ancient Peruvians learned to pump groundwater into tanks through pipes laid underground, creating reserves of life-giving moisture. The ingenious system of canals they built, including underground ones, is still used by local residents today.

Once upon a time, with the help of this network of canals, the ancient Indians irrigated fields where they grew beans and potatoes, pumpkins and cassava, avocados and peanuts. The main materials they used on the farm were cotton and cane. They caught fish with nets and hunted seals. They made thin-walled ceramics, which were painted with bright, colorful scenes.

By the way, the locals considered an elongated head to be the ideal of beauty, and therefore boards were tied to the forehead of babies to deform the skull while it was growing. They also practiced craniotomy, and some of those operated on lived quite a long time after this procedure.

But the time allotted to the Nazca culture had already expired.

The drier the plateau became, the more often the priests had to perform magical ceremonies to summon rain. Nine of the ten lines and trapezoids face the mountains, from where the saving rains came. For a long time magic helped, and the clouds that brought moisture returned, until around 600 AD the gods finally became angry with the people who settled in this region.

The largest drawings that appeared in the Nazca Desert date back to the time when the rains practically stopped here. The following picture is drawn in the imagination. People literally beg the stern god of rain to heed their suffering. They hope that at least these signals given to him will be noticed by him. Thus, polar explorers lost in the ice paint their tent red so that someone flying across the sky will see a sign of their trouble. But the Indian god remained, as modern geographers testify, blind to these prayers imprinted into the flesh of the earth. It didn't rain. Faith was powerless.

In the end, the Indians left their native but harsh land and went in search of a prosperous country. When, after a few centuries, the climate became milder and people settled again on the Nazca plateau, they knew nothing about those who once lived here. Only lines on the ground that went into the distance or intersected reminded us that either the gods descended to the earth here, or people tried to talk to the gods. But the meaning of the drawings was already forgotten. Only now are scientists beginning to understand why these writings appeared - these huge “hieroglyphs” that seem ready to survive eternity.

However, it would be wrong to call the only viewers of these drawings some gods, immersed either in nirvana or in universal laziness. These lines are “more of a scene than a picture,” Reindel believes. True, he himself does not undertake to judge why the lines are located this way and not otherwise, why they form this or that pattern.

Obviously, this had a religious background, but due to the lack of collected facts, scientists continue to argue about the religion professed by the people who inhabited the Nazca desert for two millennia, argue about the nature of their society and its political structure. This desert still holds many mysteries. But they will have to be solved without the participation of esotericists. There is too much earthly, everyday, vain in these “secrets of the Nazca desert.”

The world of artists could not live without miners

In 2007, American and Peruvian archaeologists discovered a mine in the Nazca desert area, where iron ore - hematite - was mined almost two thousand years ago, long before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. Then this mineral was ground into powder, preparing bright red ocher, the American believes
researcher Kevin Vaughan.

“Archaeologists know that the peoples of the New and Old Worlds mined iron ore thousands of years ago,” explains Vaughan. - In the Old World, namely in Africa, this began to be done about 40 thousand years ago. It is known that the peoples who inhabited Mexico, Central and North America in ancient times also mined minerals containing iron.” However, archaeologists for a long time were unable to find a single ancient mine, until a few years ago their attention
I wasn’t attracted to the cave in southern Peru. Its area was about 500 square meters.

During excavations, stone tools, fragments of pottery, cotton and wool fabrics, shells, vessels hollowed out from pumpkins, and corn cobs were found here. Radiocarbon dating showed the organic materials to be between 500 and 1960 years old. As archaeologists have calculated, during this time about 700 cubic meters of rock with a total mass of about 3,700 tons were extracted from the mountain - and all in order to extract the coveted ocher that the residents of the surrounding areas needed. It was used to color ceramic vessels and fabrics; the Indians painted their bodies and the clay walls of their houses with it. The Iron Age never began in this region of artists.

“In the Old World, metals were used to make various tools or weapons,” notes Vaughan. “In America, they were only a matter of prestige, an adornment for the nobility.”

Who punished the pyramid?

In the fall of 2008, thanks to photographs taken from space, Italian researchers discovered a pyramid buried many centuries ago in the Nazca desert. The area of ​​its base was almost 10 thousand square meters. The pyramid was built one and a half kilometers from Cahuachi by people belonging to the Nazca culture. Presumably it consisted of four terraces located one above the other. “In satellite photographs, the structure of the terrain is particularly visible, since the sun-dried clay bricks are very different in their density from neighboring areas of soil,” explains research leader Nicola Masini.

The inhabitants of Cahuachi buried these pyramids, like many other buildings, under a layer of sand after two disasters struck the area one after another: a flood and then a strong earthquake. Obviously, archaeologists believe, after these disasters, the local priests lost faith in the magical power of the pyramid and... buried it. The same was done with the rest of the buildings. However, this guess is quite speculative. Nobody knows what really happened then.

Giant ground drawings of the Peruvian Nazca plateau are deservedly considered one of the most mysterious attractions not only South America, but also the entire planet.

Mysterious lines folding into bizarre shapes cover about 500 square meters of the plateau.

The lines that form the Nazca drawings are applied to the surface of the earth in a unique way - by excavating the soil, as a result of which trenches are formed up to 1.5 meters wide and up to 30-50 centimeters deep. The lines form a huge number of geoglyphs - geometric and figured patterns: over 10,000 stripes, more than 700 geometric shapes

(mainly trapezoids, triangles and spirals), about 30 images of birds, animals, insects and flowers. The Nazca paintings are impressive in their size. For example, the figures of a spider and a hummingbird are about 50 meters long, the figure of a condor extends to 120 meters, the image of a pelican - almost 290 meters. It is amazing that with such a gigantic size, the contours of the figures are continuous and surprisingly accurate. Almost perfectly smooth stripes cross the beds of dry rivers, climb high hills and descend from them, but do not deviate from the required direction. Modern science

unable to explain such a phenomenon.

These amazing ancient figures were first discovered by pilots only in the 30s of the last century.

This is explained by the fact that from the ground it is almost impossible to recognize figures stretching tens and hundreds of meters in length.

Despite decades of research, it remains a mystery how, by whom and for what purpose these drawings were made. The estimated “age” of the images is from fifteen to twenty centuries.

Today, about 30 designs, about 13 thousand lines and stripes, about 700 geometric figures (primarily triangles and trapezoids, as well as about a hundred spirals) are known.

Most researchers attribute the authorship of the drawings to representatives of the Nazca civilization, who inhabited the plateau before the appearance of the Incas. The level of development of the Nazca civilization has not been sufficiently studied, so it is impossible to say with certainty that its representatives possessed technologies that allowed them to create such drawings.

Multiple repetitions of the same lines and figures, as well as the identified mathematical patterns in their proportions and relative positions, give the right to assume that the Nazca drawings represent a kind of encrypted text. According to the most fantastic hypotheses, the figures on the plateau function as landmarks for the landing of alien ships.

Unfortunately, targeted and regular study of Nazca geoglyphs is not carried out in our time. The centuries-old mysteries of the famous Peruvian drawings are still waiting for their researchers.

Geoglyphs Nazca and Palpa from a copter. Peru 2014 hd

Satellite drawings of Nazca

Nazca, a small ancient town in southern Peru, attracts numerous tourists from all over the world. There are no outstanding architectural sights here, but there is something that does not leave even the biggest skeptics indifferent: giant images on the earth's surface that are more than two thousand years old. How these drawings appeared here, what they were used for is still a mystery, despite a large number of hypotheses. But thanks to such objects as the Nazca Lines, Peru has become a “magnet” for researchers, mystics and everyone interested in still unsolved mysteries.

Story

The “discoverers” of amazing drawings were pilots back in 1927, who noticed numerous lines and images on a plateau near the Pacific Ocean. But scientists became interested in this discovery only a decade later, when Paul Kosok, an American historian, published a series of photographs taken from the air.

However, strange images were known much earlier. As early as 1553, the Spanish priest and scientist Pedro Césa de León, writing about the conquest of South America, mentioned “signs among the sands to divine the laid path.” The most remarkable thing is that he did not regard these drawings as something strange or inexplicable. Perhaps more was known about the purpose of geoglyphs in those days? This question also remains open.

Among the scientists who studied the lines in the Nazca Desert, the greatest contribution to the development and popularization of the topic belongs to the German archaeologist Maria Reiche. She worked as an assistant to Paul Kokos, and when he stopped research in 1948, Reiche continued the work. But her contribution is important not only from a scientific point of view. Thanks to the efforts of the researcher, some of the Nazca lines were saved from destruction.

Reiche described her research into the amazing monument of ancient civilization in the book “The Secret of the Desert,” and the fee was spent on preserving the pristine appearance of the area and building an observation tower.

Subsequently, aerial photography of the reserve was carried out repeatedly, but detailed map, including all drawings. Doesn't exist yet.

Description of the drawings

In the photo of the Nazca Lines in Peru you can see clear images of enormous size. Among them are about 700 regular geometric shapes (trapezoids, quadrangles, triangles, etc.). All these lines retain their geometry even on complex terrain, and the contours remain clear where they overlap each other. Some of the figures are clearly oriented towards the cardinal directions. No less surprising are the clear edges of figures whose size exceeds several kilometers.

But even more amazing are the semantic images. On the plateau there are about three dozen drawings of animals, birds, fish, plants and even humans. All of them are of impressive size. Here you can see:

• a bird almost three hundred meters long;
• a two-hundred-meter lizard;
• a hundred-meter condor;
• eighty-meter spider.

In total, there are approximately one and a half thousand images and figures on the plateau. The largest of them measure about 270 m. But, despite careful study over the years, Nazca continues to delight with discoveries. So in 2017, after restoration work, scientists discovered another drawing - an image of a killer whale. They suggested that this image may be one of the most ancient. Most geoglyphs date back to around 200 BC.

Due to the large size of the images, it is impossible to see them while on the ground - the full picture is revealed only from above. From the observation tower, where tourists can climb, the view is also extremely limited - you can only see two drawings. To admire ancient arts, you need

Origin theories

Since the discovery of the Nazca Lines, hypotheses have been put forward one after another. There are several most popular theories.

Religious

According to this hypothesis, the ancient population of Peru built images of such a large size so that the gods could notice them from space. For example, archaeologist Johan Reinhakd was inclined to this point of view. In 1985, he published research indicating ancient Peruvians worshiped the elements. In particular, the cult of mountains and the cult of water were widespread in these territories. Thus, it was suggested that the drawings on the ground are nothing more than part of religious rituals.

Astronomical

This theory was put forward by the first researchers - Coconut and Reiche. They believed that many of the lines were indicators of the places of sunrise and sunset of the Sun and other celestial bodies. But the version was refuted by the British archaeoastronomer Gerald Hawkins, who back in the 70s of the last century proved that no more than 20% of the Nazca lines can be associated with celestial landmarks. And taking into account the different directions of the lines, the astronomical hypothesis looks unconvincing.

Demonstrative

Astronomer Robin Edgar did not notice any scientific implications in the drawings on the Peruvian plateau. He also leaned towards metaphysical reasons. Pravda believed that the numerous furrows were dug not for the purpose of worship, but as a response to the constant solar eclipses that occurred during this period in Peru.

Technical

Some researchers believe that the lines are associated with the possibility of building aircraft. As proof of this version, there were even attempts to build an airplane from materials available at that time. A similar version is put forward by Russian researcher A. Sklyarov in the book “Nazca. Giant drawings in the margins." He believes that the ancient civilization in Peru was highly developed and possessed not only aircraft, but even used laser technology.

Alien

Finally, there are those who believe that the drawings were used by extraterrestrials - as a way of communication, as a place to land flying objects, etc. Even the strange remains of unknown creatures discovered in these parts are cited as evidence. Others, on the contrary, are sure that Peruvian mummies, like the Nazca Lines, are fakes and fraud.

Nazca Mystery Revealed?

Archaeologists have been trying to find an explanation for the mysterious Naska lines for decades. In 2009, the documentary film “Nazca Lines Deciphered” was shot. Anyone interested in the topic will certainly find it interesting to watch. But the answer to the question remains open, and attempts to unravel the mystery continue. For example, a version has recently been put forward that the Nazca lines form a single whole with the aqueduct system. Puquios, a complex hydraulic system, was built to extract underground water. Part of it has survived to this day. Based on images taken from space, it has been suggested that the lines are part of this “water goon”. Precisely an assumption, because the researchers were never able to explain what functional role the drawings played in the plumbing system. But perhaps one fine day, the answer to the Peruvian miracle will still be found.