Nazca Lines

Nazca Desert - is a desert plateau on the southern coast of Peru. Nazca received worldwide fame due to an ancient Indian culture, which flourished in 3 - 8 century BC. It were they who created the famous

Nazca lines-drawings, which are visible even from space.

Nazca were farmers and were treated with fertile plains along the Pacific coast of Peru. They left no evidence of their writing system: all the known facts about them have been obtained by studying the burial places of the Nazca and found objects.

Civilization of the ancient Nazca Indians got its name from the river in a valley which had been discovered monuments of this culture - the mysterious giant drawings. These pictures are mainly located on the cliffs along the Rio Grande and its tributaries, in the extremely arid zone between the valleys of Ica and Nazca.

Who and what created these images still remains a mystery. The world's largest product of graphic art encompasses an area of ​​520 sq. km. Open to the world they were in 1941 when they went to study American archaeologist Dr Paul Kosok from Long Island University. These lines, drawn in red rock desert, represent more than 100 known plants, animals and simple geometric shapes, as well as a scattering of obscure, not related to each other straight lines.

All figures in the desert were performed by one and the same way: the surface layer of reddish rock continuous line scratched before lying beneath a pale yellow rock. Apparently, this was done manually. The lines are so straight that there is an assumption that the staves were used to draw them. Still remains a mystery how a painter could so accurately adhere to plan and achieve the effect of straight line at such large distances.

According to one theory is that all these shapes and lines represent "the largest astronomy world book." These images show the location of stars and constellations at different times of the year used by ancient Nazca to determine the exact time of plowing, sowing and other important "phases" of the agricultural cycle. On another, more modern version, is that some of the mysterious lines can actually point to the underground water sources. The ancient inhabitants of Nazca, perhaps, have noted the location of their distribution system of water supplies, because during the drought they were more reliable sources of potable and irrigation water than the rivers.

How to see the Nazca drawings?
To do this, go to the provincial Peruvian town located about 450 km south of Lima. Here, from the airport every 5-10 minutes rises a little four-seater plane, at an altitude of several hundred meters to make a half-circled figures.