The nazca lines in Peru

The Nazca lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches more than 80 km (50 miles) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. They are believed to have been created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and AD 700. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, llamas, and lizards.

The lines are shallow designs in the ground where the reddish pebbles that cover the surrounding landscape have been removed, revealing the whitish earth underneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes, and more than seventy are natural or human figures. The largest are over 200m across. Scholars differ in interpreting what the lines were for but generally ascribe religious significance to them. The dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau has preserved the lines to this day.

The leading explanation for the method of construction employed by the Nazca people involves the use of simple tools and surveying equipment. Wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines (which were used to carbon-date the figures) and ceramics found on the surface support this theory. Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky has reproduced the figures using the technology available to the Nazca people of the time and without aerial assistance. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within days.

The lines were made by removing the reddish-brown iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is removed, the lines contrast sharply with the light-colored earth beneath. There are several hundred simple lines and geometric patterns on the Nazca plateau, as well as over seventy curvilinear animal and human figures. The area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), and the largest figures can be nearly 270 m long (886 feet). The lines persist due to the extremely dry, windless, and constant climate of the Nazca region. The Nazca desert is one of the driest on Earth and maintains a temperature around 25°C (77°F) all year round, and the lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered to the present day. The exact reason the figures were built remains a mystery. A leading theory is that the Nazca people's motivations were religious, and that the images were constructed so that gods in the sky could see them.