The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches 53 miles or more than 80 kilometers between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. They were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BCE and CE 700. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fishes, sharks, llamas and lizards.
The Nazca lines cannot be recognized as coherent figures except from the air. Since it is presumed the Nazca people could never have seen their work from this vantage point, there has been much speculation on the builders' abilities and motivations.
Construction
Since their discovery, various theories have been proposed regarding the methods and motivations underlying the lines' construction. The archaeological explanation as to who made them and how is widely disputed but many believe the Nazca people made the lines using 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. Furthermore, researchers such as Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky, have reproduced, without aerial supervision, the figures using the technology available to the Nazca Indians of the time. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within a couple of days.
The lines were made by removing the iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is removed, the lines contrast sharply with the surroundings because of the light-colored earth underneath. There are several hundred simple lines and geometric patterns on the Nazca plateau, as well as over seventy curvilinear animal, insect, and human figures. The area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometers (200 square miles), and the largest figures can be nearly 900 feet (270 meters) long. 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) year round, and the lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered to the present day.
The Nazca lines cannot be recognized as coherent figures except from the air. Since it is presumed the Nazca people could never have seen their work from this vantage point, there has been much speculation on the builders' abilities and motivations.
Construction
Since their discovery, various theories have been proposed regarding the methods and motivations underlying the lines' construction. The archaeological explanation as to who made them and how is widely disputed but many believe the Nazca people made the lines using 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. Furthermore, researchers such as Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky, have reproduced, without aerial supervision, the figures using the technology available to the Nazca Indians of the time. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within a couple of days.
The lines were made by removing the iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is removed, the lines contrast sharply with the surroundings because of the light-colored earth underneath. There are several hundred simple lines and geometric patterns on the Nazca plateau, as well as over seventy curvilinear animal, insect, and human figures. The area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometers (200 square miles), and the largest figures can be nearly 900 feet (270 meters) long. 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) year round, and the lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered to the present day.
Purpose
This section is missing citations or needs footnotes.Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2007)
Coordinates: 14°43′S, 75°08′W)
There is scant evidence concerning why the figures were built, so the Nazca people's motivation remains the lines' most persistent mystery. Many scholars believe that their motivation was religious, making images that only gods in the sky could see clearly. Kosok and Reiche advanced one of the earliest reasons given for the Nazca Lines: that they were intended to point to the places on the distant horizon where the Sun and other celestial bodies rose or set. This hypothesis was evaluated by two different experts in archaeoastronomy, Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni, and they both concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support an astronomical explanation.
In 1985, the archaeologist Johan Reinhard published archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources played a dominant role in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times. He presented the theory that the lines and figures can be explained as part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water and thus the fertility of crops. The lines were interpreted as being primarily used as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped and the figures as symbolically representing animals and objects meant to invoke their aid. However, the precise meanings of many of the individual geoglyphs remain unsolved.
This glyph is one of the more complex Nazca figures.
Notwithstanding Gerald Hawkins' and Anthony Aveni's dismissal of an astronomical explanation of the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs, astronomer Robin Edgar has theorized that the Nazca Lines, particularly the biomorph geoglyphs that depict animals, human figures, birds and "flowers" are almost certainly an ancient response to the so-called "Eye of God" that is manifested in the sky during a total solar eclipse. An unusual series of total solar eclipses over southern Peru coincided with the time period during which the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs were created. The totally eclipsed sun distinctly resembles the pupil and iris of a gigantic eye looking down from the sky thus providing an explanation as to why the Nazca Indians created gigantic geoglyph artworks that are best viewed by an "Eye in the Sky".
Some (for example Jim Woodmann) have proposed that the Nazca lines presuppose some form of manned flight (in order to see them) and that a hot air balloon was the only possible available technology. Woodmann actually made a hot air balloon from materials and using techniques that would have been available to people at the time in order to test this hypothesis. The balloon flew (after a fashion) demonstrating that this hypothesis was possible, but there is no hard evidence either way.
Another theory contends that the lines are the remains of "walking temples," where a large group of worshipers walked along a preset pattern dedicated to a particular holy entity, similar to the practice of labyrinth walking. Residents of the local villages say the ancient Indians conducted rituals on these giant drawings to thank the gods and to ensure that water would continue to flow from the Andes. This view correlates with the purposes of other North American geoglyphs.
Perhaps the most controversial theory was put forward by Erich von Däniken in his book Chariots of the Gods, who proposed that the lines were in fact landing strips for alien spacecraft. His argument is similar to Woodmann's, claiming that the designs are so large and complex that they could only have been constructed using flying machines.
Record setting hot air balloon aviator Julian Nott has also proposed that Nazca tribal leaders could have been aloft in primitive hot air balloons, as long as two millennia ago, guiding the creation of the Nazca ground figures from above.
Environmental concerns
According to Viktoria Nikitzki of the Maria Reiche Centre, an organization dedicated to protecting the Nazca Lines, pollution and erosion caused by deforestation threaten the continued existence of the Nazca lines. She is quoted as saying "The Lines themselves are superficial, they are only 10 to 30cm deep and could be washed away... Nazca has only ever received a small amount of rain. But now there are great changes to the weather all over the world. The Lines cannot resist heavy rain without being damaged." However, Mario Olaechea Aquije, the archaeological resident from Peru's National Institute of Culture in Nazca, Peru, and a team of specialists surveyed the area after the flooding and mudslides occurring in the area in mid-February of 2007. He announces that "the mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nazca Lines," but that the nearby Southern Pan-American Highway did suffer damage, and "the damage done to the roads should serve as a reminder to just how fragile these figures are."
In fiction
Accurate descriptions and purpose of the lines are described in the novel Domain by Steve Alten.
The Nazca Lines featured in the Anthony Horowitz novel Evil Star where they were an ancient gate which kept back a group of evil demons called the Old Ones. When the stars in the sky line up with the lines, the gate would open. The figures were to serve as a warning. At the end of the novel the Lines came to life and became real creatures.
The Nazca Lines were also featured in a Nancy Drew novel, with the spiral tailed monkey being the focal point of the mystery The Clue in the Crossword Cypher.
The Nazca Lines featured prominently in an episode of The Mysterious Cities of Gold entitled "The Nazca Plateau", where the supposition that the lines were designed to be viewed from above is underlined, with the main characters viewing the ground markings from the sky in their Golden Condor. There is also the implied suggestion the lines were part of an intentionally designed aerial runway as the flying bird lands at sunset along two parallel lines from the surface drawing.
The Nazca Lines were used as a major plot point in the video game Shining Force II and were even referred to by name. In the game, a Nazca bird is actually a flying ship created by an ancient advanced civilization. One of the game's boss fights was fought on top of the Nazca bird.
The Nazca Lines are featured prominently in an episode of the anime Master Mosquiton '99. In the episode, the main characters Inaho and Mosquiton must rescue a plane full of students. They can't land the plane as the airport runway has been flooded with sand that is covered with Nazca Lines (due to a curse from a Nazca mask). Upon inspecting the area, a Nazca spider comes to life and attacks them.
Figures resembling Nazca Lines appear in the arcade game Xevious.
The plot of the ninth episode of the anime series Cowboy Bebop is set in motion by the uncommanded recreation of the Nazca lines by a satellite-based defensive laser grid on the asteroid-pounded Earth.
The Nazca Lines also feature at the end of the game Assassin's Creed where 'eagle vision' is used to reveal markings in blood, including the Nazca monkey, hummingbird and spider.
The video game Illusion of Gaia contains an area named 'Nazca Plains', which contains references to the Nazca Lines.
In the role-playing game Rifts, the Nazca lines were used to create giant energy constructs, ranging from the actual walls of structures to defensive measures against an ancient alien invasion. After a cataclysm destroys human civilization and returns magic to the earth, the descendants of the Nazca civilization ally with the returning gods of the Inca to form a new nation, just as the aliens who attempted to invade before attack again.
This section is missing citations or needs footnotes.Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2007)
Coordinates: 14°43′S, 75°08′W)
There is scant evidence concerning why the figures were built, so the Nazca people's motivation remains the lines' most persistent mystery. Many scholars believe that their motivation was religious, making images that only gods in the sky could see clearly. Kosok and Reiche advanced one of the earliest reasons given for the Nazca Lines: that they were intended to point to the places on the distant horizon where the Sun and other celestial bodies rose or set. This hypothesis was evaluated by two different experts in archaeoastronomy, Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni, and they both concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support an astronomical explanation.
In 1985, the archaeologist Johan Reinhard published archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources played a dominant role in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times. He presented the theory that the lines and figures can be explained as part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water and thus the fertility of crops. The lines were interpreted as being primarily used as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped and the figures as symbolically representing animals and objects meant to invoke their aid. However, the precise meanings of many of the individual geoglyphs remain unsolved.
This glyph is one of the more complex Nazca figures.
Notwithstanding Gerald Hawkins' and Anthony Aveni's dismissal of an astronomical explanation of the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs, astronomer Robin Edgar has theorized that the Nazca Lines, particularly the biomorph geoglyphs that depict animals, human figures, birds and "flowers" are almost certainly an ancient response to the so-called "Eye of God" that is manifested in the sky during a total solar eclipse. An unusual series of total solar eclipses over southern Peru coincided with the time period during which the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs were created. The totally eclipsed sun distinctly resembles the pupil and iris of a gigantic eye looking down from the sky thus providing an explanation as to why the Nazca Indians created gigantic geoglyph artworks that are best viewed by an "Eye in the Sky".
Some (for example Jim Woodmann) have proposed that the Nazca lines presuppose some form of manned flight (in order to see them) and that a hot air balloon was the only possible available technology. Woodmann actually made a hot air balloon from materials and using techniques that would have been available to people at the time in order to test this hypothesis. The balloon flew (after a fashion) demonstrating that this hypothesis was possible, but there is no hard evidence either way.
Another theory contends that the lines are the remains of "walking temples," where a large group of worshipers walked along a preset pattern dedicated to a particular holy entity, similar to the practice of labyrinth walking. Residents of the local villages say the ancient Indians conducted rituals on these giant drawings to thank the gods and to ensure that water would continue to flow from the Andes. This view correlates with the purposes of other North American geoglyphs.
Perhaps the most controversial theory was put forward by Erich von Däniken in his book Chariots of the Gods, who proposed that the lines were in fact landing strips for alien spacecraft. His argument is similar to Woodmann's, claiming that the designs are so large and complex that they could only have been constructed using flying machines.
Record setting hot air balloon aviator Julian Nott has also proposed that Nazca tribal leaders could have been aloft in primitive hot air balloons, as long as two millennia ago, guiding the creation of the Nazca ground figures from above.
Environmental concerns
According to Viktoria Nikitzki of the Maria Reiche Centre, an organization dedicated to protecting the Nazca Lines, pollution and erosion caused by deforestation threaten the continued existence of the Nazca lines. She is quoted as saying "The Lines themselves are superficial, they are only 10 to 30cm deep and could be washed away... Nazca has only ever received a small amount of rain. But now there are great changes to the weather all over the world. The Lines cannot resist heavy rain without being damaged." However, Mario Olaechea Aquije, the archaeological resident from Peru's National Institute of Culture in Nazca, Peru, and a team of specialists surveyed the area after the flooding and mudslides occurring in the area in mid-February of 2007. He announces that "the mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nazca Lines," but that the nearby Southern Pan-American Highway did suffer damage, and "the damage done to the roads should serve as a reminder to just how fragile these figures are."
In fiction
Accurate descriptions and purpose of the lines are described in the novel Domain by Steve Alten.
The Nazca Lines featured in the Anthony Horowitz novel Evil Star where they were an ancient gate which kept back a group of evil demons called the Old Ones. When the stars in the sky line up with the lines, the gate would open. The figures were to serve as a warning. At the end of the novel the Lines came to life and became real creatures.
The Nazca Lines were also featured in a Nancy Drew novel, with the spiral tailed monkey being the focal point of the mystery The Clue in the Crossword Cypher.
The Nazca Lines featured prominently in an episode of The Mysterious Cities of Gold entitled "The Nazca Plateau", where the supposition that the lines were designed to be viewed from above is underlined, with the main characters viewing the ground markings from the sky in their Golden Condor. There is also the implied suggestion the lines were part of an intentionally designed aerial runway as the flying bird lands at sunset along two parallel lines from the surface drawing.
The Nazca Lines were used as a major plot point in the video game Shining Force II and were even referred to by name. In the game, a Nazca bird is actually a flying ship created by an ancient advanced civilization. One of the game's boss fights was fought on top of the Nazca bird.
The Nazca Lines are featured prominently in an episode of the anime Master Mosquiton '99. In the episode, the main characters Inaho and Mosquiton must rescue a plane full of students. They can't land the plane as the airport runway has been flooded with sand that is covered with Nazca Lines (due to a curse from a Nazca mask). Upon inspecting the area, a Nazca spider comes to life and attacks them.
Figures resembling Nazca Lines appear in the arcade game Xevious.
The plot of the ninth episode of the anime series Cowboy Bebop is set in motion by the uncommanded recreation of the Nazca lines by a satellite-based defensive laser grid on the asteroid-pounded Earth.
The Nazca Lines also feature at the end of the game Assassin's Creed where 'eagle vision' is used to reveal markings in blood, including the Nazca monkey, hummingbird and spider.
The video game Illusion of Gaia contains an area named 'Nazca Plains', which contains references to the Nazca Lines.
In the role-playing game Rifts, the Nazca lines were used to create giant energy constructs, ranging from the actual walls of structures to defensive measures against an ancient alien invasion. After a cataclysm destroys human civilization and returns magic to the earth, the descendants of the Nazca civilization ally with the returning gods of the Inca to form a new nation, just as the aliens who attempted to invade before attack again.
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