Nazca Lines

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Coordinates: 14°43′00″S, 75°08′00″W

Lines and Geoglyphs of Nazca and Pampas de Jumana*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Peru
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iii, i
Reference	700
Region†	Latin America and the Caribbean
Inscription history
Inscription	1994  (18th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

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.

Contents 1 Construction 2 Purpose 3 Environmental concerns 4 In fiction 5 See also 6 References 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Construction

Who made the lines and why they did so is not definitively known. The leading mainstream theory is that 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 people of the time. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within days. Contrary to the claims of several commentators, the figures can be observed from the ground by standing on top of nearby foothills.^[1]

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 (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.

[edit] Purpose

This section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2007)

Why the figures were built remains a persistent mystery. A leading theory is that the Nazca people's motivations were religious, that the images were constructed so that gods in the sky could see them. 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.

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 people created gigantic geoglyph artworks that are best viewed by an "Eye in the Sky".^{[citation needed]}

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 ^[2] and Woodman's work has been rebutted.^[1] Record setting hot air balloon aviator Julian Nott has 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.^[3]

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 Nazca 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 North American geoglyphs.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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."^[4] 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."^[5]

[edit] In fiction

• Accurate descriptions and a speculative 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. (The giant line-animals could even come alive to fight.) 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.
• The Nazca lines are mentioned in the 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods by Erich Von Daniken as evidentiary support for idea that advanced technologies and civilizations have existed before the current technological societies, and that it may have been an airport for our brothers from the stars or supposes that we may have had flight technology in BC times.
• In the video game We Love Katamari the player can pick up the Nazca Line with their ball.
• The Nazca Lines are mentioned in passing in the book The Six Sacred Stones, leading some to believe they will play a role in the book's sequel.
• Ryusei Rockman 2 have a city with this symbols.
• The new Yu-Gi-Oh installment, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's centers around the Nazca Lines and other ancient South American cultures. The embodiments of evil were sealed in the earth in the form of the Nazca patterns by the Crimson Dragon.
• The Nazca Lines are used in the Anthony Horowitz fiction novel Evil Star, in which 5 children must stop evil demons from escaping from the lines.
• Ken Andrews' 2007 album, Secrets Of The Lost Satellite depicts the Nasca Lines on the cover throughout its packaging. Art direction and design by strange//attraktor:.
• In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Nazca Lines were used in locating Akator, the "Lost City of Gold".

[edit] See also

• Carnac stones
• Crop circle
• Marilyn Bridges
• Simone Waisbard

[edit] References

• Aveni, Anthony F. (ed.) (1990). The Lines of Nazca. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-183-3
• Aveni, Anthony F. (2000). Between the Lines: The Mystery of the Giant Ground Drawings of Ancient Nasca, Peru . Austin Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70496-8
• Haughton, Brian. (2007). Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries. Career Press. ISBN 1564148971
• Lambers, Karsten (2006). The Geoglyphs of Palpa, Peru: Documentation, Analysis, and Interpretation. Lindensoft Verlag, Aichwald/Germany. ISBN 3-929290-32-4
• Reinhard, Johan (1996) (6th ed.) The Nazca Lines: A New Perspective on their Origin and Meaning. Lima: Los Pinos. ISBN 84-89291-17-9

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Nazca lines at the Open Directory Project

v • d • e World Heritage Sites in Peru Chan Chan Archaeological Zone · Chavín Archaeological Site · City of Cuzco · Historic Centre of Lima · Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa · Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu · Huascarán National Park · Manú National Park · Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana · Rio Abiseo National Park