Nazca News

"Nazca Lines of Kazakhstan:
More Than 50 Geoglyphs Discovered"

September 23, 2014, Live Science, USA:
"More than 50 geoglyphs with various shapes and sizes, including a massive swastika, have been discovered across northern Kazakhstan in Central Asia, say archaeologists.

These sprawling structures, mostly earthen mounds, create the type of landscape art most famously seen in the Nazca region of Peru.

Discovered using Google Earth, the geoglyphs are designed in a variety of geometric shapes, including squares, rings, crosses and swastikas (the swastika is a design that was used in ancient times).

Ranging from 90 to 400 meters (295 to 1,312 feet) in diameter, some of them are longer than a modern-day aircraft carrier.

Researchers say that the geoglyphs are difficult to see on the ground, but can easily be seen from the sky." [Read The Full Story]
[In Photos: Google Earth Reveals Sprawling Geoglyphs in Kazakhstan]

"New Nazca Lines geoglyphs uncovered by
gales and sandstorms in Peru"

August 04, 2014, The Independent, UK:
"High winds and sandstorms in Peru have revealed previously undiscovered geoglyphs in the ancient Nazca Lines.

Eduardo Herrán Gómez de la Torre, a pilot and researcher, found the new shapes while flying over the desert last week, El Comercio reported.

He believes one of the geoglyphs depicts a snake 60 metres long and 4 metres wide, near the famous 'hummingbird'.

A bird, camelids (possibly llamas) and a zig zag line are among the lines found etched into the ground on hills in the El Ingenio Valley and Pampas de Jumana.

Archaeologists are already trying to confirm whether they match the Paracas culture in the Ica region of Peru, which flourished from 800BC to 100BC and influenced complex textiles and ceramics at Nazca as well as the lines." [Read The Full Story]
[Watch the Video: Wingsuit skydivers glide over the Nazca lines in Peru]

"Mysterious rock lines in Peru
likely marked way to ancient fairs"

May 06, 2014, Fox News, USA:
"New rock lines discovered in Peru predate the famous Nazca Lines by centuries and likely once marked the site of ancient fairs, researchers say.

The lines were created by people of the Paracas, a civilization that arose around 800 B.C. in what is now Peru.

The Paracas culture predated the Nazca culture, which came onto the scene around 100 B.C.

The Nazca people are famous for their fantastic geoglyphs, or rock lines, built in the shapes of monkeys, birds and other animals.

The new lines date to around 300 B.C., making them at least 300 years older than the oldest Nazca lines, said Charles Stanish, the director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who reported the new find May 5 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

'They used the lines in a different way than the Nazca," Stanish told Live Science. "They basically created these areas of highly ritualized processions and activities that were not settled permanently.'" [Read The Full Story]

"Mysterious Animal-Shaped Structures In Peru
Are Oldest Known"

February 16, 2011, Andina, Peru:
"Manmade mounds shaped like orcas, condors and even a duck may be the oldest evidence of animal mounds outside of North America, according to former University of Missouri anthropologist.

Writing in the magazine Antiquity, Robert Benfer, a professor emeritus, describes a series of mounds, some more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) across, in coastal valleys in Peru.

Archaeological evidence at the sites pegs some at more than 4,000 years old.

"It's going to shake everybody's views," Benfer told LiveScience. "The previous oldest animal figures were at Nazca and they're 2,000 years old."

The Nazca Lines are simple stone outlines of animals decorating the Nazca Desert in Peru. Like the newly discovered mounds, they may have had ritual significance.

In addition, the shapes likely coincided with the constellations these ancient people saw in the Milky Way. Its orientation and slant angle are aligned with the altitude of the sun at midsummer, researchers said."
[Read More] - [See Images of the Animal Mounds]

"Nasca geoglyphs may be found along Rio Grande basin"

February 16, 2011, Andina, Peru:
"Nasca ancient geoglyphs are found in the pampas, but they may be found along Rio Grande basin, too, said archaeologist Alberto Urbano, officer in charge at Nasca Regional Directorate of Culture.

Urbano alleges that this hypothesis has emerged after the recent finds of two high relief figures and 138 line centers discovered by a team of researchers at Japan?s Yamagata University.

Japanese researchers were assisted by Peruvian Jorge Olano and , all together carried out a research study in this southwest sector of the pampas in Cacahuasi area. Such a project was completed in late January." [Full Story]

"Scientists claim new geoglyph find in Nazca, Peru"

January 20, 2011, Living in Peru, Peru:
"Two scientists from Yamagata University in Japan reported finding two new geoglyphs in southern Peru?s Nazca province, Andina reported.

Are these new Nasca geoglyphs?
Japanese archeologists say ye

Copyright © 2011 Yamagata University

The new geoglyphs depict a human head and an animal figure that the researchers have yet to identify, state news agency Andina reported. According to the archaeology faculty chief at Yamagata, Yoichi Watanabe, the drawing of the human head is 4.2 meters long and 3.1 m wide.

The geoglyphs have most probably not been identified in aerial surveys before because of their small size, Watanabe said." [Full Story]

"Nasca Lines may be giant map of underground water sources"

August 27, 2010, Andina, Peru:
"American researcher David Johnson has advanced a theory that Nasca Lines may be related to water. He thinks that the geoglyphs may be a giant map of the underground water sources traced on the land.

The Nasca Lines are located in the Peruvian desert, about 200 miles south of Lima. The assortment of perfectly-straight lines lies in an area measuring 37 miles long and 1-mile wide.

The Nasca plain is one of the driest places on Earth, getting less than one inch of rain a year. So, when Johnson started his research in 1995, he became aware of the scarcity of water in the region and the effect that this had on agricultural production and the quality of life.

While looking for sources of water, he noticed that ancient aqueducts, called puquios, seemed to be connected with some of the lines. " [Full Story]

"Nasca Lines aerial views on National Geographic magazine"

March 18, 2010, Andina, Peru:
"Peru's Nasca Lines were captured by National Geographic photographer Robert Clark.

An aerial view of a Nazca geoglyph
taken by Robert Clark for National Geographic

Copyright © 2009 Robert Clark for National Geographic

Pictures are remarkable for their beauty and originality, especially aerial views that enhance the ongoing debate rather than revealing the origin of geoglyphs.

The March edition of the prestigious National Geographic magazine, covering wildlife and environment conservation issues, contains a stunning photo gallery of Nasca Lines and its surroundings.

Since the lines became widely known in the late 1920s, when commercial air travel was introduced between Lima and the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, the lines have puzzled all the world." [Full Story]

"The Nasca Lines: An Incredible Fly-Over"

December 01, 2009, Living in Peru, Peru:
"One of the many well known wonders of Peru are the famous Nasca lines located on the Nasca plains in the southern part of Peru.

The Nasca were one of many ancient cultures that reached great heights in this amazing country.

The Nasca flourished from 200 BC to 700 AD and left behind not only a remarkable city with at least 17 temples, which are just being excavated, as well as a very advanced aqueduct system, but they also left these remarkable designs in the desert.

An aerial view of the spider geoglyph taken by Rodney L. Dodig

Copyright © 2009 Rodney L. Dodig for Living in Peru

Most of them cannot be seen and appreciated unless you are flying over them in a plane, although a few can be discerned from the observation towers located in the area.

On a recent excursion with friends visiting from the United States I had the opportunity to view these stunning works.

Our fly over included the Trapezoids, the Astronaut, The Monkey, the Dog, the Condor, the Spider, the Frigate Bird, the Spider, the Humming Bird, Alcatraz, the Parrot, the Tree, the Hands and the Baby Condor as well as seeing some spectacular desert scenery.

Researchers have demonstrated that the construction of even the most complicated geoglyph could have been accomplished by 4 or 5 people in less than a week." [Full Story]

"Nazcas' destruction of forests caused downfall"

November 01, 2009, The Sunday Telegraph, UK:
"An ancient civilisation brought about its own demise by destroying forests which kept its delicate ecosystem in balance, according to researchers who claim the discovery has important implications for the modern world.

Archaeologists examining the remains of the Nasca, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, discovered a sequence of human-induced events which led to their 'catastrophic' collapse around 500 AD.

The Nasca civilisation, noted for creating vast patterns in the desert that can only be seen from the air, disappeared partly because it damaged the fragile ecosystem that held it in place, a study found.

Author Oliver Whaley, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said: 'The mistakes of prehistory offer us important lessons for our management of fragile, arid areas in the present.'

In the study published in the journal Latin American Antiquity, the researchers found that the Nasca cleared areas of forest to make way for their own agriculture over the course of many generations." [Full Story]

"Nazca Lines to be protected from heavy rains"

April 13, 2009, AFP, France:
"The National Institute of Culture (INC) is currently preparing a preservation project to prevent damaged caused by weather on the enigmatic Nazca Lines, (Ica region) reported Mario Olaechea, resident archaeologist of this organization in Nasca.

'It's a project that will serve the whole area in general, to avoid events such like the one last January, when rainwater accumulated and drained, covering with layers of clay the geoglyph called La Mano (The Hand)', he said.

'Only 1% of the geoglyph was covered by the clay layer, and will be withdrawn very soon', he said." [Full Story]

"Nazca Lines to be protected from heavy rains"

April 13, 2009, AFP, France:
"The National Institute of Culture (INC) is currently preparing a preservation project to prevent damaged caused by weather on the enigmatic Nazca Lines, (Ica region) reported Mario Olaechea, resident archaeologist of this organization in Nasca.

The Nasca lines are a collection of lines, giant trapezoids, and figures of humans, plants and animals in a desert 400 kilometres south of Lima, Peru.

They were created between 400 BC and AD 650 by the removal of reddish oxidised stones from the desert pavement to reveal the lighter sand beneath.

'It's a project that will serve the whole area in general, to avoid events such like the one last January, when rainwater accumulated and drained, covering with layers of clay the geoglyph called La Mano (The Hand)', he said.

'Only 1% of the geoglyph was covered by the clay layer, and will be withdrawn very soon', he said." [Full Story]

More information about the Nazca geoglyphs at:
Maria Reiche

"Rituals of the Nasca Lines: New excavations reveal the purpose and origin of the famed geoglyphs"

May 2009 Edition, Archaeology Magazine, USA:
"It was a little after eight in the morning and the sun was still low on the horizon. Jammed in the back of a six-seat Cessna Stationair flying low over Peru's Atacama Desert, I felt a rush of air. Glancing up, I saw the pilot holding the plane's window open with his left hand while steering us into a tight, banking turn with his right.

Soon I spotted a wide, straight line that extended for hundreds of yards then turned 90 degrees to the left. Next to it lay the faint outlines of a whale traced in stone. It was one of the Nasca lines.

This excavation of a site near the lines at Pernil Alto in the Palpa Valley
turned up evidence of a pre-Nasca settlement

Copyright © 2009 Andrew Curry / Archaeology Magazine

Created by Peru's Nasca culture between 400 B.C. and A.D. 600, the lines have puzzled researchers since they were first noticed by pilots in the 1930s.

How could a prehistoric culture have made designs that are essentially invisible from ground level--and why?

Oyster (Spondylus) shells were crafted into ornaments
and left as sacrifices in Nasca water rituals

Copyright © 2009 Andrew Curry / Archaeology Magazine

After a decade-long effort, an international team of archaeologists, geologists, chemists, and even computer scientists from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria say they've cracked the secrets of the lines, revealing how they were constructed and why.

If they're right, it could lay to rest a 60-year-old debate over whether the Nasca used the lines as astronomical observatories or water maps, or for some other purpose entirely." [Full Story]

"Peruvians walked their prayers into the earth"

January 26, 2009, New Scientist, UK:
"The ancient, intricate geometric patterns stamped on the surface of a desert in Peru have long been thought of as messages to the gods, or as markers that tracked celestial objects.

Now new details about these geoglyphs suggest they may have been made for 'prayer walking'.

Nazca culture's geoglyph known as "The hand"
flooded by the Nazca river

Copyright © 2009 Karsten Lambers / New Scientist
Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

The Nasca lines are a collection of lines, giant trapezoids, and figures of humans, plants and animals in a desert 400 kilometres south of Lima, Peru.

They were created between 400 BC and AD 650 by the removal of reddish oxidised stones from the desert pavement to reveal the lighter sand beneath.

Tomasz Gorka of Munich University in Germany analysed five geoglyph complexes near the city of Palpa, focusing on the large trapezoidal structures which are etched on the plains there.

He measured anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field caused by changes in soil density at various depths."
[Full Story]

"Heavy rains alter Peru's famed Nazca Lines"

January 21, 2009, AFP, France:
"Heavy rains in recent days in Peru have affected the famed Nazca Lines, the two-millennia-old giant outlines that are one of the country's top tourist attractions, officials said Tuesday.

Nazca culture's geoglyph known as "The hand"
flooded by the Nazca river

Copyright © 2009 AFP, France

The precipitation left a layer of white clay on parts of two of the geoglyphs, 'giving another color to the figures', archeologist Mario Olaechea of the National Institute of Culture told AFP.

The Nazca Lines are considered one of the world's great mysteries."
[Full Story]

"Heavy rains damage Peru's Nazca lines"

January 20, 2009, PR-Inside, Austria:
"Heavy rains have damaged part of Peru's famed Nazca lines, depositing desert clay and sand on top of three fingers of a geoglyph shaped like a pair of hands, an archaeologist said Monday.

Mario Olaechea of Peru's National Culture Institute told The Associated Press that water from the unusually heavy rains washed off the nearby Pan-American highway and pushed sand and clay onto part of the site Sunday.

The damage is minor, and the institute plans to clear the material and restore the glyph, Olaechea said." [Full Story]

"Ancient People Were Fond Head Collectors:
The Nazcas collected heads from fellow tribesmen"

January 06, 2009, Softpedia, Romania:
"Recent studies done on trophy heads collected from funeral monuments of prominent Nazca leaders show that they did not belong to rival cultures, as it was first expected.

The heads were not captured in battles, but came from the same tribes as the people they were buried with.

Why this civilization collected heads is still a question that leaves scientists puzzled, but at least now they know that these people were not in the habit of severing their opponents' heads from their bodies and taking them home.

In the average tombs, the heads were suspended from woven cords, so as to be visible to all people and spirits that may have visited the tombs.

There are numerous controversies regarding the matter, as the scientific community failed to come to a consensus as to why the heads were collected in the first place, and what their role was in the community." [Full Story]

"Taking trophy heads close to home"

December 19, 2008, Science News, USA:
"New evidence suggests that an ancient South American culture obtained ritual skulls by killing and beheading some of its own people, not foreign warriors

In South America?s ancient Nasca culture, some local folk literally lost their heads so that everyone else might fill their bellies.

The Nasca obtained trophy heads, human skulls modified in various ways and intended to spur successful farming, from their own people, not from foreigners slain in battles and raids as was practiced by the Inca and other prehistoric societies of that region, a new study finds.

Earlier analyses of paintings on Nasca pottery had suggested that members of this culture believed that the taking of trophy heads provided supernatural power needed for crop growth.

Since the first Nasca trophy heads were discovered nearly 100 years ago, scientists have debated whether these items came from vanquished enemies or from local individuals thought to represent venerated Nasca ancestors." [Full Story]

"Quickbird Discovers Site of Human Sacrifices"

October 24, 2008, SatNews Daily, USA
"Imagine a piece of history being hidden for as much as 2,000 years only to be detected by a new remote sensing technology that peeled away layers of mud and rock near Peru's Cahuachi desert to reveal an ancient adobe pyramid.

Italian researchers Nicola Masini and Rosa Lasaponara of Italy's National Research Council (CNR) discovered the pyramid by analyzing images from the satellite Quickbird, which they used to penetrate the Peruvian soil.

A QuickBird image showing the pyramid discovered near Cahuachi

Copyright © 2008 National Research Council, Italy/SatNews

Via Quickbird, Masini and colleagues collected high-resolution infrared and multispectral images.

After the researchers optimized the data with special algorithms, the result was a detailed visualization of a pyramid extending over a 97,000-square-foot (9,000-square-meter) area. .

Cahuachi is the best-known site of the Nazca civilization, which flourished in Peru between the first century B.C. and the fifth century A.D. and slid into oblivion by the time the Inca Empire rose to dominate the Andes. [Full Story]

"Satellite discovers ancient adobe pyramid in Peru"

October 04, 2008, Malaysia Sun, Malaysia:
"A new remote sensing technology in a satellite has helped discover an ancient adobe pyramid near Peru's Cahuachi desert.

According to a report in Discovery News, Nicola Masini and Rosa Lasaponara of Italy's National Research Council (CNR) discovered the pyramid by analyzing images from the satellite Quickbird, which they used to penetrate the Peruvian soil.

The researchers investigated a test area along the river Nazca.

Covered by plants and grass, it was about a mile away from Cahuachi's archaeological site, which contains the remains of what is believed to be the world's biggest mud city." [Full Story]

"Archeologists in Peru unearth human sacrifices"

September 18, 2008, Reuters India, India:
"Three teams of archeologists in Peru have in the past week uncovered remains of human sacrifices carried out by ancient civilizations, including the skeleton of a pregnant woman.

At the Cahuachi site in southern Peru, Giuseppe Orefici, director of the Italian center for pre-Colombian research, found two bodies along with textiles and ceramics.

Cahuachi was part of the Nazca civilization, which flourished in Peru between AD 300 and 800 whose members carved massive lines depicting birds and animals in the Peruvian desert that are best viewed from the air.

'A human sacrifice is very important', said Giuseppe Orefici, an archeologist who has spent decades excavating Cahuachi. 'Human sacrifices added to the value of the offering', he said while standing next to a central pyramid that rises from the flat desert." [Full Story]

"Artifacts and textiles found at Cahuachi ceremonial center"

September 04, 2008, Andina, Peru:
"A team of archaeologists led by Giuseppe Orefici presented a report of this year?s archeological excavation works carried out in Cahuachi, a major ceremonial center of the Nasca civilization in Peru, occupied from between AD 1-500.

Copyright © 2008 Andina/Jorge Paz

Artifacts and remains found at Cahuachi include engraved gourds with nature-related and abstract designs, pre-Inca textiles and ceramics as well as the remains of a sacrificed child.

The Ceremonial city of Cahuachi is located about 28 kilometres away from the modern city of Nazca, at the lower section of the Nazca Valley, virtually in the middle of the desert.

Since 1982, Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Orefeci has begun tireless work uncovering the ancient city of the Nazca people." [Full Story]

"Archaeologists explore Peruvian mystery"

May 22, 2008, PhysOrg, USA:
"Indiana Jones may be flying over the Nazca Lines in Peru in his latest Hollywood adventure, but two British archaeologists have been investigating the enigmatic desert drawings for several years.

Dr Nick Saunders from Bristol University and Professor Clive Ruggles from the University of Leicester are locating and measuring the lines with high-precision GPS, photographing the distribution of 1,500-year old pottery, and painstakingly working out the chronological sequence of overlying lines and designs.

Funded by the Anglo-Peruvian Cultural Association in Lima, their research hopes to unlock the purpose of the dazzling but confusing array of desert drawings.

Bizarre explanations, such as alien visitations, ancient landing strips, and astronomical calendars are being replaced by serious archaeological and anthropological ideas." [Full Story]

"Archaeologist 'strikes gold' with finds of ancient
Nasca iron ore mine in Peru"

January 29, 2008, Purdue University, USA:
"A Purdue University archaeologist discovered an intact ancient iron ore mine in South America that shows how civilizations before the Inca Empire were mining this valuable ore.

Copyright © 2008 Purdue University, USA

Kevin J. Vaughn, a Purdue assistant professor of anthropology, holds a pottery fragment he discovered at an excavation site in Nasca, Peru. The piece of pottery is from about the 5th century A.D., which is the same time period as other artifacts he uncovered at Mina Primavera.

'Archaeologists know people in the Old and New worlds have mined minerals for thousands and thousands of years', said Kevin J. Vaughn, an assistant professor of anthropology who studies the Nasca civilization, which existed from A.D. 1 to A.D. 750. 'Iron mining in the Old World, specifically in Africa, goes back 40,000 years. And we know the ancient people in Mexico, Central America and North America were mining for various materials. There isn't much evidence for these types of mines.'

'What we found is the only hematite mine, a type of iron also known as ochre, recorded in South America prior to the Spanish conquest. This discovery demonstrates that iron ores were important to ancient Andean civilizations.'

In 2004 and 2005, Vaughn and his team excavated Mina Primavera, which is located in the Ingenio Valley of the Andes Mountains in southern Peru. The research team performed field checks and collected some samples in 2006 and 2007. The findings of the excavation are published in December's Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.

The researchers determined that the mine is a human-made cave that was first created around 2,000 years ago. An estimated 3,710 metric tons was extracted from the mine during more than 1,400 years of use. The mine, which is nearly 700 cubic meters, is in a cliffside facing a modern ochre mine." [Full Story]

"We know who drew these giant shapes in
Peru's desert - but why?"

December 10, 2007, The Miami Herald, USA:
"Everyone here, it seems, has a theory about the Nasca Lines. The mysterious markings on the desert floor are a massive astronomical calendar. That's a popular one.

Or maybe they point to hidden reserves of water, the source of life in the desert.

Then there's my favorite: UFO landing site. Forty years ago, Danish writer Erich Von Daniken popularized that theory with his best-selling book Chariots of the Gods?

Now, strapped into a four-passenger Cessna circling over a figure called the astronaut, I'm not sure what to think. One of its hands points to the sky, another to the ground. His owlish eyes stare into mine. Look at me, the 1,500-year-old seems to say. Can you solve my mystery?

Here's what's known: For hundreds of years, the Nasca people created lines on the ground. Some form familiar figures: a spider, hummingbird and dog. Others - a whale, monkey and parrot - don't belong in the desert at all.

The only way to see the Nasca Lines is from the air. That makes them even more mysterious. How did pre-Inca people make these images without being able to fly? And what was the point of forming lines if they couldn't appreciate their glory? The lines weren't even discovered until 1929, when a pilot flew over the area and was astonished to see eyes looking up at him.

Thanks to the ancients, the town of Nasca now has a veritable air force: More than a dozen companies fly planes over the lines. The tours are an industry, as indicated by the handwritten sign taped to my plane's instrument console. 'Tips are welcome', it says in six languages.

Not bad for a dusty desert town of about 20,000, a six-hour bus ride south of Lima. The modern city of Nasca, a place that gets less than an inch of rain a year, owes its prosperity to the mysterious markings. Statues inspired by the desert figures decorate the town plaza. Sketches of the lines are everywhere else. Elongated hummingbirds mark store signs, while a lizard graces City Hall. On sidewalks, brass inlays of a monkey and spider reflect the sun.

But the lines might have been forgotten without Maria Reiche. She came to Peru from Germany in the 1930s as a tutor and eventually dedicated her life to documenting the creations. For years, she surveyed the area, measuring the markings and pondering their meaning." [Full Story]

"Nostradamus Prophecies Linked to the Nazca Lines"

June 12, 2007, PR-GB, Bulgaria:
"Michel Nostradamus, history's most famous prophet, died in southern France in the late sixteenth century. The lines of Nazca are one of archaeology's greatest mysteries and were created nearly a thousand years earlier on a faraway continent.

A direct connection between the two is surely impossible, no? 'To the contrary, it's highly possible', says Morten St. George, author of a Nostradamus decoding book called Incantation of the Law Against Inept Critics: A Guide to Cryptic Thinking.

St. George's sensational decoding breakthrough was discovering that more than a half dozen of the Nostradamus prophecies cover, with extreme accuracy and detail, major historical events of an Andean people known as the Incas. 'The prophecies in question stand among the easiest to decode. No one ever did so because no one ever imagined that Nostradamus could be prophesying about such things.'

Moreover, in a couple of those prophecies, the author displays signs of emotion over the future dire plight of the Andean people, implying that there was direct contact if not a bond of friendship.

A reaffirmation comes in the first line of prophecy VI-2, which reads 'In the year 580 more or less.' Interpreters normally assume poetic license to add a thousand years. 'Not necessary,' says St. George.

'580 are correct as it stands. Prophecy VIII-76, internally claiming to signal the time of authorship, recounts in detail known historical events occurring in England around 580 A.D.'".

Meanwhile, it seems the people of Nazca used wooden stakes to mark out their lines, and archaeologists, using radiocarbon dating techniques, have determined that they began their grandiose project in the Peruvian desert around 580 A.D.." [Full Story]

"Priests may have designed Nazca lines, expert says"

September 24, 2006, Arizona Star/Reuters, USA:
"High priests at an ancient religious compound in southern Peru may have designed the mysterious Nazca lines, a set of huge geometric patterns, animal figures and long lines etched in the desert, the area's top archaeologist said.

Researchers say the Cahua-chi compound, built in 400 B.C., is just across the Nazca Valley from the lines, one of Peru's most popular tourist attractions and a U.N. World Heritage site.

The work is part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, designed to explore the archaeological evidence from the landscape around Stonehenge, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls, and to examine this wide complex of monuments and human activities.

'It is logical to think that the Nazca people's religious beliefs originated in this ceremonial site and got expressed on the wide-open plain', Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Orefici, who leads research at Cahuachi, said last week.

Geographical proximity is not the only evidence of links between the two ancient sites ? the same religious icons appear at the lines and on ceramics and crafts excavated at the Cahuachi compound." [Full Story]

"Mystery Triangles Break Nazca Code"

August 27, 2004, PR Web, USA:
"An amatuer photographer in San Diego has the local press convinced he's solved the riddle of who made the famous lines on the desert floor at Nazca, Peru. Ten UFOs he accidentally captured in a single photograph apparently contained the rosetta stone to finally solve this ancient mystery and his popular website backs him up with evidence the Los Angeles Times labeled 'Unsettling'.

It was just another hike thru the woods for three friends in San Diego on that glorious July day back in 1990. Only after the photos from the trip were developed did the hikers discover they were not alone.

In the distant background of one of those daylight scenic photos, a formation of nine objects were accidentally captured hovering over a nearby hillside.

'These extraordinary photos are most pursuasive evidence of the existence of UFOs' an expert would claim months later in a popular magazine.

On the trail that day however, nothing was out of the ordinary as the three adventurers set out to explore for the first time a beautiful loop trail at Inaja Memorial park in Santa Ysabel, California just east of San Diego." [Full Story]

[The phenomena of strange lights in the sky near to ancient sites is something that has been reported from almost every corner of the world. Until these phenomena are fully explained they do indeed remain adequately described as Unidentified Flying Objects.

But it is pure idiocy to attempt to identify them in the context of some sort of extraterrestrial lifeforms visiting our planet. Ancient peoples all over the globe were capable of performing feats of engineering that we are uanable to equal, or copy, today despite our suppposedly superior technology.

Regrettably many people are unable or unwilling to appreciate this simple fact despite the ample evidence to be found all around us - Ed.]

"Peruvian mystery in danger"

April 20, 2004, The Washington Times/AP, USA:
"Standing inside the maze of mysterious lines and figures that put this arid region on the tourist map, state archaeologist Alberto Urbano surveyed a football field-size spread of ankle-deep trash.

'Farther down this road there are illegal gold mines, too', he said, noting that the path is the side of a gigantic trapezoid. 'See how straight it is.'

But it is not only trash and small-time gold diggers that threaten Peru's fragile Nazca Lines. Grave robbers, tractor-trailers and tourists have left their mark on the vast designs carved more than a millennium ago along a 35-mile stretch of desert.

In many ways, the damage reflects Peru's inability to protect its myriad of pre-Columbian archaeological gems.

Mr. Urbano blew the whistle on the municipality of Nazca in October for briefly dumping trash inside the 175-square-mile protected zone that has been a United Nations World Heritage site since 1994." [Full Story]

"Ancient Desert Markings Imaged From Orbit"

April 19, 2004, The Washington Times/AP, USA:
Visible from ESA's Proba spacecraft 600 kilometres away in space are the largest of the many Nasca Lines; ancient desert markings now at risk from human encroachment as well as flood events feared to be increasing in frequency.

Copyright © 2004 SpaceDaily

Designated a World Heritage Site in 1994, the Lines are a mixture of animal figures and long straight lines etched across an area of about 70 km by 30 km on the Nasca plain, between the Andes and Pacific Coast at the southern end of Peru. The oldest lines date from around 400 BC and went on being created for perhaps a thousand years.

They were made simply enough, by moving dark surface stones to expose pale sand beneath. However their intended purpose remains a mystery.

It has variously been proposed they were created as pathways for religious processions and ceremonies, an astronomical observatory or a guide to underground water resources." [Full Story]

"Over 1000 new 'geoglyphs' discovered on Peruvian
Nasca desert"

October 08, 2002, National Geographic News, USA:
"Human and animal likenesses, a knife, and a sundial are among the "geoglyphs", or giant figures etched into the earth and discernible from the sky, most recently discovered in the Peruvian desert.

Peruvian archaeologist Johny Islas and German colleague Markus Reindel have identified new etchings made by the ancient Nasca people in the desert valleys of Palpa, about 460 kilometers (290 miles) south of Lima.

After five years of work, the scientists were able to identify more than 1,000 new geoglyphs ... " [Full Story]

"Nazca Lines, Peru - latest satellite images"

January 15, 2001, Earth Observatory, Earth Orbit:
"It takes a view from above to appreciate the giant designs the ancient Nazca people carved into the Peruvian desert.

click image for higher resolution Copyright © 2001 Earth Observatory

This view from the Ikonos satellite reveals a giant spiral, a spider, and perfectly straight lines that stretch for kilometers across the desert. The Nazca created these geoglyphs between 200 BCE and AD 600 by clearing away the dark red top soil and stone, leaving the pale underlying soil exposed. Since the plain where the lines are carved receives little rain or wind, the lines are still visible today. This image, taken on January 15, 2001, shows two glyphs and several lines.

Near the top of the image, a spiral is nestled at the foot of the mountains. Below it is a spider, with its pincers facing the left edge of the image.

Since the lines are difficult to see from the ground, the artists may never have seen their work from this perspective. So why did the Nazca go to the trouble of scribbling over the desert?" [Full Story]

"El Niño vs. The Giant Monkey"

February 09, 1998, Science Now, USA:
"The mysterious giant birds and other animals etched into the desert near Nazca, Peru, may be in peril.

Torrential rains in the Andes this week have sent rivers of mud sweeping across the plains.

So far the flooding has only smudged a few lines on the 500-square-kilometer desert canvas, but locals worry that some of the ancient images may be lost if preventative steps aren't taken soon.

Over a millennium ago, people of the Nazca region carved kilometer-long lines and images into the yellow-white clay of a desert plateau on Peru's south coast.

More recently, another line has been added--the Pan-American highway, which cuts across several of the designs.

The roadwork and El Niño weather patterns are conspiring to destroy the famed artwork, says José Lancho, a local historian of Nazca."
[Read The Full Story]