The
Lines of Peru
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A
Nasca trapezoid, looking like a runway, seems to invite
the observation aircraft to land. (Photo
courtesy of Michael J. Way. Copyright Michael J. Way)
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In the Peruvian desert, about 200 miles south
of Lima, there lies a plain between the Inca and Nasca valleys.
Across this plain, in an area measuring 37 miles long and 1
mile wide, is an assortment of perfectly straight lines, many
running parallel, others intersecting, forming a grand geometric
form. In and around the lines there are also trapezoidal zones,
strange symbols, and pictures of birds and beasts all etched
on a giant scale that can only be appreciated from the sky.
The figures come in two types: biomorphs and geoglyphs.
The biomorphs are some 70 animal and plant figures that include
a spider, hummingbird, monkey and a 1,000-foot-long pelican.
The biomorphs are grouped together in one area on the plain.
Some archaeologists believe they were constructed around 200
B.C., about 500 years before the geoglyphs.
There are about 900 geoglyphs on the plain. Geoglyphs
are geometric forms that include straight lines, triangles,
spirals, circles and trapezoids. They are enormous in size.
The longest straight line goes nine miles across the plain.
The forms are so difficult to see from the ground
that they were not discovered until the 1930's when aircraft,
when surveying for water, spotted them. The plain, crisscrossed,
by these giant lines with many forming rectangles, has a striking
resemblance to a modern airport. The Swiss writer, Erich
von Daniken, even suggested they had been built for the
convenience of ancient visitors from space to land their ships.
As tempting as it might be to subscribe to this theory, the
desert floor at Nasca is soft earth and loose stone, not tarmac,
and would not support the landing wheels of either an aircraft
or a flying saucer.
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The
Nasca lines were created by clearing the darkened pampa
stones to either side and exposing the lighter sand
underneath. (Photo courtesy
of Michael J. Way. Copyright Michael J. Way)
|
So why are the lines there? The American explorer
Paul Kosok, who made his first visit to Nasca in the 1940s,
suggested that the lines were astronomically significant and
that the plain acted as a giant observatory. He called them
"the largest astronomy book in the world." Gerald
Hawkins, an American astronomer, tested this theory in 1968
by feeding the position of a sample of lines into a computer
and having a program calculate how many lines coincided with
an important astronomical event. Hawkins showed the number of
lines that were astronomically significant were only about the
same number that would be the result of pure chance. This makes
it seem unlikely Nasca is an observatory.
Perhaps the best theory for the lines and symbols
belongs to Tony Morrison, the English explorer. By researching
the old folk ways of the people of the Andes mountains, Morrison
discovered a tradition of wayside shrines linked by straight
pathways. The faithful would move from shrine to shrine praying
and meditating. Often the shrine was as simple as a small pile
of stones. Morrison suggests that the lines at Nasca were similar
in purpose and on a vast scale. The symbols may have served
as special enclosures for religious ceremonies.
How were they built? Straight lines can be made
easily for great distances with simple tools. Two wooden stakes
placed as a straight line would be used to guide the placement
of a third stake along the line. One person would sight along
the first two stakes and instructs a second person in the placement
of the new stake. This can be repeated as many times as needed
to make an almost perfectly-straight line miles in length. The
symbols were probably made by drawing the desired figure at
some reasonable size, then using a grid system to divide it
up. The symbol could then be redrawn at full scale by recreating
the grid on the ground and working on each individual square
one at a time.
Recently two researchers, David Johnson and Steve
Mabee, have advanced a theory that the geoglyphs may be related
to water. The Nasca plain is one of the driest places on Earth,
getting less than one inch of rain a year. Johnson, while looking
for sources of water in the region, noticed that ancient aqueducts,
called puquios, seemed to be connected with some of the
lines. Johnson thinks that the shapes may be a giant map of
the underground water sources traced on the land. Mabee is working
to gather evidence that might confirm this theory.
Other scientists are more skeptical, but admit
that in a region where finding water was vital to survival,
there might well be some connection between the ceremonial purpose
of the lines and water. Johan Reinhard, a cultural anthropologist
with the National Geographic Society, found that villagers in
Bolivia walk along a straight pathway to shrines while praying
and dancing for rain. Something similar may have been done at
the ancient Nasca lines.
The lines at Nasca aren't the only landscape figures
Peru boasts. About 850 miles south of the plain is the largest
human figure in the world laid out upon the side of Solitary
Mountain. The Giant of Atacama stands 393 feet high and is surrounded
by lines similar to those at Nasca.
Along the Pacific Coast in the foothills of the
Andes Mountains is etched a figure resembling a giant candelabrum.
Further south, Sierra Pintada, which means "the painted mountain"
in Spanish, is covered with vast pictures including spirals,
circles, warriors and a condor. Archaeologists speculate that
these figures, clearly visible from the ground, served as guideposts
for Inca traders.
Draw
a Landscape Figure
Some
of the Nasca biomorphs.
Copyright Lee Krystek
1997-2000. All Rights Reserved.
