BC Cook
THEY are so big that if you stood in the middle of one you could not even see it. No one even knew they were there until airplanes began flying over Peru a hundred years ago. Who made them and why? Will we ever unlock the mystery of the Nazca Lines of Peru?
In South America, between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, lies a flat, dry plateau where ancient civilizations thrived but few live today. At the beginning of the twentieth century airplane pilots noticed incredible shapes, geometric figures and animal designs of massive proportions drawn on the ground in the deserts of Peru. We know the Lines have been there for centuries and we even know how they were made but we may never know why.
Let’s answer the how. The top layer of small rocks in the desert floor has been darkened by centuries of exposure to the sun. Underneath, however, the material is of a lighter color. By removing the top layer of rocks, it gives the impression that someone has taken a giant can of spray paint and drawn shapes and animals. Making straight lines was easy. Simply stretch a rope from peg to peg and remove the rocks along the rope. To make a circle required one central peg, another to move around it, and a rope between them. This is much the same way that crop circles are made.
So, making the huge shapes in the Peruvian desert was no miracle. Actually, it required no advanced technology at all. Any stone age society could have done it. But now we come to the great mystery: Why did an ancient civilization devote hundreds of thousands of work hours to creating huge shapes in the desert? There are many ideas.
One theory is that the Nazca Lines have a religious significance that is lost to us. Perhaps they were pathways leading from villages to sacred sites where rituals were performed. That might explain the straight lines but not the animal shapes such as the monkey and hummingbird.
Another theory is that the Lines corresponded to the sun, moon, and stars. Perhaps the Nazca desert is a giant astronomical map, used by ancient people to tell times and seasons.
Another theory supposes that the Lines were artistic expressions that had no useful purpose at all. Much like an artist creating a painting simply for the joy of looking at it, so the shapes are intended merely to be seen. The problem with this idea is that you cannot really see the shapes at all. Not from the ground, anyway.
Some speculate that spirit creatures, angels or demons, created the Lines, their purpose known only to themselves.
Theories abound that the Nazca Lines are of alien origin. Some argue that since the shapes are barely visible from the ground, the location of ancient humans, they must have been created and enjoyed by someone capable of flying: aliens. Another alien-based theory supposes that the lines in the desert were like a giant airport for visiting spacecraft. The straight lines were runways and the animal figures provided information to the pilots, perhaps identifying their location. This theory is supported by the fact that one nearby mountain has been completely sliced off. Flat. And we cannot seem to find the dirt and rock that came from it. Why did someone cut down a whole mountain and then remove its material completely out of the area?
Take a look at some images of the Nazca Lines for yourself and add your own theory about them.
Dr. BC Cook taught history for 30 years and is a Director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org). He currently lives in Hawaii.
