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<< Our Photo Pages >> Nazca Lines - Hill Figure or Geoglyph in Peru

Submitted by bat400 on Wednesday, 21 December 2022  Page Views: 29119

Multi-periodSite Name: Nazca Lines
Country: Peru Type: Hill Figure or Geoglyph

Latitude: 14.695S  Longitude: 75.16W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

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MartinJEley visited on 19th Apr 2016 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 The Nazca Lines were viewed by aircraft, flying from Pisco Airport near Paracas. The pilot showed us all the main glyphs, often banking steeply to give us a good view. Photographs do not easily do justice to the impressive designs.

SusieBear visited on 1st Sep 2007 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 I believe they can only really be fully appreciated from the air. Regular flights from small airport near Ica, desert town in Southern Peru. Vey small propeller driven plane - single seats on either side - so everyone gets a window seat! This trip was amazing, it is difficult to comprehend how these glyphs could possibly be manmade - they are huge and perfect. Pilot was very informative - the area contaning the lines is approx 500 square kilometres and the largest figures cover 200+ metres. They are only about 15cm deep & are believed to have been 'drawn' by Nasca people, between 400 - 650 AD, by removing top layer of gravel using a form of 'string' stretched between wooden stakes as a guide. Apparantly remains of wooden stakes have been found along some of the lines. Are they ritualistic for water bringing, ensuring good crops, fertility et al or astrology, cosmology or are they landing strips/portals for beings from other planets, dimensions or galaxies - no-one seems to know, possibly all of these and more. The fact that they are still intact is pretty amazing and this is due to the windless and constant climate of this region. The Nazca desert is one of the driest places on Earth with a steady yearly temperature of approx 75 degres F. The lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered and visible to the present day. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and highly recommend it. The only downside was that I visited Peru just a month after an earthquake which sadly devastated many of the surrounding villages - though strangely not the Nazca lines.

Torwen visited on 1st Jan 2005 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3

Jansold visited on 1st Sep 2001 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5

Tdiver visited on 1st Jan 1991 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5 There was a tower but it wasn't high enough so we rented a plane, the only way to see the lines.



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.4 Ambience: 4.6 Access: 4

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by dodomad : More than 100 new designs discovered in Peru’s ancient Nazca plain Findings this month of geoglyphs, which date back more than 2,000 years, are smaller and can be seen from the ground Following two years of field surveys with aerial photos and drones, Peruvian and Japanese researches from Yamagata University earlier this month reported the discovery of 168 new designs at the Unesco Wor... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Geoglyphs in Ica State, Peru. The Nazca culture (200BC - 700AD) created large figures in the desert floor. Many can only be seen from the air. The lines were made by removing stones and pebbles coated with iron oxide (sometimes called "desert varnish") to reveal a lighter colored layer of ground beneath.

The "lines" include straight lines, "white solid" straight line figures, and figures of animals and plants. It has been shown that the figures can be marked out using twine and stakes. A greater mystery is "why" they were created. Theories include:
The practical (markings for underground cisterns the Nasca were known to build,)
The scientific (astronomical alignments - support appears to be very tenuous,)
The religious (dancing labyrinths for ritual; figures to be viewed by deities,) and

Additionally, the Lines are the frequent subject of fanciful, but popular, explanations (such as landing grids for the spaceships of the Nasca culture's alien astronaut masters.)

The lines figures are best viewed from aircraft and there are several companies that provide this service for tourists. There are also a few locations where viewing platforms have been built. Satellite views of the figures have highly variable quality, depending on air and lighting conditions and resolution.
Many lines do not appear to form large scale figures. Additionally the lines appear to have been created over a very long perod of time, with figures and individual lines crossing over older constructions.
The location given is general for the area. Specific Megalithic Portal Site Listings call out the location of specific figures.

Clive Ruggles and Nicholas J. Saunders: Desert labyrinth: lines, landscape and meaning at Nazca, Peru. More in the comments below.

Note: More than 100 new designs discovered in Peru’s ancient Nazca plain
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Nazca Lines -
Nazca Lines - "The Astronaut" submitted by SolarMegalith : Site in Peru: Nazca - the famous hill figure of the "astronaut." (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by PeterR87 : Nazca lines "Dog" Photo taken on August 15. 2008. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Nazca Lines - Monkey
Nazca Lines - Monkey submitted by PeterR87 : Nazca lines "Monkey" Photo taken on August 15. 2008. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Nazca Lines - Hands and Tree
Nazca Lines - Hands and Tree submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca - Hands, one of the figures located very close to the observation tower and the highway (photo taken on April 2008). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Nazca Lines - Hummingbird
Nazca Lines - Hummingbird submitted by SolarMegalith : The Hummingbird is one of the numerous animal representations among Nazca lines (photo taken on April 2004). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Nazca Lines - Hummingbird
Nazca Lines - Hummingbird submitted by Dutch : View on Nasca hummingbird from a Cessna aircraft. February 1997.

Nazca Lines - Hummingbird
Nazca Lines - Hummingbird submitted by Dutch : View on Nasca hummingbird drawing from a Cessna aircraft. February 1997.

Nazca Lines - Hummingbird
Nazca Lines - Hummingbird submitted by Dutch : View on Nasca bird drawing from a Cessna aircraft. Februari 1997.

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by PeterR87 : Nazca lines - Bird Photo taken on August 15. 2008.

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by PeterR87 : Nazca lines "Condor" Photo taken on August 15. 2008.

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by PeterR87 : Nazca lines "Flamingo" Photo taken on August 15. 2008.

Nazca Lines - Spider
Nazca Lines - Spider submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca - the figure of the spider measuring almolst 40 meters. Most of the lines were made between 300th and 900th year AC. (4 comments)

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by MartinJEley : A view of the Whale Glyph, right of centre, showing the degree of aircraft manoeuvring required.

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by PeterR87 : Nazca lines - Another bird or something else? Photo taken August 15. 2008

Nazca Lines
Nazca Lines submitted by PeterR87 : Nazca lines - Water erosion. Notice the almost square plateau in the upper left corner, where lines meet. Photo taken on August 15. 2008.

Nazca Lines - Hands and Tree
Nazca Lines - Hands and Tree submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca lines - Tree on the left, Hands on the right (photo taken on April 2008). (1 comment)

Nazca Lines - Hummingbird
Nazca Lines - Hummingbird submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca - Hummingbird figure with wingspan of over 60 m (photo taken on April 2008).

Nazca Lines - Hummingbird
Nazca Lines - Hummingbird submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca - Hummingbird figure (photo taken on April 2008).

Nazca Lines - Hummingbird
Nazca Lines - Hummingbird submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca - Hummingbird figure and other lines (photo taken on April 2008).

Nazca Lines - Whale
Nazca Lines - Whale submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca lines - "Whale" figure (photo taken on April 2008).

Nazca Lines - Small Spiral
Nazca Lines - Small Spiral submitted by SolarMegalith : Nazca lines - "Spiral" or "Small Spiral" (photo taken on April 2008).

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 607m NE 54° Nazca Lines - Trapezoids Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 1.2km ENE 75° Nazca Lines - Hummingbird* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 2.7km ESE 120° Nazca Lines - Monkey* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 3.0km ENE 61° Museo Maria Reiche Museum
 4.0km E 80° Nazca Lines - Small Spiral* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 4.0km E 89° Nazca Lines - Spider* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 4.9km E 89° Nazca Lines - Hands and Tree* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 7.0km NE 35° Mina Primavera Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
 10.3km ESE 123° Nazca Lines - "The Astronaut"* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 12.1km NNW 339° Petroglifos de Llipata* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 14.4km SSE 161° Cahuachi Ancient Village or Settlement
 19.3km N 349° Solar Watch Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 22.3km SE 127° Nazca Lines - Whale* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
 23.0km NNW 346° Pernil Alto Ancient Village or Settlement
 28.7km ESE 120° Museo Antonini Museum
 29.2km SE 124° Paredones Ancient Village or Settlement
 30.6km ESE 119° Cantalloc Aqueduct Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
 30.9km ESE 114° La Tiza Ancient Village or Settlement
 32.3km ESE 112° El Trigal Ancient Village or Settlement
 40.5km SE 142° Chauchilla Necropolis Barrow Cemetery
 123.0km N 350° Huaytara Ancient Palace
 125.1km N 355° Inka Wasi Ancient Palace
 131.6km NNW 327° Tambo Colorado* Ancient Village or Settlement
 151.4km NW 309° Paracas History Museum* Museum
 159.2km NW 309° Candelabra* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
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More than 100 new designs discovered in Peru’s ancient Nazca plain by davidmorgan on Tuesday, 20 December 2022
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More than 100 new designs discovered in and around Peru’s ancient Nazca plain and surrounding areas could bring new information to light about the mysterious pre-Columbian artworks that have intrigued scientists and visitors for decades.

Following two years of field surveys with aerial photos and drones, Peruvian and Japanese researches from Yamagata University earlier this month reported the discovery of 168 new designs at the Unesco World Heritage site on Peru’s southern Pacific coast.

More in The Guardian.
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Heavy machinery destroys Nazca lines by bat400 on Sunday, 07 April 2013
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It appears that everything has some sort of price tag...

A group of ancient lines in the archaeological zone of Buenos Aires, in Nazca, have been destroyed by heavy machinery, El Comercio reported.

According to the daily, the machinery belongs to a firm that is removing limestone from the area.

The lines are located near kilometer marker 444 of the Panamericana Sur Highway. The area adjacent to the lines have reportedly also been affected, due to land being removed from the area.

Eduardo Herrán Gómez de la Torre, director of research at Ojos de Condor, described the extensive damage in the area. "We have witnessed the irreparable destruction to a set of lines and trapezoids that existed in the area,” Herrán said.

“The limestone firm responsible has not been sanctioned or supervised by the authorities of the Regional Directorate of Culture of Ica, despite being in this great archaeological reserve.”

“The company argues that the land where the plant is installed is private property and that the owner can do whatever he wants on his land, but this is not so,” he added.

Mario Olaechea Aguije, Nazca’s regional head of culture, said the limestone quarry was located within private property, and that the owner was free to work the land.

However, according to the daily, the private property is located within an area that was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 18 years ago.

Thanks to Jackdaw1 for the link. See the source for photo: Peru: Heavy machinery destroys Nazca lines
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Lines In the Sand May Have Been Made For Walking by bat400 on Friday, 04 January 2013
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A similar article on the Ruggles - Saunders paper in Antiquity..



Archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles of the University of Leicester in England discovered the labyrinth — a single path leading to and from an earthen mound, with a series of disorienting twists and turns along its flat, 4.4-kilometer-long course — by walking it himself. From the ground, little of the labyrinth is visible, even while ambling through it. From the air, it’s difficult to recognize the array of landscape lines as a connected entity.



In the December Antiquity, Ruggles and archaeologist Nicholas Saunders of the University of Bristol in England describe and map what they regard as a carefully planned labyrinth from the ancient Nazca culture.



“This labyrinth was meant to be walked, not seen,” Ruggles says. “The element of surprise was crucial to the experience of Nazca labyrinth walking.”



Those who traversed the desert path encountered 15 sharp corners that ushered them down trails leading away from and back toward a large hill. Walkers then rounded a curve in the path and negotiated two more turns before entering a spiral passageway that dumped them a mere 60 meters (65.6 yards) from the starting point. It probably took around one hour to complete the journey.



People marched alone or single file along the narrow dirt lane, Ruggles suggests. Minimal damage to rocks lining the path indicates that labyrinth walkers strode with care, and that religious pilgrims who periodically crossed the plateau on the way to nearby Nazca ritual centers steered clear of, or were directed away from, the labyrinth.



Ruggles and Saunders reconstructed the path’s course in several small sections that had been washed away by rains. Fieldwork from 2007 to 2011 resulted in a map of the entire labyrinth.



In 2000, archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., suggested that some Nazca lines formed labyrinths. Ruggles and Saunders’ contention that Nazca labyrinths were made to be strolled through while staying mostly hidden from view “is novel and well-argued,” Aveni says.



Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see http://www.sciencenews.org
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Ancient Drawings in Peruvian Desert: New Light On the Nazca Lines by bat400 on Wednesday, 12 December 2012
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Archaeologists gain insight into ancient desert drawings -- by walking them. The first findings of the most detailed study yet by two British archaeologists into the Nazca Lines -- enigmatic drawings created between 2,100 and 1,300 years ago in the Peruvian desert -- have been published in the latest issue of the journal Antiquity.

As part of a five-year investigation, Professor Clive Ruggles of the University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History and Dr Nicholas Saunders of the University of Bristol's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology have walked 1,500 km of desert in southern Peru, tracing the lines and geometric figures created by the Nasca people between 100 BC and AD 700.

Professor Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the University, and Dr Saunders combined the experience and knowledge gained by walking the lines with scientific data obtained from satellite digital mapping, studying the layering where designs are superimposed, and examining the associated pottery. The result is the most detailed such study to date.

In the midst of their study area is a unique labyrinth originally discovered by Ruggles when he spent a few days on the Nazca desert back in 1984. Its existence came as a complete surprise. Professor Ruggles recounts: "When I set out along the labyrinth from its centre, I didn't have the slightest idea of its true nature. Only gradually did I realize that here was a figure set out on a huge scale and still traceable, that it was clearly intended for walking, and that I was almost certainly the first person to have recognized it for what it was, and walked it from end to end, for some 1500 years. Factors beyond my control brought the 1984 expedition to an abrupt halt and it was only 20 years later that I eventually had the opportunity to return to Nazca, relocate the figure and study it fully."

Invisible in its entirety to the naked eye, the only way to become aware of the labyrinth is to walk its 4.4km length, experiencing a series of disorienting direction changes and other expected features.

As Professor Ruggles explains: "The labyrinth is completely hidden in the landscape, which is flat and virtually featureless. As you walk it, only the path stretching ahead of you is visible at any given point. Similarly, if you map it from the air its form makes no sense at all.

"But if you walk it, 'discovering' it as you go, you have a set of experiences that in many respects would have been the same for anyone walking it in the past. The ancient Nasca peoples created the geoglyphs, and used them, by walking on the ground. 'Sharing' some of those experiences by walking the lines ourselves is an important source of information that complements the 'hard' scientific and archaeological evidence and can really aid our attempts to make anthropological sense of it."

The arid conditions have ensured the remarkable preservation of Nazca's fragile geoglyphs for a millennium and a half. Nonetheless, segments of nearly all of the lines and figures -- including the labyrinth -- have been washed away by flash floods that occurred from time to time in the past. And, of course, people through the ages have walked across the desert plateau to cross from one valley to another.

Professor Ruggles and Dr Saunders have studied the integrity of many lines and figures within their 80km2 study area. Dr Saunders says: "Meandering and well-worn trans-desert pathways served functional purposes but they are quite different from the arrow-straight lines and geometric shapes which seem more likely to have had a spiritual and ritual purpose. It may be, we suggest, that the real importance of some of these desert drawings was in their creation rather than any subsequent physical use."

Even if the labyrinth was not unique when it was built, it may well be the only such construction whose integrity has been pres

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Squatters and Their Livestock Threaten Peru's Nazca lines by bat400 on Monday, 20 August 2012
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The squatters have destroyed a Nazca-era cemetery and the 50 shacks they have built border Nazca figures, said Blanca Alva, a director at Peru's culture ministry. She said the squatters, the latest in a succession of encroachments over the years into the protected Nazca area, invaded the site during the Easter holidays in April and that Peruvian laws designed to protect the poor and landless have thwarted efforts to remove them.

In Peru, squatters who occupy land for more than a day have the right to a judicial process before eviction, which Alva said can take two to three years.

"The problem is that by then, the site will be destroyed," she said.

She said she counted 14 pig corals in a recent inspection that also revealed broken bits of Nazca ceramics.

The Nazca lines geoglyphs, declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994, were produced over a period of a thousand years on a 200 square mile (500 square km) stretch of coastal desert.

They include enormous birds, monkeys and other geometric shapes. The culture ministry evicted a separate batch of squatters in January from near a sprawling design known as the Solar Clock, only to face down a new group months later.

The lines are striking reminders of Peru's rich pre-Columbian history, and are considered one of the world's greatest archaeological enigmas, as no one knows for sure why they were drawn, so large, and for so long.

"They're very delicate and they've survived to this point for 1500 years," said Ann Peters, an archaeologist affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, who hosted an international symposium on Nazca culture in Peru this week.

Peters said encroachments in the area threaten research by 60 or so archaeologists specialized in Nazca.

Ancient Nazcans formed the figures by scraping away the desert's dark iron-oxide pebbles to reveal the white soil underneath, which hardened as unearthed limestone was exposed to morning dew.

The head of the squatter settlement, Jesus Arias, denies his community has hurt the area. "It isn't archaeological to me. There was no cemetery there, and there are no lines from Nazca culture either."

Arias said the squatters are the grown children of people from the nearby town of San Pablo who want their own homes.
"Our population keeps growing," he said. "These are poor people who don't have the money to buy land or a house."
Arias said the culture ministry should do a better job marking the boundaries of protected areas.

Encroachments are a common way for the poor, and increasingly organized land traffickers, to acquire property in Peru. Evictions can be violent when security forces try to pry thousands of people from their homes.

"It could generate chaos," said Livina Alvis, a prosecutor in the province of Nazca.

The culture ministry's Alva said squatters are the biggest threat to Peru's more than 13,000 archaeological and heritage sites, a rich trove of information for scholars around the world.

For more, read the article by Mitra Taj
of Reuters
.
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Farmer damages giant drawings at Peru's Nasca archeological site by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 23 November 2011
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A Peruvian farmer faced fines after digging a well in the middle of the Nasca archeological site, the newspaper El Comercio reported Wednesday.

Nasca's giant tracings of lines and animal figures in Peru's southern Ica desert are one of the world's great archeological mysteries. They can only be fully seen from the air, though the ancient drawings date to the fifth or sixth century BC, more than two millennia before human flight.

Three geometric lines were damaged in the 'campos barridos,' or 'swept fields,' section of the site.

The farmer, who owns land nearby, drove his tractor past warning signs, the newspaper reported. According to the report, the farmer will have to pay fines and restoration costs.

Nasca is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science/news/article_1674403.php/Farmer-damages-giant-drawings-at-Peru-s-Nasca-archeological-site

Submitted by coldrum.
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Famous Nasca Lines of Peru at Risk, Say Conservationists by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 23 November 2011
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Located in the arid coastal plain south of Lima, Peru, these incredible lines are only visible in their entirety from a tower, airplane or from space. Created on a gigantic scale, they consist of hundreds of simple lines, geometric shapes, and zoomorphic figures representing entities such as human figures, hummingbirds, spiders, sharks, orcas, llamas, jaguar, lizards, fish, and a monkey. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, the geoglyphs or "lines" of Nasca and the pampas of Jumana are well-known to the world, and are today an important tourist destination. These Nasca Lines, as they are popularly called, date from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D. and cover an area consisting of foothills and desert for more than 450 square kilometers. Attributed to three different stages of development corresponding to the Chavín, Paracas, and Nasca cultures respectively, they were made by removing the overlying dark sand and iron oxide gravel to expose a lighter ground underneath. Although numerous theories abound concerning their origin and meaning, many scholars suggest that they had ritual astronomical functions.

But they may not fascinate forever. They have been included on the World Monuments Fund's (WMF) 2012 Watch of cultural heritage sites at risk. They face major conservation challenges as a result of looting, private flights over the sites without proper safety controls, mining activity in the region, public apathy, refuse accumulation, world climate change, inappropriate viewing platforms and lack of appropriate tourism infrastructure. After flooding and mudslides occurred in the area in 2007, a team of specialists surveyed the area. According to Mario Olaechea Aquije, archaeological resident at Peru's National Institute of Culture, "[T]he mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nasca Lines." But the nearby highway that facilitates access for visitors and others to the sites did suffer damage, a possible harbinger of things to come for the lines. "The damage done to the roads should serve as a reminder to just how fragile these figures are," Aquije said.

Not the least of the problems stems from lack of management and institutional coordination. "The Regional Government of Ica needs to take a big step in the protection of the site," says Norma Barbacci, WMF Program Director for Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. "Apparently they had funds for conservation which were not used for lack of management capacity. This lack of capacity and coordination between government institutions must be resolved."

There are positive signs. Barbacci says that the Ministry of Culture is developing a master plan for the preservation and development of the Nasca lines areas and that it should be ready by the end of 2011. "They also have been supporting some conservation work," she says, "and the Municipality of Ica has done some site drainage work."

For the WMF's role, it is hoped that the recent Watch designation will raise awareness and galvanize resources and support to implement the plan through collaboration among the concerned institutions and active engagement of the stakeholder communities. Critical to the long-term success of the plan is development and involvement of the communities who stand to benefit from the tourism that the Nasca lines generate. In the past, communities surrounding important World Heritage archaeological and cultural sites have been left out of the equation, to the detriment of the hosting countries' economies and thus the local incentives needed to sustain the integrity and continued attractiveness of the sites.

Says Barbacci, "WMF’s role may be as an international observer and mediator between the different government institutions and the public sector, who need to work together on the preservation and sustainable development of this site. I believe the local community needs to be properly integrated in the implementation of the management plan through a participatory process.........The actua

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Japanese team finds 2 new geoglyphs on Peru's Nazca Plateau by davidmorgan on Tuesday, 25 January 2011
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A Japanese research team said Tuesday it has discovered two new geoglyphs on Peru’s Nazca Plateau, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its gigantic lines and geoglyphs.

The team, led by Masato Sakai, professor in state-run Yamagata University’s Faculty of Literature and Social Sciences, said the newly discovered geoglyphs appear to represent a human head and an animal.

In 2006, the same team announced the discovery of about 100 new geoglyphs on the Nazca Plateau, many in the form of straight and triangular lines.

Faculty chief Yoichi Watanabe told reporters that the new geoglyphs were found about 10 kilometers from northern Nazca where gigantic geoglyphs of animals, fish and insects are located. A temple is located near the site of the new discoveries.

‘‘It is unusual to find geoglyphs of living things in this part of the plateau,’’ Watanabe said.

He said the geoglyph of what appears to be a human head measures around 4.2 meters long and 3.1 meters wide and that the researchers confirmed parts that look like two eyes, a mouth and the right ear.

An analysis of earthenware discovered near the site indicates that the geoglyph of the human head was created in the early Nazca civilization period or earlier. The Nazca civilization flourished between around 200 B.C. and A.D. 600.

The other geoglyph of what appears to be an animal measures about 2.7 meters long and 6.9 meters wide. It is not known when it was created.

The Japanese team began studies at the site on the Nazca Plateau in August 2010 with the permission of Peru’s Culture Ministry.

The two new geoglyphs were probably not identified in aerial surveys because of their small size, Watanabe said.

He also said the team has filed a report on the new discoveries with Peru’s Culture Ministry and that it would look into the relations between the newly found geoglyphs and the nearby temple.

Nazca is located on the southern coast of Peru, about 400 km south of the capital Lima. The lines and geoglyphs of Nazca and the Pampas of Jumana were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1994.

The lines, which were etched between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, are among archaeology’s greatest mysteries because of their number, form and size. The lines and geoglyphs cover about 450 square km. http://japantoday.com/category/national/view/japanese-team-finds-2-new-geoglyphs-on-perus-nazca-plateau

Submitted by coldrum.
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Nasca Lines may be giant map of underground water sources by bat400 on Wednesday, 01 September 2010
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Submitted by coldrum --

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 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.

The expert said that a high percentage of potable water of the mountain chain moves through underground filtrations and that the pre-Hispanic population knew perfectly the cartography of water.

He said that lines like the ones in Nasca would be “a language to communicate where underground wells and aqueducts are located”.

Johnson gave each figure a meaning: the trapezoids always point to a well. The circles to a place where the fountain is located. And the complex figures as well. For example, the hummingbird points to a giant well with its beak.

Field works along 1,700 kilometers of the Peruvian and Chilean coast, including very ancient civilizations such as Caral and Arica, support the theory that "way to communicate" would be a common practice among all pre-Hispanic cultures.

The Nasca Lines, which have been the focus of debate for over 70 years, consist of giant geometric forms (triangles, trapezoids, parallel lines) as well as biomorphs (birds, plants, and mammals) etched into the surface of the desert of southern Peru, especially in the drainage of the Rio Grande de Nasca.

Johnson has been researching these ground drawings since the 1990s, publishing some books about his theory. In 2002, together with Donald Proulx and Stephen Mabee, he wrote "The Correlation Between Geoglyphs and Subterranean Water Resources in the Río Grande de Nazca Drainage."



For more, see http://www.andina.com.
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Nazca Lines Created by Prayers Walking by bat400 on Tuesday, 17 February 2009
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Submitted by coldrum, an article crediting a German professor with a "new" theory of how the figures were created - a variation on the religious "dancing labyrinth" idea. --

The Nazca lines are huge, intricate geoglyphs, built directly into the ground of the Nazca Desert, in modern-day Peru. The arid stretch of land is 80 kilometers (50 miles) long, and houses a myriad of intricate drawings, visible only from the air ...

A new hypothesis, belonging to professor Tomasz Gorka from the Munich University in Germany, maintains that the lines were most likely drawn by an endless procession of praying people, who were made to walk designated portions of the barren landscape back and forth.

To back up his assumption, the archaeologist considers that the ceramic vessels found near all the lines probably contained offerings to the gods, and that the poles in the ground were designed to make them move straight from one point to the other. However, this find doesn't give a rational explanation as to why the Nazca people built the lines in the first place. Some say that they were messages to the gods, while others argue that they were used to track celestial objects.

"We found other lines, in the interior of the trapezoid structures, which were not visible from the air. The geoglyphs visible today are the most recent stage of a prolonged construction process during which the whole complex of drawings was constantly added to, remodeled, obliterated or changed by use," Gorka says, after discovering other drawings in the ground that are invisible from the sky. He and his team walked the entire 60 hectare-wide area with hand-held scanners, to detect magnetic anomalies.

The finds have led him to believe that the lines were actually intricate praying paths, directed by high religious leaders. However, the great mystery of who made them start a process that would last from 400 BC to AD 650 (1050 years) remains.

For more, see this link.
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Re: Nazca Lines by astronomer on Thursday, 08 March 2007
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About 7 years ago I suffered several early Sunday morning phone calls from a doctor in France who wanted me to map the Nazca lines against all possible variations of astronomical alignments over several centuries around 1200AD. It was a hopeless task.

There is no evidence for an astronomical connection like that at Stonehenge and as invoked by Thom for other UK prehitoric sites...themselves somewhat wishful thinking.
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Peru: Nazca Lines escape mudslides by bat400 on Wednesday, 07 March 2007
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"The archaeological resident from Peru's National Institute of Culture in Nazca, Peru, Mario Olaechea Aquije, announced that various mudslides caused by heavy rain over the weekend did not affect one of Peru's most famous landmarks, the Nazca Lines.

"Olaechea Aquije indicated that his team of specialists evaluated and surveyed the area that contains the highest concentration of the mysterious lines, located between the 423 and 443 kilometer markers of the Southern Panamerican Highway in the department of Ica.

" 'At a glance, the mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nazca Lines," stated the archaeological expert.' "

For more, including Olaechea's call for local authories to work together to proactively gaurd against damage to the famous lines, see Living Peru News.
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