Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries

not until American historian Dr. Paul Kosok and his wife first visited Nazca in 1941 that serious research began on the enigmatic inscriptions.
The Nazca Desert is a high arid plateau located 250 miles southeast of the Peruvian capital Lima, between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains. The desolate plain containing the art is called the Pampa Colorada (Red Plain) and covers an area of about 280 square miles stretching between the towns of Nazca and Palpa. Running across this plain is an array of perfectly straight lines of varying widths and lengths, the longest more than 8 miles in length, the shortest just a little more than 1,640 feet. There are also enormous geometric forms including triangles, spirals, circles, and trapezoids, as well as 70 extraordinary animal and plant figures including a hummingbird, a monkey, a spider, lizard, and a pelican of more than 900 feet in length. Anthropomorphic figures are rare at Nazca, though there are a few examples etched onto the slopes of steep hillsides at the edge of the desert, the most well known of which is called the Astronaut, a 105 foot long glyph discovered by Eduardo Herran, chief pilot at Aerocondor, in 1982.
Since the discovery of the lines, many theories have been put forward regarding their construction. Because many of the glyphs are so large and complex and can only be appreciated from the air, it has been proposed by some that manned flight was required to aid in the the planning of the lines. Perhaps the best known proponent of this view is Jim Woodman, a writer and publisher from Miami. In 1974, Woodman, along with English balloonist Julian Nott, tested the theory that the lines had been created with help from the air, by building and flying a balloon made of materials available to the Nazca culture, including
reeds for the gondola and cotton for the envelope. The two men managed a short, 300-foot-high flight, and thus proved that it was theoretically within the abilities of the Nazcans to have flown, though there is no evidence whatsoever of such flights.
How the lines were made is actually no great mystery. The iron oxidecoated stones that cover the surface of the desert were simply removed to reveal the underlying lighter colored soil. In this way, the lines were drawn as a groove of a lighter color contrasting with the darker red of the surrounding desert. Sometimes the lines were outlined with stones to provide emphasis to the shape. The Nazca desert is one of the driest places on earth and this, in combination with the flat, stony ground, means that there is very little erosion, so whatever has been drawn onto this giant natural sketchpad has usually remained there. There are fairly simple methods for the creation of straight lines over long distances. One method is to align two ranging poles or wooden stakes in a straight line by eye, which are then used as a guide for the placement of a third stake along the line. It is easy enough if one person sights along the line of the first two stakes and directs another person in the placement of the next stake. This can then be repeated until the desired length is achieved.
The more intricate symbols were probably begun by creating scale drawings and then dividing these drawings up into parts by using grids. These grids could then be recreated on the desert floor and worked on one square at a time. Perhaps even simpler methods could have been used. In 1982, writer Joe Nickel (along with two family members) produced an exact replica of the 440 foot condor figure, in a field near their home. Using primitive technology available to the Nazcan culture, they created the glyph in nine hours, sighting the lines by eye without any aerial help. In his 1987 book Lines to the Mountain God: Nazca and the Mysteries of Peru, Evan Hadingham describes an attempt made with Dr. Anthony Aveni, professor of Astronomy and Anthropology at Colgate University, to recreate a desert drawing. The small team, sighting by eye and using such basic equipment as ranging poles and string, produced an impressive spiral glyph in just over an hour. Aveni and his group concluded from their experiments that the creation of one of the most spectacular Nazca Lines, the 2,624 by 328 foot Great Rectangle, could have been accomplished in two months by a team of 100 people. Even so, this is not to say that the construction of the lines did not involve a great deal of planning, ingenuity, and imagination by their creators.
The Nazca Lines are believed to be the creation of the Nazca culture, who lived in the region from around 300 B.C. to A.D. 800. The connection between this culture and the lines is based on Nazcan pottery found in association with the lines, the remarkable similarity between the stylized figures on the desert floor and those from Nazca art, and a radiocarbon date of A.D. 525 from one of the wooden stakes that were used to mark the termination point of some of the longer lines. Lying just south of the Nazca Lines is Cahuachi, a major ceremonial city of the Nazcans, which extends across 370 acres. The city was built about 2,000 years ago and abandoned 500 years later, probably after
a series of natural catastrophes. The permanent population of the city was fairly small, but as it served as a center for pilgrims, the amount of people would have increased significantly during major ceremonial events, which were probably connected with the Nazca Lines. But could this ritual function have been the only reason for the creation of the magnificent desert glyphs?
Perhaps the best known researcher associated with the Nazca Lines is the late Maria Reiche, a German mathematician and archaeologist who began her work at Nazca in 1946. Reiche devoted her life to the study and preservation of the lines, living in the desert at Nazca for 50 years. Her theory about