Giant drawings of the Nazca desert. Lines and geoglyphs of Nazca and Palpa

In the southern part of Peru, the Nazca plateau is located, famous for its system of drawings.

On the plateau a large number of images, the most famous of them are a lizard, a monkey, flowers, a spider and various geometric lines.

The uniqueness of these images is that they have colossal dimensions.

The average size of one figure is about 50 meters.

One of the largest objects - a lizard - reaches a length of 188 meters.

With full confidence they can be called one of the wonders of the world.

Drawings made on the ground and reaching a size of more than four meters are called geoglyphs.

Machu Picchu, lost city the Incas, and geoglyphs annually attract hundreds of tourists to Peru.

In total, almost 800 geometric figures and about 30 full-fledged drawings were discovered on the Nazca plateau.

Story

Presumably, the time of the appearance of the drawings is associated with the appearance of the Incas in the area.

Due to their large size, the drawings are not visible directly from the ground.

The first to see them was the American archaeologist Paul Kosok, when he circled over the plateau in an airplane.

He found that some lines indicate certain phases of the moon or constellation.

Origin

Until now, there is no consensus about the purpose of these drawings.

Some scientists claim that the drawings represent the largest open-air star atlas.

The drawings look like lighter lines against a background of dark gravel. To create them, it was necessary to remove the upper layers of rocky soil.

Almost all drawings symbolize some kind of animals, but the meaning of geometric shapes has not yet been unraveled.

There is no reasoned answer to the question of who created these giant images and for what purpose.

In the 70s of the twentieth century, ancient clay products were discovered in the Nazca desert, ornamented with patterns from the plateau itself.

In addition, scientists have discovered wooden piles driven in at the points where the lines end. The dishes and piles date back to the 6th century AD.

Historian Alan Sauer found that most of the drawings are created using a continuous non-intersecting line.

Another assumption is related to the fact that some of the lines repeat the trajectory along which flow underground rivers from the Andes to the Pacific coast.

There are several hypotheses about the nature of these drawings. So, the most daring assumption assigns the authorship of geoglyphs to extraterrestrial civilizations.

Confirmation is the fact that in order to create such accurate and large-scale figures, technologies are needed that are absolutely inaccessible to the American Indians.

Another fact that suggests the extraterrestrial origin of the images is the presence of a drawing that looks like a modern astronaut.

So one of the theories claims that the Nazca plateau is an ancient spaceport for guests from other galaxies.

There is also an assumption that the drawings and lines had a cult significance. This is doubtful, since for a minimal impact on the feelings of believers, these drawings should be visible.

In confirmation of the cult purpose of geoglyphs, the American Jim Woodman suggested that the Indians actively used balloons and regulated the creation of images with their help.

How to get there

If you look at the world map, then the Nazca Plateau is located 380 kilometers southeast of the capital of Peru, the city of Lima.
The coordinates where the drawings are located on the Nazca Plateau:
14° 45' south latitude and 75° 05' west longitude.
On the way to the mysterious desert, you can enjoy the views of the picturesque coast of the Pacific Ocean.


The easiest way to get to Nazca is with a change in the town of Ica. The journey usually takes a little over seven hours.

Due to the large influx of tourists, it is better to get tickets in advance - at least twenty-four hours in advance.

Very often, the terminals from which you can go to Nazca are located at a great distance from the city center.

Depending on the transport company the cost of one ticket varies from 24 to 51 dollars.

It is most convenient to go on a trip at night or late in the evening, when the heat subsides a little.

Tourists planning to visit the mysterious desert should wear comfortable closed shoes and light clothing.

Pictures are best viewed in sunny days. So, the most optimal the season for excursions in Peru begins in December and ends in March.

The air temperature at this time of the year rarely drops below +27°C. An indispensable thing on the tour is sunscreen and tight headgear.

Local agencies offer excursion tours on passenger aircraft. it best opportunity examine the entire plateau in detail.

On sunny days, most of the drawings are visible, especially since the guides choose routes associated with the most popular parts of the plateau.

It is also better to book such excursions in advance due to the large number of people.

Price

A half-hour excursion with a departure from the city of Nazca will cost travelers about $150.

If you have $350 at your disposal, you can book a tour directly from Lima.

This amount includes travel to the Nazca airfield, watching a documentary, the flight itself and lunch at a local restaurant.

This option is the most profitable, as it allows you to save precious time for the traveler.

by the most budget option is to visit the observation deck located on the El Mirador highway. The ticket price is a little less than a dollar.


But due to the large size and distance between the drawings, only two of them open to the traveler's view.

A visit to the Nazca plateau should be done quickly: despite the fact that the authorities are fighting to preserve these mysterious patterns, some of them are crossed by the wheels of trucks and cars.

For example, during the construction of the Pan-American Highway, workers simply cut in two a 188-meter drawing depicting a reptile. Part of the image is irretrievably lost.

Visiting Nazca, you can fully feel the presence big secret, the solution of which is not yet subject to man. With its scale The quality of the geoglyphs is comparable to the Egyptian pyramids.

In addition to drawings, Nazca attracts other attractions. So, very close by are the ruins of the largest ancient city of Kuachi, the Chauchilla necropolis and the Kantayok aqueducts.

Video flight over the Nazca plateau

Liked the article?

Subscribe to site updates via RSS, or stay tuned

Gone civilizations have left riddles for modern man, the best minds of historians and archaeologists are thrown to solve them. A number of mysteries have an explanation, but some remain a mystery for centuries, which scientists cannot explain. One of these mysteries was the giant drawings in the Nazca Valley in South America.

The Nazca Plateau is located in the southern part of Peru and occupies an area of ​​approximately 7 by 50 kilometers. Since ancient times locals they paid attention to the stripes stretching along the valley for tens of meters, believing that they were made to help travelers in orienting themselves. Some stripes were straight, some had a different shape - one way or another, until mankind invented air Transport, no one could see the patterns in their entirety.

When in 1939 the American archaeologist Paul Kosok saw the stripes, something amazing was revealed to the world: various figures were drawn on the plateau, both geometric and depicting animals, plants and people.
There are 30 drawings on the plateau - images of humans, plants and animals, 700 geometric figures - mostly triangles and trapezoids, as well as 100 spirals and about 13 thousand straight lines. All of them were created no later than the 8th century AD and can only be recognized and seen from the air.

Most of the lines are perfectly straight furrows, passing through hills, dry riverbeds, without the slightest deviation from a straight line. The width of the furrow reaches 135 centimeters, and the depth is 50, the average depth is about 30 cm. The length of the lines is from 50 to 190 meters.
Patterns applied to the ground, geoglyphs, raise a large number of questions for researchers - by whom are they applied, how, when and why?

History of the study of the Nazca lines

The Nazca geoglyphs were reported back in 1553 by the Spanish traveler, geographer and priest Pedro Cieza de Leon. He considered them signs to determine the path.

The study of the lines was started by Maria Reiche, an archaeologist who learned about the existence of geoglyphs from Paul Kosok. From 1941, Reiche explored the Nazca for several decades, manually measuring over 700 figures and mapping patterns and images. Among the drawings were found "monkey", "hummingbird", "spider", as well as a figure called "astronaut" - about 30 meters long.

Geoglyph "Hands"

An amazing coincidence - one of the geoglyphs depicts hands, with five fingers on one of them, and four on the other. Maria Reiche was missing one finger on her left hand.
In the process of studying the phenomenon of Nazca geoglyphs, researchers now and then encounter hard-to-explain facts. For example, the fact that next to the lines there are no traces of their creators, trails, evidence of the use of tools. In this regard, a version is expressed that they were scratched from the air with some special object resembling a giant pencil.

Geoglyph "Astronaut"

Currently, large-scale studies of the Nazca geoglyphs are not being carried out due to material reasons - the Peruvian authorities do not finance the work. A reserve has been created on the territory of the plateau to preserve ancient patterns.

Versions

Maria Reiche suggested that the goal pursued by the inscription of many-meter patterns on the plateau was astronomical (as well as astrological) predictions. Ancient peoples could determine the position of the Sun and stars along the lines and thus maintain a calendar. Currently, the version about the astronomical purpose of lines and patterns is disputed by scientists.

A certain oddity is also represented by the fact that the attention of the German researcher was completely deprived of the neighboring Palpa plateau - located 20 kilometers north of Nazca. Meanwhile, this territory also contains many drawings on the surface of the earth, and, unlike the images of Nazca, it boasts not one "little man", but a whole dozen.
Scientists agree on one thing - the lines were created before the arrival of the Inca civilization on these lands, that is, earlier than the 8th century, and most likely, the creation of geoglyphs is the result of the activities of the disappeared Nazca civilization, which existed until the 6th century AD.

Whether the unknown creators of patterns turned to their deity, or communicated with some kind of extraterrestrial civilization, new generations of scientists will have to find out. Among them is Victoria Nikitsky, a former assistant to Maria Reiche, who continues to work on the study of the Nazca geoglyphs.

Other ancient civilizations left behind a lot, over the explanation of which scientists around the world are struggling.

Plateau Nazca located in the south of the state of Peru. Due to the dry climate and lack of water and vegetation, the area is also called the Nazca Desert. The name of the plateau is associated with

pre-Columbian civilization,
that existed in these places in the time interval of 500 BC. BC . and 500 g. n.e. His plateau fame Nazca received thanks to geoglyphs - huge drawings drawn on the ground, which can only be seen from the air.

Discovery of the Nazca geoglyphs.
The mysterious drawings in the desert plateau became known back in 1553 from the Spanish priest Pedro Cieza de Leon. Traveling through the territory of the modern state of Peru, he wrote in his notes about the many lines drawn on the ground, which he called the "road of the Incas" and about some signs also drawn on the sand. The first to see these signs from the air was the American archaeologist Paul Kosok , who flew over the vast plateau in 1939 . A great contribution to the study of Nazca drawings was made by the German archaeologist Maria Reiche. In 1947, she flew over the plateau in an airplane photographed geoglyphs from the air.

Description of the drawings on the Nazca plateau
Geoglyphs are several tens of meters in size, and the Nazca lines stretch for many kilometers and sometimes even go beyond the horizon, crossing hills and dry riverbeds. Images are applied to the surface by removing the soil. They form furrows about 135 cm wide and 30-50 cm deep. The drawings have survived to the present day due to the dry semi-desert climate. Today it is known about 30 drawings depicting geometric figures, animals, and only one depicts humanoid a creature about 30 meters high, similar to an astronaut. Among animal depictions, the most famous are the spider, hummingbird, whale, condor, and monkey. The geoglyph depicting the condor is one of the largest in the desert. Its length from beak to tail is 120 meters. For comparison: the size of a spider is 46 meters, and a hummingbird is 50 meters.

Mysteries of the geoglyphs of the Nazca desert
The mysterious drawings left many questions for archaeologists and historians. Who created them? How and for what purpose? Geoglyphs cannot be seen from the ground. They are visible only from the air, and there are no mountains nearby from where these lines and drawings could be seen. Another question arises that next to the drawings and lines there are no traces of ancient artists, although if a car passes over the surface, traces will remain. It is noteworthy that the monkey and whale depicted on the geoglyphs do not live in this area.

Exploring the Nazca Plateau
Some scholars believe that the geoglyphs had ritual significance for the ancient inhabitants of the valley. Since they could only be seen from the air, only the gods could see them, to whom people addressed with the help of drawings. Many researchers adhere to the hypothesis that the images of Nazca were created by the civilization of the same name that lived in these places in the 2nd century BC. Explorer geoglyphs Maria Reiche believes that the drawings were first made on small sketches, and only then applied to the surface in full size. As evidence, she provided a sketch found in these places. In addition , at the ends of the lines depicting the drawings , wooden posts driven into the ground were found . They could serve as point coordinates when drawing geoglyphs. The research results showed that the images were created at different times. Intersecting and overlapping lines indicate that ancient painting covered the valley ground in several stages.

Various versions of the origin of Heglyphs
Many historians and archaeologists hold astronomical versions of drawings. The ancient inhabitants of the Nazca desert could be well versed in astronomy. The created gallery is a kind of map of the starry sky. This version was held by the German archaeologist Maria Reiche. The American astronomer Phyllis Pitlugi, in favor of this version, cites the fact that the geoglyph depicting a spider is a drawing showing a cluster of stars in the constellation Orion. However, British researcher Gerald Hawkins is sure that only a small part of the lines and drawings of the Nazca desert are associated with astronomy. Some ufologists suggest that the drawings were a guide for landing alien ships, and the lines of the Nazca plateau served as runways. Skeptics do not agree with this version, if only because alien spacecraft capable of traveling tens of light years do not need acceleration to take off. They can take to the air vertically. Jim Woodman, who studied the Nazca plateau in the 70s of the last century, came to the conclusion that the ancient inhabitants who created these drawings could fly in a balloon. He explains this by the image of this flying object on clay figurines that have survived from ancient times. To prove it, Woodman made a balloon from off-the-shelf materials that could only be obtained in the nearest county. Hot air was fed into the balloon and it was able to fly a fairly long distance. The German archaeologist Maria Reiche, mentioned above, called the geometric figures and lines of the Nazca plateau a ciphertext similar to a set of letters and signs.
There is still no consensus on the origin and purpose of the mysterious geoglyphs. The Nazca plateau remains one of the greatest mysteries on our planet...

The Nazca Plateau today is a lifeless desert, covered with stones darkened from heat and sun and indented by channels of long-dry water streams; one of the driest places on earth. It is located 450 km south of Lima, the capital of Peru, 40 km from the Pacific coast, at an altitude of approximately 450 m. It rains here on average once every two years and lasts no more than half an hour.

In the twenties, with the beginning of air travel from Lima to Arequipa, strange lines began to be noticed on the plateau. Lots of lines. Straight as an arrow, sometimes stretching to the very horizon, wide and narrow, intersecting and overlapping, combining into unthinkable patterns and flying out from the centers, the lines made the desert look like a giant drawing board:

Since the middle of the last century, a serious study of the lines and cultures that inhabited this region began, but the geoglyphs still kept their secrets; versions began to appear explaining the phenomenon outside the mainstream of academic science, the topic took its rightful place among unsolved mysteries ancient civilizations, and now almost everyone knows about the Nazca geoglyphs.

Representatives of official science have repeatedly stated that everything has been unraveled and deciphered, that these are nothing more than traces of religious ceremonies, or, in extreme cases, traces of searches for water sources or the remains of astronomical indicators. But just look at the pictures from an airplane, and preferably from space, as fair doubts and questions arise - what kind of rituals are these that forced Indians two thousand years ago, whose society was at the earliest stages of development, who did not have a written language, who lived in small villages and farmsteads, forced to constantly fight for survival, draw hundreds square kilometers deserts with geometric shapes, many kilometers of straight lines and gigantic design images that can only be seen from a great height?
Maria Reiche, who has devoted more than 50 years to the study of geoglyphs, notes in her book that, given the enormous amount of work carried out, the creation of lines should have been the central task of the society that inhabited this area at that time ...

Although it is worth noting that in more specialized works, archaeologists do not adhere to such categorical conclusions about the complete solution of the lines, mentioning religious ceremonies only as the most likely version that requires further research.

And I propose to touch this amazing riddle again, but maybe a little more closely, as if from another dimension; to do similar to what P. Kosok did in 1939, when he first specially hired an airplane to fly over the desert.

So, some necessary information.

1927 Official discovery of the lines by the Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Meia Xespe.

1939 Geoglyph research begins by historian Paul Kosok of Long Island University in New York.

1946 - 1998 The study of geoglyphs by the German mathematician and archaeologist Maria Reiche. Arriving for the first time together with Paul Kosok as an interpreter, Maria Reiche continued the research of lines, which became the main work of her life. It is largely thanks to this courageous woman that the lines continue to exist and are available for research.

1960 Start of intensive study of geoglyphs by various expeditions and researchers.

1968 Erich Von Denikin's book "Chariots of the Gods" is published, where the version of the traces of extraterrestrial civilizations is expressed. The beginning of the wide popularity of the Nazca geoglyphs and the tourist boom on the plateau.

1973 Expedition of the English astronomer Gerald Hawkins (author of a monograph on Stonehenge), the results of which showed the inconsistency of the astronomical version proposed by P. Kosak and M. Reich.

1994 Thanks to the efforts of Maria Reiche, the Nazca geoglyphs are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Since 1997, the Nasca Palpa project, led by the Peruvian archaeologist Joni Isla and prof. Markus Reindel of the German Archaeological Institute with the support of the Swiss-Liechtenstein Foundation for Foreign Archaeological Research. The main version based on the results of work since 1997 is the already mentioned ritual actions associated with the cult of water and fertility.

At present, a GIS-geoinformation system (digital 3-dimensional display of geoglyphs combined with archaeological and geological information) is being created with the participation of the Zurich Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry.

A little about versions. The two most popular ones have already been mentioned (rituals of the Indians and traces of extraterrestrial civilizations):

To begin with, let's clarify the meaning of the term "geoglyphs" a little. According to Wikipedia, "a geoglyph is a geometric or figured pattern applied to the ground, usually over 4 meters long. There are two ways to create geoglyphs - by removing the top layer of soil around the perimeter of the pattern, or, conversely, pouring rubble where the pattern line should pass. Many geoglyphs are so large that they can only be seen from the air." It is worth adding that the vast majority of geoglyphs are quite unambiguously interpreted drawings or signs, and from ancient times to this day people have applied and apply geoglyphs for certain purposes - religious, ideological, technical, entertainment, advertising. Nowadays, thanks to technical progress, application methods have improved significantly, and, ultimately, both the illuminated runway and artificial islands in the United Arab Emirates:

According to the above, the Nazca lines (the number of giant drawings is only a fraction of a percent of the number of lines and geometric figures) are not entirely correct to consider geoglyphs, due to the unknown purpose for which they were applied. After all, it doesn’t occur to anyone to consider geoglyphs, say, agricultural activities or transport system, which from a great height also look like geometric patterns. But it so happened that in official archeology, and in popular literature, the lines and drawings of Nazca are called geoglyphs. We will not break traditions.

1. LINES

Geoglyphs are found almost everywhere west coast South America. In this chapter, we will take a closer look at the geoglyphs in the Nazca region, and you will find information about other regions in the appendix.

On the next map, the areas marked in blue are where the lines are clearly visible in Google Earth and have a similar structure; red rectangle - "tourist place", where the density of lines is maximum and most of the drawings are concentrated; the purple area is the area of ​​distribution of lines, considered in most studies, when they say "geoglyphs of Nazca-Palpa" they mean exactly this area. The purple icon in the upper left corner is the well-known geoglyph "Paracas Candelabra":

Red rectangle area:

Purple area:

The geoglyphs themselves are quite simple thing- stones covered with dark desert tan (manganese and iron oxides) were removed to the side, thereby exposing a light layer of subsoil, consisting of a mixture of sand, clay and gypsum:

But often geoglyphs have a more complex structure - deepening, an ordered border, stone structures, or simply heaps of stones at the ends of lines, which is why in some works they are called soil structures.

Where the geoglyphs enter the mountains, a lighter layer of rubble was exposed:

In this chapter, we will mainly consider that large part of geoglyphs, which includes lines and geometric shapes.

They are usually classified according to their shape as follows:

Lines and stripes from 15 cm to 10 or more meters wide, which can stretch for many kilometers (1-3 km are quite common, some sources mention 18 or more km). Most of the drawings are drawn with thin lines. The stripes sometimes gradually expand along their entire length:

Truncated and elongated triangles (the most common type of geometric figures on the plateau after lines) of various sizes (from 3 m to more than 1 km) - they are usually called trapezoids:

Large areas of rectangular and irregular shape:

Often the lines and platforms are deepened, according to M. Reiche up to 30 cm or more, the deepenings near the lines often have an arched profile:

This is clearly seen on almost filled trapezoids:

Or in a picture taken by a member of the LAI expedition:

The shoot place:

Lines almost always have well-defined borders - basically it is something like a border, very precisely maintained along the entire length of the line. But also the boundaries can be dumps of stones (for large trapezoids and rectangles, as in Fig. 15) or heaps of stones with varying degrees of order:

We note a feature due to which the Nazca geoglyphs became widely known - straightforwardness. In 1973, J. Hawkins wrote that some many-kilometer straight lines were made at the limit of photogrammetric possibilities. I don’t know how things are now, but you must admit that it’s not bad at all for the Indians. It should be added that often the lines go along the relief, as if not noticing it.

Examples that have become classic:

Airplane view:

The centers are clearly visible on map 6. Map of the centers compiled by Maria Reiche (small dots):

American researcher Anthony Eveny in his book "Between lines" mentions 62 centers in the Nazca Palpa area.

Often the lines are connected to each other and combined into various combinations. It is also noticeable that the work went on in several stages, often lines and figures overlap each other:

It is worth noting the location of the trapezoids. The bases usually face the river valleys, the narrow part is almost always higher than the base. Although where the elevation difference is small (on flat hilltops or in the desert) this does not work:

A few words need to be said about the age and number of lines. It is generally accepted by official science that the lines were created between 400 BC and 400 BC. e. and 600 AD This is based on fragments of ceramics from different phases of the Nazca culture, which are found in dumps and heaps of stones on the lines, as well as radiocarbon analysis of the remains of wooden poles, which are considered marking. Thermoluminescent dating is also used, which shows similar results. We will touch on this topic further below.

As for the number of lines - Maria Reiche registered about 9,000 of them, at present a figure from 13,000 to 30,000 is mentioned (and this is only on the purple part of the map 5; no one counted similar lines at Ika and Pisco, although they obviously exist there far less). But we must take into account that we see only what the time and cares of Maria Reich left us (now the Nazca plateau is a reserve), who mentioned in her book that before her eyes, areas with interesting lines and spirals are planted under cotton crops. Obviously, most of them were buried by erosion, sands and human activity, and the lines themselves sometimes cover each other in several layers, and their true number may differ by at least an order of magnitude. It makes sense to talk not about the number, but about the density of lines. And here it is worth noting the following.

Considering that the climate, as archaeologists point out, was wetter during this period (and Google Earth also shows that the ruins and remains of irrigation facilities go deep into the desert), the maximum density of geoglyphs is observed near river valleys and settlements (Map 7). But you can meet individual lines both in the mountains and far in the desert:

At an altitude of 2000 m, 50 km west of Nazca:

A trapezoid from a group of lines in the desert 25 km from Ica:

And further. When compiling the GIS of some areas of Palpa and Nazca, it was concluded that, in general, all lines were built in places accessible to humans and what is happening on the lines (but not the lines themselves) can be seen from remote observation points. I don’t know about the second, but the first seems to be true for the vast majority of lines ( uncomfortable places there is, but I haven’t seen impassable ones), especially since Google Earth allows you to rotate the image this way and that (purple area on map 5):

The list of obvious features could go on, but perhaps it's time to move on to the details.

The first thing I would like to start with is a significant amount of work done, to put it mildly, not quite qualitatively:

Most of the pictures were taken within the purple area on map 5, which was the most invaded by tourists and all sorts of experimenters; according to Reiche, there were even military maneuvers here. I tried to avoid clearly modern traces as much as possible, especially since it is not difficult - they are lighter, go over ancient lines and do not have traces of erosion.

A few more notable examples:

The ancients had strange rituals - would it be worth doing such a volume of marking and clearing work that you would then give up halfway through or even at the final part? Interestingly, sometimes on completely finished trapezoids, there are often heaps of stones, as if thrown or forgotten by the builders:

According to archaeologists, work on the construction and reconstruction of lines was carried out constantly. I will add that this is more likely to apply only to certain groups of lines located near Palpa and in the valley of the river Ingenio. There, all kinds of activity did not stop, perhaps even during the time of the Incas, judging by the numerous stone structures around the bases of the trapezoids:

Some of these places are sometimes marked with anthropomorphic and rather primitive geoglyphic images, reminiscent of ordinary rock paintings (historians attribute them to the style of the Paracas culture, 400-100 BC, the predecessor of the Nazca culture). It is clearly seen that a lot of trampled there (including modern tourists):

I must say that such places are mostly preferred by archaeologists.

Here we come to one extremely interesting detail.

You noticed that I constantly mention heaps and stone structures - they made borders out of them, arbitrarily left on the lines. But there is another type of similar elements, as if included in the design of a significant number of trapezoids. Notice the two elements at the narrow end and one at the wide end:

The detail is important, so more examples:

In this Google image, several trapezoids have similar elements at once:

These elements are not the latest additions - they are present on some unfinished trapezoids, and are also found in all 5 regions indicated on the map. Here are examples from opposite ends - the first from the Pisco region, and two from the mountainous area east of Nazca. Interestingly, on the latter, these elements are also present inside the trapezoid:

Archaeologists have recently become interested in these elements, and here are descriptions of these structures on one of the trapezoids in the Palpa area (1):

Stone platforms with walls of stones bonded with mud mortar, sometimes double (the outer wall was made of the flat sides of the stone, giving splendor), filled with rock, among which there are fragments of ceramics and food remains; there was a raised floor made of rammed clay and stone inlays. It is assumed that wooden beams were laid on top of these structures and used as platforms.

The diagram shows pits between the platforms, where the remains of wooden (willow) poles, presumably massive, were found. Radiocarbon analysis of one of the pillars showed the age of 340-425 AD, a piece of a stick from a stone platform (another trapezoid) - 420-540 AD. e. Also, pits with the remains of pillars were found on the borders of the trapezoids.

Here is a description of a ring structure found near the trapezoid, which, according to archaeologists, is similar to those found at the base of the trapezoid:

According to the method of construction, it is similar to the platforms described above, with the difference that the inner part of the wall was also given splendor. It had the shape of the letter D, a gap was made on the flat side. A flat stone, placed after reconstruction, is visible, but it is noted that there was a second one, and both were used as supports for the stairs to the platform.

In most cases, these elements did not have such a complex structure and were simply heaps or ring structures of stones, and a single element at the base of the trapezoid could not be read at all.

And more examples:

We dwelled on this point in a little more detail, because it is quite obvious that the platforms were built together with the trapezoids. They can be seen very often in Google Earth, and ring structures are very well distinguishable. And it is unlikely that the Indians were specifically looking for trapezoids in order to build platforms on them. Sometimes even the trapezoid is barely guessed, and these elements are clearly visible (for example, in
desert 20 km from Ica):

The large rectangular areas have a slightly different set of elements - two large piles of stones, located one at each edge. Perhaps one of them is shown in a documentary national geographic"Nazca lines. Deciphered":

Well, a sure point in favor of the rituals.

Based on our orthodox version, it is logical to assume that there must be some kind of markup. Something similar really exists and is very often used - a thin central line running along the center of the trapezoid and sometimes going far beyond. In some works of archaeologists, it is sometimes called the axial line of the trapezoid. Usually it is tied to the platforms described above.
(begins or passes near-through the platform at the base, and always exits exactly in the middle between the platforms at the narrow end), the trapezoid may not be symmetrical with respect to it (and the platforms, respectively):

This is true for all selected areas of map 5. The trapezoid from Iki is indicative in this respect. 28, the center line of which seems to shoot a line of heaps of stones.

Examples of different types of marking trapezoids and stripes, as well as various types of work on them in the purple area (we called them mattresses and perforated tapes):

The markup in some of the examples shown is no longer a simple delineation of the main axes and contours. Here there are elements, as it were, of scanning the entire area of ​​the future geoglyph.

This is especially noticeable on the markings for large rectangular sites from the "tourist place" near the Ingenio River:

Under the platform:

And here, next to the existing site, another one was marked out:

A similar markup for future sites on the layout of M. Reiche is well read:

Let's take note of the "scanning markup" and move on.

Interestingly, the markers and those who carried out the clearing work sometimes seemed to be unable to coordinate their actions to a sufficient degree:

And an example of two large trapezoids. I wonder if this is how it was intended, or someone messed something up:

Given all of the above, it was hard not to take a closer look at the actions of the markers.

And here we are waiting for some more extremely entertaining details.

To begin with, I will say that it is very significant to compare the behavior of modern transport and ancient markers using a thin line. Traces of cars and motorcycles run unevenly along one direction, and it is difficult to find straight sections of more than a couple of hundred meters. At the same time, the ancient line is always practically straight, often moving inexorably for many kilometers (checked in Google with a ruler), sometimes disappearing, as if breaking away from the ground, and reappearing in the same direction; occasionally can make a slight turn, sharply or not very change direction; and in the end either rests on the center of intersections, or smoothly disappears, dissolving into a trapezoid that crosses lines or with a change in relief.

Often markers seem to rely on heaps of stones located next to the lines, and less often on the lines themselves:

Or this example:

I have already spoken about straightforwardness, but I will note the following.

Some lines and trapezoids, even distorted by relief, become straight from a certain point of view from the air, which has already been noted in some studies. For example. The line, slightly walking in the satellite picture, looks almost straight from the viewpoint, located a little to the side (frame from the documentary "Nazca Lines. Deciphered"):

I am not an expert in the field of geodesy, but, in my opinion, to draw a line on rough terrain along which an inclined plane intersects the relief is a rather difficult task.

Another similar example. Airplane photo on the left, satellite photo on the right. In the center is a fragment of an old photo of Paul Kosok (taken from the lower right corner of the original photo from the book by M. Reiche). We can see that the whole combination of lines and trapezoids seems to be drawn from a point close to the point from which the central picture was taken.

And the next photo is better viewed in good resolution (here - Fig. 63).

First, let's pay attention to the under-cleared area in the center. The ways of working by hand are very clearly presented - there are both large and small heaps, gravel heaps at the borders, an irregular border, not very organized work - they collected it here and there and left. In short, everything that we saw in the section on manual work.

Now let's look at the line that crosses the left side of the photo from top to bottom. A radically different style of work. The ancient aces-builders seem to have decided to imitate the work of a chisel fixed at a certain height. With a jump across the stream. Rectilinear and regular borders, leveled bottom; they didn't even forget to reproduce the subtleties of breaking off the trace of the upper part of the line. There is a possibility that this
water or wind erosion. But examples of all kinds of impact environment there are enough in the photographs - it does not look like either one or the other. Yes, and on the surrounding lines it would be noticeable. Here, rather, a deliberate interruption of the line by about 25 meters. If we add a concave profile of the line, as in old photographs or from a photo in the Palpa region, and tons of rock to be shoveled (the line width is about 4 m), then the picture will be complete. Also indicative are four perpendicular thin parallel lines, clearly applied on top. If you look closely, you can see that the depth of the lines also changes on uneven terrain; it looks like a trace drawn along a ruler with a metal fork over a piece of plasticine.

For myself, I called such lines t-lines (lines made with the help of technology, i.e. taking into account the use of special methods for marking, performing and controlling work). Similar features have already been noted by some researchers. Photos of similar lines are on the site (24) and similar behavior of some lines (interruption of lines and interaction with the relief) is noted in the article (1).

A similar example, where you can also compare the level of work (two "rough" lines are marked with arrows):

What is remarkable. The unfinished rough line (the one in the center) has a thin marking line. But the markings for t-lines have never been seen. As well as unfinished t-lines.

Here are some more examples:

According to the "ritual" version, the lines had to be walked. One Discovery documentary showed the internal compacted structure of the lines, presumably due to intense walking on them (the compaction of the rock explains the magnetic anomalies recorded on the lines):

And in order to trample on like that, they had to walk a lot. Not just a lot, but a lot. It is only interesting how the ancients determined the routes in Fig. 67 to tread down the lines approximately evenly? And how did you jump 25 meters?

It is a pity that the photos with sufficient resolution cover only the "tourist" part of our map. So from other areas we will be content with maps from Google Earth.

Rough work at the bottom of the picture and the t-line at the top:

And these t-lines stretch in a similar way for about 4 km:

T-lines were able to make turns:

And such a detail. If we return to the t-line, which we discussed the very first, and look at its beginning, we will see a small expansion, resembling a trapezoid, which then develops into a t-line and, very smoothly changing width and abruptly changing direction four times, crosses itself , and dissolves into a large rectangle (the unfinished platform is obviously of a later origin):

Sometimes there was some kind of failure in the work of the markers (curves with stones at the end of the strips):

There are also large trapezoids, similar to the work of markers. For example. A well-made trapezoid with borders-borders, as it were, grows by pushing the borders out of the dent line of the marker:

Another interesting example. A fairly large trapezoid (in the picture, about two-thirds of the entire length), made as if by pushing the cutting edges of the "cutter", and in the narrow part one of the edges ceases to touch the surface:

There are enough oddities like this. The whole area of ​​our map under discussion seems to be mostly the work of those same markers, well mixed with rough, unskilled work. Archaeologist Heylen Silverman once compared the plateau to a scribbled blackboard at the end of a busy school day. Very well marked. But I would add something about the joint activities of the preschool group and graduate students.

There are attempts to make the lines by hand in our time available to the ancient Naskans by means:

The ancients did something similar, and perhaps in precisely these ways:

But in my opinion, t-lines resemble something else. They are more like a trace of a spatula, with which they imitated the Nazca drawings in one of the documentaries:

And here is a comparison of t-lines and a trace of a stack on plasticine:

Something like this. Only a spatula or a stack they had a little more ...

And the last. A note about markers. There is such a recently opened religious center of the ancient Naskans - Cahuachi. It is believed that it is directly related to the construction of lines. And if we compare, on the same scale, this same Cahuachi with a section of the desert lined a kilometer away, the question arises - if the Nascan surveyors themselves painted the desert, then they invited Cahuachi to mark out
guest workers from backward hill tribes?

It is impossible to draw a clear line between unskilled work and t-lines and draw any conclusions using only photographs of a "tourist" area and Google earth maps. It is necessary to look and study on the spot. And since the chapter is devoted to material that claims to be factual, I will refrain from commenting on such sophisticated rituals; and therefore we end the discussion of t-lines and proceed to the final part of the chapter.

Line combinations

The fact that lines form certain groups and combinations has been noted by many researchers. For example, prof. M. Reindel called them functional units. A few clarifications. Combinations are understood not as a simple superimposition of lines on each other, but as if unification into one whole through common boundaries or obvious interaction with each other. And in order to try to understand the logic of creating combinations, I propose to start by systematizing the set of elements that the builders used. And, as we can see, there is not much diversity here:

There are only four elements. Trapezoids, rectangles, lines and spirals. There are also drawings, but a whole chapter is devoted to them; here we will consider them a kind of spirals.

Let's start from the end.

Spirals. This is a fairly common element, there are about a hundred of them and they are almost always included in line combinations. There are very different ones - perfect and not quite, square and intricate, but always double:

The next element is lines. Basically, these are our familiar t-lines.

Rectangles - they were also mentioned. Let's just note two things. First. There are relatively few of them and they always try to be oriented perpendicular to the trapezoid and gravitate towards their narrow part, sometimes as if crossing them out (Map 6). Second. In the valley of the Nazca River there is a significant number of large broken rectangles, as if superimposed on the beds of dried up rivers. On the drawings, they are indicated mainly in yellow:

The boundary of such a site is clearly visible in Fig. 69 (bottom).

And the last element is a trapezoid. Along with lines, the most common element on the plateau. A few details:

1 - Location relative to stone structures and types of borders. As already noted, very often stone structures are poorly readable, or they do not exist at all. There is also some functionality of trapezoids. I don't want to militarize the description, but the analogy with small arms comes to mind. The trapezoid, as it were, has a muzzle (narrow) and breech, each of which interacts quite standardly with other lines.

For myself, I divided all combinations of lines into two types - collapsed and expanded. The trapezoid is the main element in all combinations. Curled (group 2 in the diagram) is when the line emerges from the narrow end of the trapezoid at an angle of about 90 degrees (or less). This combination is usually compact, the thin line often returning to the base of the trapezoid, sometimes with a spiral or pattern.

Reversed (group 3) - the outgoing line almost does not change direction. The simplest expanded one is a trapezoid with a thin line, as if shooting from a narrow part and stretching for a considerable distance.

A couple more important details before we move on to the examples. In folded combinations, there are no stone structures on the trapezoid, and the base (wide part) sometimes has a series of lines:

It can be seen that the last row in the last example was laid out by caring restorers. Snapshot of the last example from the ground:

In deployed ones, on the contrary, very often there are stone structures, and the base has an additional trapezoid or trapezoids of a much smaller size, joining (in series or in parallel) to the place of a single platform (possibly taking it outside the main one):

For the first time, a folded combination of lines was described by Maria Reiche. She called her "whip":

From the narrow end of the trapezoid at an acute angle in the direction of the base there is a line that, as if scanning the surrounding space (in this case, the features of the relief) in a zigzag, turns into a spiral in the immediate vicinity of the base. Here is the twisted combination. We substitute different variations of these elements and get a very common combination in the Nazca Palpa region.
An example with another zigzag option:

More examples:

Examples of larger and more complex folded combinations in characteristic interaction with a rectangular pad:

On the map, multi-colored asterisks show well-read folded combinations in the Palpa-Nasca area:

A very interesting example of a group of folded combinations is shown in the book by M. Reiche:

To a huge folded combination, to the narrow part of the trapezoid, a micro-combination is attached, as it were, having all the attributes of an ordinary folded combination. For more detailed photo marked: white arrows - breaks of the zigzag, black - the mini-combination itself (the large spiral near the base of the trapezoid is not shown by M. Reiche):

Examples of folded combinations with pictures:

Here you can note the order in which combinations are created. The question is not completely clear, but many examples show that the scanning lines seem to see the parent trapezoid and take it into account with their trajectory. On a combination with a monkey - a sawtooth zigzag, as it were, fits between the existing lines; much more difficult from the point of view of the artist would be to draw him first. Yes, and the dynamics of the process - first a trapezoid with a garden of various details, then a thinning t-line, turning into a spiral or pattern, and then disappearing altogether - in my opinion, is more logical.

Introducing the folded combination champion. The length of only the visible continuous and very high-quality part (a combination of lines near Cahuachi) is more than 6 km .:

And here you can see the scale of what is happening - Fig. 81 (drawing by A. Tatukov).

Let's move on to expanded combinations.

There is no such relatively clear construction algorithm here, except for the fact that these combinations cover a significant area. You can even say that these are rather different ways of interaction of lines and groups of lines with each other. See examples:

Trapezoid 1, which, in turn, has a small "ignition" trapezoid, rests with a narrow part on a hill, on which, as it were, an "explosion" occurs, or a connection of lines coming from the narrow ends of other trapezoids (2, 3).
Remote trapezoids seem to be connected to each other. But there is also a serial connection (4). Moreover, sometimes the connecting center line can change the width and direction. Purple indicates unskilled work.

Another example. Interaction of an axial line with a length of about 9 km and 3 trapezoids:

1 - upper trapezoid, 2 - middle, 3 - lower. You can see how the axial one reacts to trapezoids, changing direction:

Next example. For greater clarity, it would be better to consider it in detail in Google Earth. But I'll try to explain.

Trapezoid 1, very roughly made, to which trapezoid 2 “shoots” at the narrow part, is connected to the base of trapezoid 3 (Fig. 103), which in turn “shoots” with a well-made line into a small hill. Here is such a trapezology.

In general, such shooting at distant low hills (it also happens at distant mountain peaks) is quite common. According to archaeologists, about 7% of the lines are aimed at hills. For example, trapezoids and their axes in the desert near Ika:

And the last example. Combining a common border using rectangular pads of two large collapsed combinations:

It can be seen how the trapezoid, which shoots in a straight line, is deliberately ignored.

Here is a brief summary of all that I would like to say about combinations.

It is clear that the list of such compounds can be continued and developed for a very long time. At the same time, in my opinion, it would be wrong to think that the plateau is one big mega-combination. But the conscious and intentional association of some geoglyphs into groups according to certain characteristics and the existence of something like a common strategic plan for the entire plateau is beyond doubt. It is worth noting that all the deployed combinations mentioned occupy an area of ​​​​several square kilometers each, and you cannot build such a thing in a day or two. And if we take into account all these t-lines, correct borders and platforms, kilotons of stones and rocks, and the fact that the work was carried out according to the same schemes throughout the entire area of ​​​​the mentioned region (map 5 - more than 7 thousand square kilometers), over a long period of time and sometimes in very unfavorable conditions, unpleasant questions arise. It is difficult to judge to what extent a society of culture
The Nazca was able to do this, but the fact that this required very specific knowledge, maps, tools, serious organization of work and large human resources is obvious.

2. DRAWINGS

Phew, with the lines, it seems, finished. For those who did not fall asleep from boredom, I promise - it will be much more fun. Well, there are birds, little animals, all sorts of spicy details ... Otherwise, all the sand is stones, stones are sand ...

Well, let's start.

Nazca drawings. The smallest, but the most famous part of the activities of the ancients on the plateau. To begin with, a little explanation of what kind of drawings will be discussed below.

According to archaeologists, man appeared in these places (the Nazca-Palpa region) quite a long time ago - several millennia before the formation of the Nazca and Paracas cultures. And all this time, people left various images that have been preserved in the form of petroglyphs, drawings on ceramics, textiles and well-marked geoglyphs on the slopes of mountains and hills. It is not in my competence to delve into all sorts of chronological and iconographic subtleties, especially since there are enough works on this topic now. We'll just look at what these people drew; and not even what, but how. And as it turned out, everything is quite natural. In Fig.106, the upper group is the earliest and most primitive petroglyphs (rock paintings); lower - images on ceramics and textiles of the Nazca - Paracas cultures. The middle row is geoglyphs. There is a lot of such creativity in this region. The sombrero-like detail on the head is actually a headpiece (usually gold Fig. 107), as I understand it, some kind of insignia used in these parts and is very common in many images.
All such geoglyphs are located on slopes, are clearly visible from the ground, made in one way (clearing stones from sites and using heaps of stones as details) and quite in the style of the lower and upper rows. In general, there are enough similar activities around the world (1st column of Fig. 4).

We will be interested in other drawings, as we will see below, in many ways different from those described above in style and method of creation; which, in fact, are known as Nazca drawings.

There are just over 30 of them. There are no anthropomorphic images among them (primitive geoglyphs, described above, in the vast majority depict people). The sizes of the drawings are from 15 to 400(!) meters. Drawn (Maria Reiche mentions the term "scratched") with one line (usually a thin marking line), which often does not close, i.e. the drawing has, as it were, an entrance-exit; sometimes included in a combination of lines; most of the drawings are visible only from a considerable height:

Most of them are located just in the "tourist" place, near the river Ingenio. The appointment and evaluation of these drawings are controversial even among representatives of official science. Maria Reiche, for example, admired the refinement and harmony of the drawings, and the participants in the modern Nazca project
Palpa" under the guidance of Prof. Markus Reindel believe that the drawings were not conceived as images at all, but were created only as directions for ritual processions. There is no clarity, as usual.

I suggest not to be loaded with introductory information, but immediately delve into the topic.

In many sources, especially official ones, the issue of drawings belonging to the Nazca culture is a settled issue. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that in sources with an alternative focus, this topic is generally silent. Official historians usually refer to a comparative analysis of the drawings in the desert and the iconography of the Nazca culture, made by William Isbel back in 1978. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the work, I had to climb myself, since it’s not 78 now.
Drawings and photos of ceramics and textiles of the Nazca and Paracas cultures are now enough. I have mostly used the excellent collection of drawings made by Dr. C. Klados, available on the FAMSI website (25). And here's what turned out. Here is the case when it is better to look than to speak.

Fish and Monkey:

Hummingbird and Frigate:

Another hummingbird with a flower and a parrot (as the depicted character is usually called), which, perhaps, is not a parrot at all:

Well, the remaining birds: condor and harpies:

The fact, as they say, is obvious.

It is obvious that the drawings on textiles and ceramics of the Nazca and Paracas cultures and images in the desert sometimes coincide in detail. By the way, there was also a plant depicted on the plateau:

This manioc, or yucca, has been one of the staple foods in Peru since antiquity. And not only in Peru, but throughout the tropical zone of our planet. Like our potatoes. To taste too.

At the same time, it is worth noting that there are drawings on the plateau that have no analogues in the Nazca and Paracas cultures, but more on that later.

Well, let's see how the Indians created these wonderful images of theirs. There are no questions regarding the first group (primitive geoglyphs). The Indians were quite capable of doing this, given that there is always the opportunity to admire the creation from the outside, and, in which case, correct it. But with the second (drawings in the desert), some questions arise.

There is such an American researcher Joe Nickell, a member of the society of skeptics. And once he decided to reproduce one of the Nazca drawings - a 130-meter condor - in a field in Kentucky, USA. Joe and five of his assistants were armed with ropes, pegs and a cross of boards, allowing them to draw a perpendicular. All these "devices" could well have been among the inhabitants of the plateau.

The "Indians" team set to work on the morning of August 7, 1982 and completed it 9 hours later, including a lunch break. During this time, they marked 165 points and connected them together. Instead of digging, the testers covered the contours of the figure with lime. Photographs were taken from an aircraft flying at an altitude of 300 m.

“It was a success,” Nickell recalled. “The result was so accurate and accurate that we could easily recreate a much more symmetrical drawing in this way. It seems that the Nazca people marked out far fewer dots than we did, or used a rougher method, measuring distance, for example, with steps, and not with a rope" (11).

Yes, indeed, it turned out very similar. But then we agreed to take a closer look. I propose to compare the modern condor with the creation of the ancients in more detail:

It looks like Mr. Nickell (his condor on the left) got a little excited about judging his own work. A remake is walking. In yellow, I marked roundings and axes, which the ancients undoubtedly took into account in their work, and Nickell did it, as it turned out. And the proportions, slightly swollen because of this, give the drawing on the left some "clumsiness", which is absent in the ancient image.

And here comes the next question. To reproduce the condor, Nickell appears to have used a photograph as a sketch. When the image is enlarged and transferred to the surface of the earth, errors will inevitably occur, the magnitude of which depends on the method of transfer. These errors will be expressed, respectively, in all sorts of "clumsies" that we observed in Nickell (which, by the way, are present on some modern geoglyphs from the middle column of Fig. 4). And a question. And what sketches and methods of transfer did the ancients use to get almost perfect images?

It can be seen that the image, in this case the spider, is deliberately devoid of full symmetry, but not in the direction of an uncontrollable loss of proportions due to the imperfection of the transfer, as in Nickell's, but in the direction of giving life to the drawing, the comfort of perception (which greatly complicates the transfer process). One gets the impression that the ancients had no problems at all with the quality of the transfer. It should be added that Nickell fulfilled his promise to create a more accurate image, and drew the same spider (frames from the National Geigraphic documentary "Is it Real? Ancient Astronauts"):

But you and I see that he drew his own spider, very similar to the Nascan and the same size, but simpler and symmetrical (for some reason, the photo from the plane could not be found anywhere), devoid of all the subtleties that are visible in the previous photos and which so admired Maria Reiche.

Let's put aside the often discussed question about the method of transferring and enlarging the drawings, and try to look at the sketches, without which the ancient artists could hardly have done.

And then it turned out that there are practically no better drawings that Maria Reiche made by hand in the middle of the last century. All that is there is either a stylization, without taking into account details, or a deliberate distortion of the drawings, showing, according to the artists, the primitive level of the Indians of that time. Well, I had to sit down and try to do it myself. But the case turned out to be so exciting that I could not tear myself away until I had drawn all the available images. Looking ahead, I will say that there were a couple of pleasant surprises. But before inviting you in
gallery of "Nasca" graphics, I would like to note the following.

At first, I did not quite understand what made Maria Reiche so carefully search for a mathematical description of the drawings:

And this is what she wrote in her book: “The length and direction of each segment were carefully measured and recorded. Approximate measurements would not be enough to reproduce such perfect outlines that we see with aerial photography: a deviation of just a few inches would distort the proportions of the picture. Photographs taken in this way help to imagine how hard it was for the ancient craftsmen.The ancient Peruvians must have possessed equipment that even we do not have and which, combined with ancient knowledge, was carefully hidden from the conquerors, as the only treasure that cannot be kidnap" (2).

I fully understood this when I started drawing. It was no longer about sketches, but about getting close enough to what is on the plateau. Any minimal shift in proportions almost always resulted in "clumsiness", similar to what we saw with Nickell, and immediately lost the lightness and harmony of the image.

A little about the process. There is enough photographic material for all the drawings, if some detail was missing, you can always find the right picture from a different angle. Sometimes there were problems with perspective, but this was solved either with the help of existing drawings, or with a snapshot from Google Earth. This is how the working moment looks when drawing the "snake" (in this case, 5 photos were used):

And then, at one fine moment, I suddenly discovered that with a certain skill in working with Bezier curves (developed in the 60s for automotive design and which became one of the main tools for computer graphics), the program sometimes drew contours quite similarly. At first it was noticeable on the fillets of the legs of the spider, when without my participation these fillets became almost identical to the original ones. Further, with the correct positions of the nodes and when they were combined into a curve, the line sometimes almost exactly repeated the contour of the picture. And the fewer nodes, but the more optimal their position and settings, the more similarity with the original.

In general, a spider is practically one Bezier curve (more correctly, a Bezier spline, a sequential connection of Bezier curves), without circles and straight lines. With further work, a feeling arose that grew into confidence that this unique "Nascan" design is a combination of Bezier curves and straight lines. There were almost no regular circles or arcs:

Is it not Bezier curves that Maria Reiche, a mathematician by training, tried to describe by making numerous measurements of radii?

But I was truly inspired by the skill of the ancients when drawing large drawings, where there were almost ideal curves of huge sizes. Let me remind you once again that the purpose of the drawings was an attempt to look at the sketch, at what the ancients had before drawing on the plateau. I tried to minimize my own creativity, resorting to painting damaged places only where the logic of the ancients was obvious (for example, the tail of a condor, a falling out and clearly modern rounding on the body of a spider). It is clear that there is some idealization, improvement of the drawings, but one should also not forget that the originals are gigantic, more than once restored images in the desert, which are at least 1500 years old.

Let's start with a spider and a dog without technical details:

Fish and bird frigate:

A little more about the monkey. This drawing has the most uneven outline. First, I drew it the way it looks in the pictures:

But then it became clear that with all the accuracy of observing the proportions, the artist's hand seemed to be trembling a little, which is also noticeable on straight lines belonging to the same combination. I do not know what it is connected with, perhaps with a very uneven terrain in this place; but if the line on the sketch is made a little thicker, then all these irregularities will be hidden inside this thicker line. And the monkey acquires a standard geometry for all drawings. He attached spider monkeys, the prototype of which, according to many researchers, is depicted among the ancients. Not to mention the balance and
the accuracy of the proportions in the figure:

Further. I think the trinity of a lizard, a tree and "nine fingers" does not need to be introduced. I would like to pay attention to the paws of a lizard - the ancient artist very accurately noticed the anatomical feature of lizards - as if turned inside out, compared to a human hand:

Iguana and hummingbird:

Darter, Pelican and Harpy:

A rhinoceros dog and another hummingbird. Pay attention to the elegance of the lines:

Condor and Parrot:

The parrot has an unusual line. The fact is that this drawing has always been embarrassing due to its unfinished nature, unusual for Nasca images. Unfortunately, it is very badly damaged, but in some pictures this curve is visible (Fig. 131), which is, as it were, a continuation of the drawing and balancing it. It would be extremely interesting to look at the whole drawing, but, unfortunately, I can not help. I draw your attention to the virtuosic execution of the curves on the contours of these rather large images (people are visible in the photo of the condor). The pitiful attempt of modern "experimenters" to add an extra feather to the condor is clearly visible.

And here we have come to some climax of our opening day. There is a very interesting image on the plateau, or rather, a group of drawings, spread over more than 10 hectares. It is perfectly visible in Google Earth, in many photographs, but very few are mentioned. We look:

The size of a large pelican is 280 by 400 meters. Photos from the plane and the working moment of drawing:

And again, a perfectly executed (if viewed from Google) curve with a length of more than 300 meters. Unusual image, isn't it? It smells of something alien, slightly inhuman ...

Be sure to talk about all the oddities of this, and other images later, but now we will continue.

Other drawings of a slightly different nature:

There are images, sometimes quite complex, with characteristic rounding and requiring markings to maintain proportions, but at the same time devoid of visible meaning. Something like signing a newly acquired pen:

The "peacock" pattern is interesting in its conjugation of the right wing with the line (although, perhaps, this is the work of restorers). And admire how skillfully the ancient creators inscribed this drawing into the relief:

And to make our review of drawings complete, a few words about undrawn images. Recently, Japanese researchers have found more drawings. One of them is in the following picture:

Located in the south of the plateau, near the Nazca River. It is not clear what is depicted, but the handwriting in the form of graceful regular curves, drawn along the rugged relief with t-lines about one and a half meters wide (judging by the tracks of cars), is clearly visible.

I have already mentioned the trampled area near Palpa, where the lines are adjacent to primitive geoglyphs. There is also a small, very interesting drawing (marked with a slanted arrow), depicting a creature with a large number of fingers or tentacles, mentioned in the studies, but, unfortunately, not entirely distinguishable in the pictures:

A few more drawings, maybe not of such high quality, but made in a style different from primitive geoglyphs:

The next drawing is unusual in that it is applied with a thick (about 3 m) t-line. It can be seen that the bird, but the details are destroyed by the trapezoid:

And in conclusion of the review, a diagram where some drawings are collected approximately on the same scale:

Many researchers paid attention to the asymmetry of some drawings, which, logically, should be symmetrical (spider, condor, etc.). There were even suggestions that these distortions were caused by relief, and there were attempts to straighten these drawings. Indeed, with all the scrupulousness of the ancients to details and proportions, it is somehow not logical to draw the paws of a condor of obviously different sizes (Fig. 131).
Please note that the paws are not copies of each other, but are two completely different patterns, including ten precisely made fillets. It is difficult to assume that the work was carried out by two teams speaking different languages ​​and using different drawings. It is quite obvious that the ancients intentionally moved away from symmetry, especially since there are absolutely symmetrical
images (more on them later). And so, during the drawings, I noticed one amazing thing. The ancients, it turns out, drew projections of three-dimensional images. We look:

The condor is drawn in two planes intersecting at a slight angle. Pelican, it seems, in two perpendicular. Our spider has a very interesting 3-d look (1 - original image, 2 - straightened, taking into account the planes in the figure). And this is noticeable in some other figures. For example, a hummingbird, whose wing size shows that it is flying above us, a dog that turned its back to us, a lizard and "nine fingers", with different sizes of palms (Fig. 144). And look how ingeniously the three-dimensional volume is laid in the tree:

It's like it's made from a sheet of paper or foil, I just straightened one branch.

It would be strange if no one before me noticed such obvious things. Indeed, I found one work by Brazilian researchers (4). But there, by means of rather intricate transformations, a certain three-dimensional corporeality of the drawings was substantiated:

I agree with the spider, but not quite with the rest. And I decided to make my own three-dimensional version of some drawing. Here, for example, looks like "nine fingers" from plasticine:

I had to be smart with the paws, the ancients portrayed them slightly exaggerated, and no creature walks on tiptoe. But on the whole, it turned out right away, I didn’t even have to think of anything - everything is in the drawing (a specific joint, the convexity of the body, the position of the “ears”). Interestingly, the figure initially turned out to be balanced (standing on its feet). The question automatically arose, what kind of animal is this, in fact? And
in general, where did the ancients draw plots for their wonderful exercises on the plateau?

And here we are, as usual, waiting for a few more entertaining details.

Let's turn to our favorite - the spider. In the works of various researchers, this spider is identified as belonging to the order Ricinulei. The entry-exit lines seemed to some researchers to be a sexual organ, and the spider of this particular order of arachnids has a sexual organ on its paw. In fact, the delusion does not come from here. Let's take a break from the spider for a moment, look at the next drawing and I
I will ask the reader to answer the question - what are the monkey and the dog doing?

I don’t know what it seemed to the dear reader, but all my respondents answered that the little animals were doing their natural necessities. Moreover, the ancients clearly showed the sex of the dog, and the genitals are usually depicted in a different configuration. And, it seems, the same story with the spider - the spider, however, does not straighten anything, it just has an entrance-exit on its paw. And if you look closely, it turns out that this is not a spider at all, but something more like an ant:

And certainly not Ricinulei. As someone joked on the "ant" forum - this is a spider ant. Indeed, the spider has a cephalothorax, and here the ancients clearly distinguished the head and body with eight legs characteristic of an ant (an ant has six legs and a pair of whiskers). And interestingly, the Indians themselves did not understand what was painted in the desert. Here are the images on the ceramics:

They knew and drew spiders (on the right), and on the left, it seems, our spider ant is depicted, only the artist did not coordinate with the number of legs - there are 16 of them on ceramics. I don’t know what this really means, but if you stand in the middle of a forty-meter drawing, in in principle, you can understand what is depicted on the ground, but the rounding at the ends of the paws can be overlooked. But one thing is for sure - there is no such creature on our planet.

We go further. Questions are raised by three drawings. The first is the "nine fingers" shown above. The second is a rhinoceros dog. A small Nazca image, about 50 meters, for some reason unloved and rarely mentioned by researchers:

Unfortunately, I have no thoughts about what it is, and therefore let's move on to the remaining image.

Big pelican.

The only drawing that, due to its size and ideal lines, looks exactly the same on the drawing as in the desert (and on the sketches of the ancients, respectively). Calling this image a pelican is not entirely correct. A long beak and something that looks like a goiter does not mean a pelican. The ancients did not indicate the main detail that makes a bird a bird - wings. In general, this image is non-functional from all sides. You can't walk on it - it's not closed. Yes, and how to get on the eye - jump again? It is inconvenient to view from the air due to the specificity of the details. It also doesn't fit well with lines. But, nevertheless, there is no doubt that this object was created intentionally - it looks harmonious, the ideal curve balances the trident (apparently transverse), the beak is balanced by diverging straight lines behind. I could not understand why this drawing left a feeling of something very unusual. And everything is very simple. Small and subtle details are spaced a considerable distance, and in order to understand what is in front of us, we must look from one small detail to another. If, however, move away a considerable distance in order to cover the entire drawing, then all this smallness seems to merge and the meaning of the image is lost. It seems that this drawing was created for perception by a creature with a different size of the "yellow" spot - the zone of greatest visual acuity in the retina. So if any drawing claims to be unearthly graphics, then our pelican is the first candidate.

The topic, as you noticed, is slippery, you can fantasize as much as you like, and I initially doubted whether to raise it at all or not. But the Nazca plateau - interesting place You never know where a hare will jump out of. And the topic of strange images had to be raised, because quite unexpectedly an unknown drawing was discovered. At least I couldn't find anything about it online.

The drawing, however, is not entirely unknown. On site (24), this drawing is considered lost due to damage and its fragment is given. But in my database I found at least four pictures where the lost details are readable. The drawing is really very badly damaged, but the location of the remaining details, fortunately, makes it possible to assume with a high degree of probability what the original image looked like. Yes
and experience in drawings did not hurt.

So, premiere. Especially for readers of "Some Observations". A new inhabitant of the Nazca plateau. Meet:

The drawing is very unusual, about 60 meters long, a bit not in the standard style, but definitely ancient - as if scratched on the surface and covered with lines. All details are readable, with the exception of the lower middle fin, part of the contour and the remaining internal drawing. It can be seen that the drawing has been erased in more recent times. But, most likely not intentionally, they simply collected gravel.

And again the question arises - is it a fantasy of ancient artists, or did they spot a similar fish with a similar arrangement of fins somewhere on vacation on the Pacific coast? It is very reminiscent of the relic coelacanth coelacanth discovered not so long ago. Unless, of course, coelacanths swam in schools at that time off the coast of South America.

Let's put aside for a while the strangeness in the drawings and consider one more, although not extremely numerous, but no less interesting group of images. I would call it correct geometric symbols.

Estrella:

Grid and ring of squares:

The image from Google Earth shows another started, and larger ring of squares:

Another picture, I call it "estrella 2":

All images were made in similar ways - points and lines significant for the ancients are marked with stones, and light areas cleared of stones play an auxiliary role:

As you can see, in the ring of squares and on "estrella"-2, all significant centers are also lined with stones.

Nazca drawings. South America, Peru

What are the Nazca Lines, no one knows for sure. The only indisputable fact is that they are located in South America, in Peru, on the Nazca plateau in the southern part of the country. In 1994 they were listed world heritage UNESCO. This is where the indisputable facts end, leaving scientists with many unsolved mysteries.

The lines are giant geometric and figured geoglyphs (patterns) scattered over the plateau. They are applied to the surface in the form of furrows up to 135 centimeters wide and up to 40-50 centimeters deep. It is impossible to understand that this is a solid drawing, being on the ground: "the big is seen at a distance." That is why the Nazca Lines were opened only in 1939, when flights became possible.

Nazca drawings, spider

And since then, more than one scientist has been trying for years to answer the questions: “Who?” and why?". Most researchers are inclined to the version that long before the Incas the patterns were left by the Nazca civilization, which inhabited the plateau until the 2nd century BC. n. e. But for what purpose? With equal success, it can be both the world's largest astronomical calendar (although scientists have not discovered how to use it), and signals for the landing of alien spacecraft.

The plots of the Nazca Lines are very diverse: flowers, geometric shapes, animals, birds and even insects. The smallest image is a 46-meter spider, the largest is a 285-meter pelican...

At the end of 2011 in South America two of our colleagues left - photographer Dmitry Moiseenko and radio-controlled helicopter pilot Stas Sedov. They had a task: to take pictures in the deserts of Nazca and Palpa in Peru, ancient city Inca civilization Machu Picchu and stone idols on Easter Island. Now we bring to your attention shootings from Nazca.

Chasing the Hummingbird

On the first day of filming, we were faced with the fact that not only is it not allowed to enter the desert by car, but also to enter on foot. We talked to the police and attendants at the observation towers - the passage is allowed with special passes from the local Ministry of Culture, which issues them only to archaeological groups. Some time ago, the entrance and entrance to the desert were free, which led to the fact that a large number of figures almost died under the wheels of off-road vehicles.

Nazca drawings, parrot and astronaut

For tourists, local authorities put up several towers with observation platforms: one of those that we found , is located right on the Pan-American highway near Nazca, the other is 30 kilometers towards Palpa. It can be seen by tourists from these towers, frankly, not very much. It is much better to look at the figures from small planes that fly over the desert from the local airport.

View from the tourist observation tower

The second day in Nazca did not work out from the very beginning. In the morning we planned to go to a distant point near Palpa and try to approach the figures through the desert. On the previous day on observation deck there was no one: no tourists, no watchman. It is logical to assume that at 6 in the morning there should not have been anyone there either. Naive...

We left at dawn, and here we are standing on the observation deck. But what a disaster! A couple of minutes ago it was clear on the horizon, and now on the road 400 meters away from us, as if out of thin air, a police jeep appeared. That's it, shooting becomes almost impossible, since from the site where tourists can be to the figures themselves - about 200-300 meters. It is possible to fly, but to remove something of high quality is unlikely to succeed.

After a couple of minutes of deliberation, we decided to try to fly anyway. We shot a couple of test spheres, landed and realized that luck was not with us today: all the figures came out very small and very far away. Well, we decided to try to negotiate with the police. We drive up to the jeep and see a sleeping patrolman. They did not wake up the vigilant policeman, but quickly rushed back to the observation deck. Then everything happened, as in films about scouts.

We loaded up with equipment and almost bellied moved towards the figures through the desert. Somewhere in the middle of the road, Dima noticed out of the corner of his eye that the policeman was no longer sleeping, but got out of the car and was watching us. Looks like we've been spotted! What to do? Run? We acted illogically - we decided to start filming right in front of the police. They took off, filmed several spheres, all the time looking at the policeman. There was no reaction. Maybe they didn't notice us? Using the hollows, we got closer to the figures. The terrain helped to hide from the police patrol.

We began to fly quite actively, all the while expecting menacing shouts from behind. About half an hour later I climbed from another ravine to the level of the plateau and found a completely empty road - the police jeep had left. He probably didn’t notice us after all - lucky! After that, they worked almost close to the figures. Almost the entire supply of batteries for the helicopter flew off, leaving a couple of pieces for lifting on the observation deck near Nazca.

Tired, but very satisfied, we wandered to our car. Dima decided to shoot a few last shots with his telephoto lens, and at the moment of changing lenses he left the keys inside the cabin.

I must say that the crime situation in Peru is not very good, and therefore the car alarm is designed so that if you do not start the engine after disarming the car, the doors will be blocked in a couple of minutes. If you start the engine — the doors are locked immediately.

As you may have guessed, while Dima was making the final shots, the car was locked with the keys inside.

So, we are in the desert, an hour's walk from the nearest village, and not a soul around. Tools and water are inside the car. We only have a helicopter and a camera with a large lens in our hands. They tried to squeeze the glass with their hands - it's useless. After several attempts, I suggested to Dima to break the glass of the back door. You can watch Dima's dramatic torment in the video: to beat or not to beat - that is the question!

I quickly imagined how the police find our dried corpses next to the intact car, and insistently asked Dima to finally solve the problem. And Dima solved it! After a little thought, he suggested breaking not the glass, but a small rear window and trying to get the keys through it. A few minutes later, having searched the surroundings and found several pieces of steel wire (having dismantled the roof of the local "museum", similar to the usual bus stop), we made an impromptu fishing rod, with the help of which Dima fished out our keys through the broken glass on the first try. Saved!

On the way to Nasca, we shot the Tree and Hands for the second time, and also tried to shoot the Lizard. We learned from the rangers the coordinates of the local Ministry of Culture and decided to try to get official permission to pass through the desert.

During the morning visit to the Minister of Archaeology, he was not there. The secretary with gestures (almost no one speaks English there) explained to us that we should come in after lunch.

What to do? Dima offered to fly over the desert in a small plane. He planned to shoot figures that could not be reached on foot, and I had to shoot a video of the process and, most importantly, find passages between the police cordons to one of the famous figures.

Nazca drawings, monkey

Flight. No, not like that: it was FLIGHT!!! I have already flown a lot of things, but there was no such amount of adrenaline even on a motorized hang glider. I will omit the details of how we bargained at the airport and how they then tried to stab us on almost every point of the agreements.

So, we are at the executive start. After the pilot began to rape the engine, adjusting the fuel mixture, I realized that the "entertainment" we have is not weak. And exactly when they began to taxi out, instead of standing at the beginning of the runway, the pilot taxied onto the dirt road, outside of it, gaining another ten meters for acceleration. The engine roared wildly , and our "Tsesna" rushed along the runway, picking up speed very quickly. Breakaway! But instead of a sharp rise, we began to climb literally a meter per second - it was not the most pleasant moment.

What is the difficulty of flying over Nazca? It is hot during the day, the air density is low, and strong winds blow. We often noticed tornadoes of various sizes in the desert. I filmed one of these tornadoes during takeoff.

In a few minutes we are already over the desert. Gained a height of 600 meters. Here is the first figure - Keith. If the co-pilot (girl) had not shown her hand, I would not have noticed him. Expecting to see large figures, the head does not immediately switch to the true size, and because of this, it is almost impossible to see them. Lines and trapezoids, on the contrary, are visible very well.

Nazca drawings, whale

Flying up to the next figure, the pilots laid a very steep turn, and we made several circles with some unimaginable rolls. At the same time, the plane was often thrown by gusts of wind. The feeling of a rollercoaster, only several times stronger. I was amazed at how Dima would quite calmly hang out of the open window with his telephoto and shoot, shoot, shoot... At the same time, he still managed to quite accurately drive the figures into the frame.

Nazca drawings, bird of paradise

There was confidence that along one of the country roads we could get close to the figure of the Hummingbird. During the flight, Dima wrote a track with GPS coordinates, by which we hoped to quickly find it. 50 minutes of flight time passed unnoticed, during which my face changed its color several times: from earthy gray to green. We landed at the airport and fell out of the plane exhausted.

We went back to the ministry. The archaeologist, in my opinion, did not appear in the office, and his secretary, with a sigh, announced to us - "manyana", which meant: come in tomorrow. We decided after a little rest at the hotel go in search of Hummingbirds.

This figure is slightly off the track. They decided to go to the desert in the evening, when tourist planes should already finish their flights. In addition to the pilots, there was practically no one to notice us - during the flight, I did not see any movement on country roads.

The beginning of the way to the mountains was not very difficult: a well-rolled primer. Unfortunately, from the air, I did not have time to spot the characteristic landmarks on the Hummingbird beam, so Dima and I had a rather emotional argument about which way to go and where to leave the car. Dima showed me his track recorded during the flight and pointed his finger in the direction completely opposite (in my opinion) from the figure. Relying on visual memory and insisting on my choice of direction, by a miracle (and in different words) I managed to convince Dima.

According to our assumptions, there were only 15-20 minutes of light time left. That's a hell of a lot, especially since we didn't know exactly where to go.

We climbed up the mountain, towards the desert. We got in. From what I saw, despair seized me: it was not a plateau, but just one of the spurs on the way to it. We had to go down a rather steep slope, consisting of a mixture of sand and stones, 70 meters down, cross a small gorge and climb again, already 100 meters. We will not have time! But pulling ourselves together, we quickly ran down the slope, tearing off piles of stones behind us ...

I vaguely remember how we crawled up the mountain. Somewhere in the middle of the ascent, I ran out of strength. Running through the mountains with a 15-kilogram backpack, equipment around your neck and a helicopter in your hands is not an easy task. Dima took out a camera and shot a short video.

Another 5 minutes of climbing - and we are on the plateau.

Climbed! Where is the figure? We looked at the track: we seem to be standing somewhere nearby, but nothing is visible on the ground. Found some lines that look like a hummingbird's tail. We take off, we shoot. After landing, Dima rushes to the camera - no, this is not Hummingbird. In the frame there is some strange "sun" and a huge landing strip for alien ships.

We go further into the desert. The sun begins to fall towards the horizon rather quickly. Only a few minutes of daylight remain. We stumble upon some regular trapezoid, or a line. And Dima says: "The area is called the Nazca Lines, since we did not find the Hummingbird, let's shoot the lines."

I take off, quite high. Let's take a sphere. And then Dima asks me to simply scroll the device around the axis, without shooting. I don’t usually do this - there is little flight time, but this time for some reason I didn’t refuse. I do not know why. The wind on the plateau was quite strong, the visibility was not very good, but I spun the helicopter and then Dima shouted right in my ear: "HUMMINGBIRD!!! Take off!!!"

Nazca drawings, hummingbird

It turned out that we were standing next to this figure (more precisely, a figure: the bird is very small), not noticing it at all. Moreover, if you come close to it, it is very clearly visible on the ground.

Nature rewarded us with an absolutely fantastic sunset. This was not the case in previous days: clouds in pink light, the moon giving its silver hue - we almost forgot why we came ...

Having come to their senses, they made several sorties near the Hummingbird, while the sun went below the horizon. It is difficult to put into words the strange sensations that we experienced on the plateau. Apparently those who chose the location of this "bird" knew something inaccessible to our understanding. Or maybe we were just overwhelmed with positive emotions, from the feeling of a successfully completed mission...

While I was collecting the equipment, Dima was running around the Hummingbird in a very excited state, trying to shoot video and ground shots in almost complete darkness.

One thought drilled through me on the way to the car - you must always fight, even when it seems that everything is already lost, that you didn’t have time, you didn’t find ...

Fortune favors the persistent!