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Coordinates: 14°43′00″S, 75°08′00″W Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...

Lines and Geoglyphs of Nazca and Pampas de Jumana*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Peru
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iii, iv
Reference	700
Region†	Latin America and the Caribbean
Inscription history
Inscription	1994  (18th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches 53 miles or more than 80 kilometers between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. They were supposedly created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and AD 700. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fishes, sharks, llamas and lizards. A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... Image File history File links Nazca_monkey. ... As of 2006, there are a total of 830 World Heritage Sites located in 138 State Parties. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Peru. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... This is a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... A geoglyph is a drawing on the ground, or a large motif, (generally greater than 4 metres) or design produced on the ground, either by arranging clasts (stones, stone fragments, gravel or earth) to create a positive geoglyph (stone arrangement/alignment, petroform, earth mound) or by removing patinated clasts to... The Sechura desert is a desert ecoregion of coastal Peru. ... For the tectonic plate, see Nazca Plate. ... Late Intermediate Period Cultures The Nazca culture flourished in the Nazca region between 300 BC and 800 AD. They created the famous Nazca lines and built an impressive system of underground aqueducts that still function today. ... The eastern hemisphere in 200 BC. Antiochus IIIs forces continue their invasion of Coele Syria, defeating the Egyptian general Scopas at Panion near the source of the Jordan River, and thus gaining control of Palestine. ... // Events Saint Adamnan convinces 51 kings to adopt Cáin Adomnáin defining the relationship between women and priests. ...

Construction

Since their discovery, various theories have been proposed regarding the methods and motivations underlying the lines' construction. The archaeological explanation as to who made them and how is widely disputed but many believe the Nazca people made the lines using simple tools and surveying equipment. Wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines (which were used to carbon-date the figures) and ceramics found on the surface support this theory. Furthermore, researchers such as Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky, have reproduced, without aerial supervision, the figures using the technology available to the Nazca people of the time. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within a couple of days. Contrary to the claims of several commentators, the figures can be observed from the ground by standing on top of nearby foothills.^[1] Joe Nickell was born December 1, 1944 and is a prominent investigator of the paranormal. ... The University of Kentucky, also referred to as UK, is a public, co-educational university located in Lexington, Kentucky. ...

The lines were made by removing the iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is removed, the lines contrast sharply with the surroundings because of the light-colored earth underneath. There are several hundred simple lines and geometric patterns on the Nazca plateau, as well as over seventy curvilinear animal, insect, and human figures. The area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometers (200 square miles), and the largest figures can be nearly 900 feet (270 meters) long. The lines persist due to the extremely dry, windless, and constant climate of the Nazca region. The Nazca desert is one of the driest on Earth and maintains a temperature around 25°C (77°F) all year round, and the lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered to the present day. Iron oxide pigment There are a number of iron oxides: Iron oxides Iron(II) oxide or ferrous oxide (FeO) The black-coloured powder in particular can cause explosions as it readily ignites. ...

Purpose

This section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2007)

Satellite picture of an area containing lines. (Coordinates: 14°43′S, 75°08′W)

There is scant evidence concerning why the figures were built, so the Nazca people's motivation remains the lines' most persistent mystery. Many scholars believe that their motivation was religious, making images that only gods in the sky could see clearly. Kosok and Reiche advanced one of the earliest reasons given for the Nazca Lines: that they were intended to point to the places on the distant horizon where the Sun and other celestial bodies rose or set. This hypothesis was evaluated by two different experts in archaeoastronomy, Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni, and they both concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support an astronomical explanation. Download high resolution version (750x1032, 206 KB)Credit(s): NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team Source: http://earthobservatory. ... Download high resolution version (750x1032, 206 KB)Credit(s): NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team Source: http://earthobservatory. ... The sun rising over Stonehenge at the 2005 Summer Solstice. ... Gerald Stanley Hawkins (1928–2003) was an astronomer and author most famous for his work in the field of archaeoastronomy. ...

In 1985, the archaeologist Johan Reinhard published archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources played a dominant role in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times. He presented the theory that the lines and figures can be explained as part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water and thus the fertility of crops. The lines were interpreted as being primarily used as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped and the figures as symbolically representing animals and objects meant to invoke their aid. However, the precise meanings of many of the individual geoglyphs remain unsolved.

This glyph is one of the more complex Nazca figures.

Notwithstanding Gerald Hawkins' and Anthony Aveni's dismissal of an astronomical explanation of the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs, astronomer Robin Edgar has theorized that the Nazca Lines, particularly the biomorph geoglyphs that depict animals, human figures, birds and "flowers" are almost certainly an ancient response to the so-called "Eye of God" that is manifested in the sky during a total solar eclipse. An unusual series of total solar eclipses over southern Peru coincided with the time period during which the Nazca Lines and geoglyphs were created. The totally eclipsed sun distinctly resembles the pupil and iris of a gigantic eye looking down from the sky thus providing an explanation as to why the Nazca people created gigantic geoglyph artworks that are best viewed by an "Eye in the Sky".^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1270x1425, 706 KB) Crop of a photo in Wikimedia Commons. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1270x1425, 706 KB) Crop of a photo in Wikimedia Commons. ... Photo taken during the 1999 eclipse. ... For the tectonic plate, see Nazca Plate. ... A geoglyph is a drawing on the ground, or a large motif, (generally greater than 4 metres) or design produced on the ground, either by arranging clasts (stones, stone fragments, gravel or earth) to create a positive geoglyph (stone arrangement/alignment, petroform, earth mound) or by removing patinated clasts to...

Some (for example Jim Woodmann) have proposed that the Nazca lines presuppose some form of manned flight (in order to see them) and that a hot air balloon was the only possible available technology. Woodmann actually made a hot air balloon from materials and using techniques that would have been available to people at the time in order to test this hypothesis. The balloon flew (after a fashion) demonstrating that this hypothesis was possible, but there is no hard evidence either way ^[2] and Woodman's work has been rebutted.^[1]

Another theory contends that the lines are the remains of "walking temples," where a large group of worshipers walked along a preset pattern dedicated to a particular holy entity, similar to the practice of labyrinth walking. Residents of the local villages say the ancient Nazca conducted rituals on these giant drawings to thank the gods and to ensure that water would continue to flow from the Andes. This view correlates with the purposes of other North American geoglyphs.^{[citation needed]} There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... For other uses, see Native Americans (disambiguation). ... This article is about the mountain system in South America. ...

Record setting hot air balloon aviator Julian Nott has proposed that Nazca tribal leaders could have been aloft in primitive hot air balloons, as long as two millennia ago, guiding the creation of the Nazca ground figures from above.^[3] This article is about hot air balloons themselves. ...

Environmental concerns

According to Viktoria Nikitzki of the Maria Reiche Centre, an organization dedicated to protecting the Nazca Lines, pollution and erosion caused by deforestation threaten the continued existence of the Nazca lines. She is quoted as saying "The Lines themselves are superficial, they are only 10 to 30cm deep and could be washed away... Nazca has only ever received a small amount of rain. But now there are great changes to the weather all over the world. The Lines cannot resist heavy rain without being damaged."^[4] However, Mario Olaechea Aquije, the archaeological resident from Peru's National Institute of Culture in Nazca, Peru, and a team of specialists surveyed the area after the flooding and mudslides occurring in the area in mid-February of 2007. He announces that "the mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nazca Lines," but that the nearby Southern Pan-American Highway did suffer damage, and "the damage done to the roads should serve as a reminder to just how fragile these figures are."^[5] Maria Reiche (1903-1998) was a German-born mathematician and archaeologist who is famous for her research in the Nazca lines in Peru. ... The Pan American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. ...

In fiction

• Accurate descriptions and a speculative purpose of the lines are described in the novel Domain by Steve Alten.
• The Nazca Lines featured in the Anthony Horowitz novel Evil Star where they were an ancient gate which kept back a group of evil demons called the Old Ones. When the stars in the sky line up with the lines, the gate would open. The figures were to serve as a warning. At the end of the novel the Lines came to life and became real creatures.
• The Nazca Lines were also featured in a Nancy Drew novel, with the spiral tailed monkey being the focal point of the mystery The Clue in the Crossword Cypher.
• The Nazca Lines featured prominently in an episode of The Mysterious Cities of Gold entitled "The Nazca Plateau", where the supposition that the lines were designed to be viewed from above is underlined, with the main characters viewing the ground markings from the sky in their Golden Condor. There is also the implied suggestion the lines were part of an intentionally designed aerial runway as the flying bird lands at sunset along two parallel lines from the surface drawing.
• The Nazca Lines were used as a major plot point in the video game Shining Force II and were even referred to by name. In the game, a Nazca bird is actually a flying ship created by an ancient advanced civilization. One of the game's boss fights was fought on top of the Nazca bird.
• The Nazca Lines are featured prominently in an episode of the anime Master Mosquiton '99. In the episode, the main characters Inaho and Mosquiton must rescue a plane full of students. They can't land the plane as the airport runway has been flooded with sand that is covered with Nazca Lines (due to a curse from a Nazca mask). Upon inspecting the area, a Nazca spider comes to life and attacks them.
• Figures resembling Nazca Lines appear in the arcade game Xevious.
• The plot of the ninth episode of the anime series Cowboy Bebop is set in motion by the uncommanded recreation of the Nazca lines by a satellite-based defensive laser grid on the asteroid-pounded Earth.
• The Nazca Lines also feature at the end of the game Assassin's Creed where 'eagle vision' is used to reveal markings in blood, including the Nazca monkey, hummingbird and spider.
• The video game Illusion of Gaia contains an area named 'Nazca Plains', which contains references to the Nazca Lines.
• In the role-playing game Rifts, the Nazca lines were used to create giant energy constructs, ranging from the actual walls of structures to defensive measures against an ancient alien invasion. (The giant line-animals could even come alive to fight.) After a cataclysm destroys human civilization and returns magic to the earth, the descendants of the Nazca civilization ally with the returning gods of the Inca to form a new nation, just as the aliens who attempted to invade before attack again.
• The Nazca lines are mentioned in the 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods by Erich Von Daniken as evidentiary support for idea that advanced technologies and civilizations have existed before the current technological societies, and that it may have been an airport for our brothers from the stars or supposes that we may have had flight technology in BC times.
• In the game "We love Katamari" you can pick up the Nazca Line item, that looks like a Nazca Line.
• The Nazca Lines are mentioned in passing in the book The Six Sacred Stones, leading some to believe they will play a role in the book's sequel.
• The new Yu-Gi-Oh installment, Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's centers around the Nazca Lines and their ancient culture.

Steve Alten (born August 21, 1959, Philadelphia) is an American science fiction author. ... Anthony Horowitz (born 5 April 1956) is an English author and television scriptwriter. ... Evil Star is the second book in The Power of Five series by British author, Anthony Horowitz. ... // Warhammer 40,000 In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Old Ones traveled through space and manipulated minor species on several planets to grow into tools for their battle against the Ctan. ... For the film, see Nancy Drew (2007 film). ... “Cities of Gold” redirects here. ... Shining Force II is a 1994 tactical role-playing game for the Mega Drive/Genesis console, and a sequel to the original Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention game. ... Master Mosquiton 99, based on Akahori Satorus popular OVA series, Master Mosquiton, is a Japanese vampire show about a girl named Hitoembore Inaho whos grandmother was in love with a vampire. ... Xevious ) is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1983. ... Original run April 3, 1998 – April 23, 1999 Episodes 26 Movie: Knockin on Heavens Door (天国の扉) Director Shinichiro Watanabe Writer Keiko Nobumoto Studio Sunrise BONES Bandai Visual[2] Released September 1, 2001 Runtime 115 min. ... Assassins Creed is a video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. ... Illusion of Gaia ) is an action-RPG video game that was released on January 1, 1994 for the Super NES (SNES). ... Rifts is a multi-genre role-playing game created by Kevin Siembieda in 1990 and published continuously by Palladium Books since then. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... Book cover for Chariots of the Gods? Chariots of the Gods?: Unsolved Mysteries of the Past is a controversial book written in 1968 by Erich von Däniken. ... We ♥ Katamari , lit. ... The Six Sacred Stones is an upcoming novel by acclaimed Australian thriller novelist Matthew Reilly. ... Yu-Gi-Oh! manga volume 1 (English version) Yu-Gi-Oh! (遊☆戯☆王 yūgiō, Japanese for King of Games) is a popular Japanese anime and manga franchise from Kazuki Takahashi that mainly involves characters who play a card game called Duel Monsters (originally called Magic and Wizards (M&W...

See also

• Geoglyph
• Carnac stones
• Crop circle
• Marilyn Bridges
• Simone Waisbard

A geoglyph is a drawing on the ground, or a large motif, (generally greater than 4 metres) or design produced on the ground, either by arranging clasts (stones, stone fragments, gravel or earth) to create a positive geoglyph (stone arrangement/alignment, petroform, earth mound) or by removing patinated clasts to... The Menec alignments, the most well-known megalithic site amongst the Carnac stones. ... A crop circle consisting of multiple circles. ... Marilyn Bridges (born 1948) is an American photographer. ... Simone Waisbard was a French explorer who spent years in South and Central America, studying remnants of the many ancient civilizations and tribes that have lived there. ...

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Nazca lines

• Aveni, Anthony F. (ed.) (1990). The Lines of Nazca. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-183-3
• Aveni, Anthony F. (2000). Between the Lines: The Mystery of the Giant Ground Drawings of Ancient Nasca, Peru . Austin Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70496-8
• Haughton, Brian. (2007). Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries. Career Press. ISBN 1564148971
• Lambers, Karsten (2006). The Geoglyphs of Palpa, Peru: Documentation, Analysis, and Interpretation. Lindensoft Verlag, Aichwald/Germany. ISBN 3-929290-32-4
• Reinhard, Johan (1996) (6th ed.) The Nazca Lines: A New Perspective on their Origin and Meaning. Lima: Los Pinos. ISBN 84-89291-17-9

Notes

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 331st day of the year (332nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Nazca lines at the Open Directory Project The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as dmoz (from , its original domain name), is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links owned by Netscape that is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors. ...

v • d • e World Heritage Sites in Peru Chan Chan Archaeological Zone · Chavín (Archaeological Site) · City of Cuzco · Historic Centre of Lima · Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa · Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu · Huascarán National Park · Manú National Park · Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana · Rio Abiseo National Park Image File history File links Flag_of_Peru_(state). ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... Image File history File links Flag_of_UNESCO.svg This image shows a flag, a coat of arms, a seal or some other official insignia. ... Overview of ruins of the Tschudi Complex, Chan Chan The largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, Chan Chan is an archaeological site located in the Peruvian region of La Libertad, just north of Trujillo. ... Chavín de Huantar is an archaeological site located 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Lima, Peru. ... This article is the city in Peru. ... Under Cunstruction!!!! PLEASE DO NOT EDIT!!! The Historic Center of Lima is one of the most important touristical destinations in Peru, and is located principally in the downtown or Cercado de Lima and Rimac areas. ... For the cactus genus, see Oreocereus. ... Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Pikchu Old Peak) is a pre-Columbian Inca city located at 2,430 m (7,970 ft) altitude[1] on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, about 70 km (44 mi) northwest of Cusco. ... Huascarán National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Huascarán) is a national park in the Cordillera Blanca, a range of the Andes, in the Ancash region of central Peru. ... Manu National Park is a biosphere reserve located in Madre de Dios and PaucartamboCuzco. ... The Rio Abiseo National Park is a wooded national park in the Andean highlands of northern Peru. ...