Drawings in the Nazca desert. Nazca lines in Peru: mysterious geoglyphs in the desert. Herman E. Bossi - The Nazca Code

Palpa Plateau

The Palpa plateau is located on the territory of the state of Peru (South America). It is 20 km north of the Nazca plateau, and its area is two times smaller. This natural formation with geoglyphs is noteworthy (a geometric figure made in the ground and having a length of at least 4 meters), but it is much less popular among people than its southern neighbor. This is explained by the fact that Nazca was the first. The mysterious drawings on it have been studied since 1946. Palpa became known to the general public in 1993, thanks to Erich von Däniken (b. 1935).

He is a Swiss ufologist by education. In 1968, he published a bestseller titled Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved mysteries of the past. The circulation of the book was 60 million copies. This figure once again underlines the great interest people have in the mysteries and secrets of the past.

It was this man who drew the attention of the public to the mysterious geoglyphs of Palp, which, in terms of quality and craftsmanship, significantly exceeded the corresponding images on the Nazca plateau. It seemed that craftsmen with higher qualifications worked in the north. At the same time, there is a strong opinion that Palp's drawings are much older than similar creations of Nazca. Therefore, the ancient civilization living in these places lost certain skills over time. This conclusion raises many questions, the answers to which no one has.

Flat top of a hill. Nature couldn't create this.

What catches the eye in the first place is the unusual tops of the hills. They are completely flat. It seems that all the bumps on them are cut off by some unknown mechanism. At the same time, the slopes have the usual rugged natural relief. On flat tops and mysterious lines and stripes are located. They intersect and overlap each other. This suggests that some stripes were first created, and then others were applied to them.

The width of some bands reaches several hundred meters, and the length reaches 20 km. The edges are perfectly parallel. But not only geometric shapes are striking. There are anthropomorphic geoglyphs on the plateau. These are images that resemble people. There are currently eight of them. There are also images of animals and birds. All of them have different sizes and are made with high skill.

Anthropomorphic geoglyph

The main attraction of the Palpa plateau are, perhaps, very complex geometric images. Even at first glance, it is felt that these creations contain some kind of hidden information. That's just what, for whom and why? This is incomprehensible.

You can consider, for example, a picture consisting of three circles. They are located next to each other. The two extreme ones have small diameters, and the central circle is much larger than them. The circles are connected to each other by lines and thus represent a single composition. This image is a kilometer long.

Circle images

The composition includes two triangles superimposed on each other and forming a star with six ends. In the center of the star are two circles of different diameters. The smaller circle lies within the larger one. In the latter, in turn, there are two rectangles intersecting with each other. They depict a square, and in its center there is an image resembling a star with 16 rays. Around these geometric patterns are small round pits. Some circles are made not by solid lines, but by similar round pits.

A kilometer from these complex geoglyphs, there are no less complex and peculiar other drawings. Together they also form a composition called "sundial". In the center is a zigzag turning into a spiral. It forms six turns, corresponding in shape to circles. Nearby are stripes and lines randomly intersecting each other. At the very edge of the composition there is a drawing resembling a human head with its outlines. Her horns are crowned, and under her is a snake.

Complex geometric image "Sundial"

The image of this reptile is uncharacteristic for the Palpa plateau. It is also uncharacteristic of the drawings on the Nazca plateau. The Incas loved to portray snakes. They drew them wherever possible. They especially liked to apply poisonous creatures to the walls of residential buildings and palaces. The snake in this civilization was associated with wisdom and longevity.

Another geoglyph raises many questions. It bears the name "Table". And indeed, from above, he is very reminiscent of her. The table is located on a flat top and consists of 15 longitudinal and 36 transverse lines. Moreover, the lines are dotted, and crosses are formed at the points of their intersection. Nearby is a picture of a man. It is crossed by many thin lines. And they, in turn, are covered by a circle. Along it are eight squares. What kind of composition it is, for what purposes it was made - a complete mystery.

The drawings are huge, so you can only see them by taking to the air in an airplane, helicopter or hot air balloon, if you have one at hand. Why did the ancient civilization make such images? Even the artists themselves could not see the full drawings, unless they had some kind of aircraft.

This is bewildering, but the accuracy of images is even more striking for modern man. The same circles have an ideal shape. It can be assumed that the ancient masters used an ordinary rope. A peg was driven in, a rope was taken into the hands, tied to it, and the person drew a perfect round line on the ground. Thus, masterpieces were created in those distant times.

The explanation is good, but everything rests on the ground of the plateau. The climate in this area is dry, there is no rain, there are no winds either. A footprint left on the ground can retain its shape for centuries. No wonder geoglyphs have survived to this day. If the ancient masters used tools familiar to modern people, they were in close proximity to lines and figures. Accordingly, the soil must retain the traces of ancient people.

But nothing like this is observed near geoglyphs. The soil is virginally flat. It looks like no human has ever set foot on it. So how were the images made on the ground? Couldn't the ancient master fly up to the work site through the air, and then hang in a special cradle above the ground and create masterpieces, whose age is estimated at a thousand years. No reasonable explanation for this comes to mind.

Maybe the aliens portrayed themselves

Only one version suggests itself - an alien one. Representatives from another planet visited Earth, made contact with local residents and for some reason put mysterious drawings on the ground. Naturally, some technologies unknown to modern man were used. Apparently, for the aliens, the drawings on the ground were of great importance, since the appropriate area with the most suitable climate was chosen.

But the Palpa and Nazca plateaus are by no means the only ones of their kind. The old-timers of these places claim that if you go east into the mountains, you can meet several more plateaus with mysterious geoglyphs. In their form, those are more intricate and incomprehensible. People of science and tourists, however, gravitate so far only to the Nazca plateau. It is the most hyped and popular all over the world. The Palpa Plateau and the unknown high-mountain plains in the east are not yet of interest to anyone. However, this is a matter of time. Their turn will come. But will this help unravel the mystery of the mysterious drawings? There is no clear cut answer here.

Beneath the Nazca refers to the plain, located on a hill. This terrain has, as a rule, a flat or wavy, slightly dissected relief. From other flat spaces Nazcaseparated by clear cuts. This natural formation is located in Peru, in its southern part, 450 km southeast of Lima, the capital of the country. However, this territory is remarkable not for its unusual location, it is distinguished by its Nazca drawings.spread over an area of 80 kilometers. These images, or as they are also called the Nazca lines, made in a bizarre form: from the outlines of animals, spiders and birds, to geometric shapes. Drawings in the Nazca desertare one of the most important mysteries for the modern research community. Dozens of figures struggle daily in so far aimless attempts to answer at least some questions regarding the mysterious images.

Nazca is a geoglyphic territory.

The territory of the plateau is vast and stretches for many kilometers. This valley was considered lifeless for a long time, however, the researchers were wrong, but more on that later. Nazca coordinates where the geoglyphs are located: 14° 45' south latitude and 75° 05' west longitude. The shape of the Nazca plate is elongated. From north to south, the length reaches approximately fifty kilometers, from west to east from 5 to 7 kilometers. The Nazca area is practically uninhabited by people and has an extremely dry climate.

Winter on the vast Nazca Square lasts from June to September. This is because the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere do not coincide with those in the Northern Hemisphere. At the same time, the temperature in Nazca never drops below 16 degrees Celsius. In summer, the temperature is stable and stays around 25 degrees Celsius. Rain, despite the proximity of the ocean, is a rarity for Nazca. Winds are also practically non-existent. There are no rivers, streams or lakes surrounded by Nazca, and there cannot be with such conditions. The presence of water in these lands is signaled only by numerous channels of the long-long dried-up Nazca rivers and no less numerous dried-up canals.

No less important component of this region than the Nazca Valley is the city with the corresponding name. It was founded by the Spaniards in 1591. In 1996, the city was completely destroyed by a powerful earthquake. But, fortunately, there were few casualties, since the aftershocks began at noon and the people were prepared. In total, 17 people died during the Nazca earthquake. And about 100 thousand people were left without a roof over their heads. To date, the city of Nazca has been completely rebuilt. High-rise buildings were built on its territory, and the center of Nazca is now adorned with a beautiful square.

However, this area is notable not for a city or a plain, but for mysterious geoglyphs, lines and drawings, which are believed to have been made by skillful human hands. However, the last statement is very, very controversial. There is a popular theory regarding the Nazca, according to which the lines on the plateau were drawn not by a person, but by an alien mind or some other unknown forces.

Amazing drawings in the Nazca desert.

In total, experts discovered 13 thousand various lines and stripes on the territory of the plateau. In science, these drawings have their own name - geoglyphs (geometric figures of a bizarre shape, made in the earth's soil and having a length of at least four meters). In our case, the drawings in the Nazca desert are shallow and long grooves of various widths dug in the soil, which is a mixture of sand and clay. Shallow by the standards of Nazca is from 15 to 30 cm. But the length of individual lines reaches several kilometers: the longest reach 10 kilometers in length. The width of the drawings in the Nazca desert is also striking: In some cases, it ranges from 150 to 200 meters.

In addition to lines, all kinds of figures were found on the territory of the plateau, well known to every person from geometry - triangles and quadrangles. Some drawings in the Nazca desert are trapezoids, as they only have two sides that are parallel. There are about seven hundred such creations of unknown origin on the plateau. There are also figures resembling animals: monkeys, birds, killer whales, llamas and other inhabitants of flora and fauna. Single drawings in the Nazca desert depict fish, spiders, lizards and sharks. There are few of them in total no more than forty.

The figures amaze the imagination with their enormous size, but people are not able to understand their true purpose. Obviously, the clue may lie in the bowels of the plain, which means that in order to understand who and why created the drawings in the Nazca desert, it is necessary to start excavations. The problem is that archaeological excavations are prohibited here, since the plain has the status of a sacred zone. So the mystery of the drawings in the Nazca desert remains unsolved. And something suggests that it will remain so for a very, very long time, until the scientific community comes to its senses.

Mysterious lines of Nazca.

However, no matter how sacred this land is, human curiosity has never stopped at anything and is not going to stop. The first person suffering from the “vice” of curiosity ended up in these forbidden lands in 1927. He was an archaeologist from Peru, Mejia Toribio Hespe. He studied the Nazca lines from the foothills surrounding the plateau.

In the 1930s, a mysterious piece of land where Nazca lines, anthropologists studied from a bird's eye view, flying around on an airplane. They, in fact, confirmed the fact of the presence of lines in Nazca. Archaeologists got the opportunity to closely study such unique creations only in 1946. But this was not a targeted state or research program with appropriate funding, but separate expeditions of enthusiastic scientists.

It turned out that the Nazca lines and shallow trenches were made by our distant ancestors or alien entities by removing the surface of the clay soil layer rich in iron oxide. Gravel has been almost completely removed from the Nazca line section, and light-colored soil is under it. As a result, the Nazca lines became so catchy and at the same time durable.

The light soil of the local lands surrounding the drawings on the Nazca plateau boasts a high lime content. When exposed to air, it hardens almost instantly and forms a durable protective layer that is excellent at preventing erosion. For this reason, the mysterious Nazca lines have been preserved in their original form for thousands of years, at least that is the opinion of researchers. The durability of the Nazca lines was also facilitated by the absence of winds, as such, precipitation and stable air temperature. If the climate were different, then these drawings would have disappeared from the face of the earth long before they were discovered.

However, they exist, and their presence has puzzled more than one generation of researchers, archaeologists, and just scientists from all over the world. Official science, which has long formed its attitude to the Nazca lines, claims that all these geoglyphs, lines and drawings were created during the Nazca civilization. This ancient empire existed, as expected, from 300 BC to 800 AD. A significant part of scientists agrees that most of the drawings were created during this period of 1100 years. It is believed that the Nazca civilization had a very developed culture, the golden age of which falls on 100-200 AD.

The Nazca plateau and its mystical civilization.

The Nazca civilization sank into oblivion, presumably at the end of the 8th century. The reason for this allegedly became the floods that the Nazca plateau faced towards the end of the first millennium. The waters flooded and destroyed the agricultural lands of the ancient people. Some people died of starvation, the rest were forced to leave the unfavorable land. A few centuries later, the Nazca plateau was settled by the Incas. However, it was already a completely different, and even a different culture, the customs of which certainly did not include drawing giant lines on the ground.

Well, let's say the ancient people Nazca plateau really created mysterious creations on this earth, but why were they created, and most importantly, how could the natives make trenches several kilometers long on rough terrain. Even using modern techniques and devices, it is extremely difficult to draw an ideal straight line on the ground with a length of, say, 5-8 kilometers.

In accordance with the theory of scientists, all this was done by them once or twice. For some centuries, the Nazca plateau has turned from a lifeless valley into the most bizarre and richest territory in geoglyphs on the whole Earth. The first settlers crossed ravines and hills, but at the same time their geometric lines, Nazca geoglyphs, remained perfectly correct, and the edges were strictly parallel, which seems incredible. In addition to stripes and trenches in the Nazca plateau, unknown craftsmen also created figures of various animals. From the air, they are seen, albeit bizarrely, but easily recognizable. Again, how the first people in these lands managed to depict, say, hummingbirds with such accuracy is categorically unclear.

The mentioned hummingbird, by the way, like many Nazca, reaches fifty meters in length. Another drawing bird, the condor, is 120 meters long. And the spider, similar to its relatives living in the Amazon jungle, boasts 46 meters in length. It is noteworthy that all these masterpieces of the Nazca plateau can only be seen by rising high into the air or climbing some mountain, which, unfortunately, is not nearby. From the ground and small hills, these drawings are indistinguishable and are a simple set of lines and trenches. Of course, you can make out individual silhouettes and strokes, however, the full picture is visible only from the air.

Obviously, the civilization that inhabited the Nazca plateau did not have any aircraft. Neither balloons, nor airplanes, let alone rockets, existed in prehistoric times. So how could they recreate their drawings with such accuracy, without being able to evaluate the work done and find flaws in order to correct them?! This remains as much a mystery as the functionality of the Nazca images. Why were they created? Is it really just for the sake of aesthetic beauty, or maybe for some religious purposes? A question, a question, and another unanswered question.

It is generally difficult for a modern person to understand the logic of distant ancestors. We do not understand people who lived a hundred years ago, where are we to understand the motives of those who lived thousands, two thousand years ago. Is it possible that all the lines and images of the Nazca plateau do not have any practical component at all? The ancient people created them to show that they are capable of this. But why was it necessary to spend so much time and energy on self-assertion?! Wouldn't it be easier to unleash another war, in ancient times it seemed to be a much more common practice?!

Nazca drawings and related theories.

Scientists who are confident that a person is behind the creation of mysterious drawings on the territory of the plateau are no less than those who believe that Nazca drawings were created by an alien race. In their opinion, all the images and lines on the plateau are nothing more than runways. The version involving Peru, the Nazca plateau, of course, has the right to life, it remains unclear why the alien spacecraft did not have a vertical take-off, or why create runways in the bizarre form of terrestrial animals? If you really wanted to stand out in this way, why not make a couple of drawings of Nazca in the form of fauna living in your world? However, it is better not to focus on this, because theories and conjectures regarding the motives of alien creators seem even more illusory than the motivation of the first people.

It is better to pay attention to this: Nazca drawings in the form of animals, birds and insects were created much earlier than simple triangles and other geometric shapes. This is not a confirmed fact, the theory is still under development, however, even now most scientists agree that this is so, the complex drawings of Nazca were created before simple images and trenches. Be that as it may, a simple conclusion suggests itself: did the unknown masters first make more complex forms, obviously created in several stages, and only then other people began to practice drawing straight lines and trapezoids. Or maybe for the long centuries it took to create the drawings for which the desert is famous Nazca on the map, masters ancient civilization lost technology or simply forgot how to create complex images? All these are regular questions, the answers to which we, apparently, will receive very, very soon, if at all someday.

At the same time, there are isolated figures in the scientific community who believe that all the Nazca drawings were made in the same period. But what scholars agree on is the idea that individual members of the ancient Nazca people had knowledge of astronomy.

For example, Maria Reiche (1903-1998), a German mathematician and archaeologist who has been studying mysterious lines for almost 50 years, once claimed that the Nazca drawing in the form of a huge spider is very reminiscent of the star cluster in the constellation Orion. Three straight lines lead to the figure, they supposedly served to track the change in declinations of the three brightest stars in Orion's Belt: Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

There is another very entertaining theory involving the Nazca figures. Archaeologist Johan Reinhard, who is an American by birth, believes that the lines and figures of animals were part of religious rites, or at least were built for some religious purposes. The figures of animals, insects and birds were supposedly associated with the worship of the gods. With the help of Nazca drawings, people asked the celestials for water to irrigate their lands. It is not entirely clear how exactly this ceremony took place, but it doesn’t matter if it even took place at all? It is obvious that the ancient people were novices of the pagan faith and, as in any such religion, the cult of the gods occupies a central place not only in religion, but also in the daily life of people. It is likely that the Nazca civilization really carried out some rituals to worship their deities, but it is almost impossible to prove this.

Today, the attention of researchers from all over the world is focused not on the Nazca drawings and not even on the mysteries surrounding them. While people are guessing and guessing, a serious environmental threat looms over the plateau. Deforestation, pollution of the surrounding atmosphere do not change for the better the balanced and almost unchanged climate of the plain. The Nazca Plate is facing problems: it rains more and more often, landslides and other misfortunes occur, one way or another affecting the integrity of the images. This is a very serious threat, and if nothing is done in the next 5-10 years, or maybe less, the Nazca drawings will be lost forever, and then there is no doubt that the answers to the questions posed by the research community will never be received. We will certainly never know who and why created this, without exaggeration, a wonderful and unique phenomenon.

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 included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. 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, two of our colleagues left for South America - 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 an ordinary bus stop), we made an impromptu fishing rod, with which Dima fished out our keys through the broken glass on the first attempt. 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, according to which we hoped to quickly find her. 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 short rest at the hotel to 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!

,
and also obtained using Google Earth

The versions and classifications expressed in the book by A. Belokon “The Nazca Desert. Traces of a different mind” and in the LAI film “Nasca – Beyond Logic” from the series “Forbidden Themes of History”.

I. Lines

So, if you try to delve into the issue, the first thing you encounter is a huge number of theories based on rather modest factual material. Yes, and when you see a diagram of lines and drawings of the most famous part of the Nazca desert, for example, this one:

at best, it does not add clarity.

I decided to take an interest in the topic and somehow imperceptibly got involved in a small study, the results of which I post here. There will be no revolutionary classifications and theories, just a slight shift in emphasis based on the actual material from Google Earth and, in my opinion, logical interpretations are offered.

The first thing I did was, according to the established tradition, I left the found, or rather flown, tourist routes and decided to take an interest in the surroundings (with the help of Google, of course). The results are simply stunning! If the literature mentions a section of the Earth's surface 70 by 15 km, then in fact the lines are visible on almost the entire coastal strip, up to the city of Trujillo, which is 900 km to the north. With markers on the map, I marked places where the lines were obvious.

For example, well-preserved lines near the town of Casma, 650 km north of Nazca.

It is quite possible that there were a lot of lines along the entire coast, and the safety of the Nazca lines is only the uniqueness of the natural conditions, plus the heroism of the tireless explorer Maria Reiche, largely due to which the whole place (Nazca plateau is now a reserve) remained in good condition.

On the periphery, the density of lines is much less, there is less chaos in them, and while I adapted to find them, some patterns became clear.

The first (well-known) is that the ancient lines are almost always perfectly straight for hundreds of meters, and sometimes even kilometers (it is very easy to check with a ruler), they have a characteristic edging on the sides, they often ignore the relief and there is always a feeling that they were made from exactly the place Where do you google them from?

Human footprints are either obviously modern (mostly car tracks) or “walk” depending on the terrain. And besides, people often use lines for their own purposes:

The second and most important pattern is ATTACHMENT TO RELIEF, and not just to relief, but to changes in relief - river valleys, desert junctions with mountains, plateau edges, flat tops of hills, etc.

The marks are well-preserved lines. The binding to the river valleys and foothills is very clearly visible. The little blue squares in the center are just that hyped place with a twist of lines and drawings.

Detailed plan-scheme of the Palpa region.

Plot of the same in 3D.

Below I give examples of the most characteristic places where lines meet (for a while, let's forget about the plateau with its chaos of lines and patterns and try to find elementary algorithms using simple examples).

Foothills-mountains:

near Lima (360 km from Nazca)

Hill with "astronaut":

Hill Crests:

Close to Lima:

River valleys:

By itself, the following classification of lines was formed.

SCAN LINES - thin long lines, straight lines, zigzags, etc. They also made drawings.

PASSING LINES - long thin strips of the same thickness or expanding.

MAIN STRIPS - wide, up to a hundred meters, rectangular or expanding strips, in which the length is commensurate with the width.

The classification is not rigid; a short and thick passing line can be called a long and thin main strip, etc.

Very often, through lines are joined with the main ones and a line with “variable geometry” is obtained. The joints are almost everywhere clearly visible and are sometimes marked by characteristic dots-clumps.

There is another distinct class of bands, but more on that later.

Another interesting pattern was also found. I call it the height rule. Almost all stripes of unequal width expand with decreasing height. The rule is not absolute if, say, the height difference is small. Sometimes there are groups of bands with an inverse relationship, for example, like this:

And in general, it seems that the change in the width of the strip does not depend on the height, but on another factor.

So, I announce the working version.

Something that interested the ancients was washed away from the mountains either by a cataclysm or by rains and rivers and settled in the river valleys and on the plateau. It could be anything - rare earths, precious metals, building materials for megaliths, orichalcum, quantum fluids, etc. Let's call it "ore" for now. And the Nazca plateau, and, it seems, the entire western Peruvian coast was a large development of this ore deposit. I deliberately do not touch on the question “how did they do it”, this is a matter of technology, and in my opinion it is very reckless to comment on, say, the operation of a nuclear reactor from the standpoint of a medieval city dweller. Now we are interested in the question “what did they do”.

Consider the main mining algorithms on the Nazca plateau.

Classics of the genre. While we will not pay attention to spirals and patterns, we will leave it for later. So three passes. We select a site, scan, in this case in a zigzag, select the ore with a passing line and get the most delicious in small main stripes. Everything.

I cannot fail to note the following.

A very famous drawing of this figure. We slightly corrected the ends of the passing line (in fact, the scanning line goes far beyond the drawing), called it a whip and voila, the meaning has changed. You can launch the Indians with a tambourine and rejoice at the greatness of science ...

Sorry, got distracted.

More examples.

At the bottom left is a modern road. The same algorithm - only scanned in different ways - longitudinal, radial, and even a little zigzag. And then we went through the main ones. They even left bunches of dots.

And yet, in the schemes.

It is very possible that the spirals are some kind of calibration, or a special way of scanning.

In large areas, straight scanning lines several kilometers long were used.

Five ways of scanning are very clearly visible:

Let's make a preliminary conclusion.

Everywhere there is one regularity - first scanning, on top of them are walk-throughs, and they cover all the main ones. It can be assumed that the walkers scanned deeply, took samples and mined. The main strips were intensively developed.

The next example is very important.

The algorithm is the same, but the work is in two stages, between which there seems to be a large period of time. Either the resource is renewable, or, more likely, the evolution of technology (they began to work with poorer ore). Here comes the 4th class of bands. There are few of them. They are wide (up to a hundred meters), rectangular, with characteristic points and always go across and over the main ones. I called them technological.

The rule of heights (expansion of lines with a decrease in height) is more likely not related to height, but to the enrichment of the ore (flowing down, the flow expands), but somewhere it does not work.

The question arises. And why don't they just remove the entire upper part of the earth and drive it into processing, as they would do it now?

They probably had a different view of ecology. Another level. Only people who are very careful about the environment could lay over streams, rocks and stones with polygonal masonry. And, despite the fact that they cut the rocks as they wanted and moved the megaliths like wooden cubes, it seems that they did not tear down mountains, did not turn rivers, but simply carefully modified the places where they lived and did something.

Nevertheless, there are examples of intensive processing.

The next place is 800 km north. And if it weren’t for a line of dots-heaps, stretching for almost 4 km, regardless of the relief, one would think that this is a modern activity.

There are many more details (regarding the lines themselves) that I would like to pay attention to.

But this is all related to technology and requires a more detailed and qualified approach. We're moving on to the second part.

II. Drawings

So, drawings.

In a completely natural way, all images that do not belong to lines are decomposed into three groups.

Actually drawings - drawings of animals, plants and various kinds of spirals.

Enlarged petroglyphs - anthropomorphic, and images similar to them.

Blueprints. All kinds of strange drawings, circles, groups of dots, etc.

Let's consider the first group. Let's remember that drawings are creativity, and a subjective assessment is inevitable here. There is always an author, the meaning that he puts, a tool and a carrier. Everything is clear with the carrier, but we will try to explain the first three positions. And for the sake of clarity of perception, I suggest for a while to forget about the size of the drawings, the time of creation, theories, etc., and perceive them as they look right here on the monitor screen.

The drawings have three main features. Actually, all this has been known for a long time, but I consider it necessary to repeat myself and place the necessary accents.

First. The general style, one manner of drawing, everything is done in one line. According to M. Reiche, there is an unusual, mathematically precise alignment of the lines here. Now it is called elements of computer graphics.

Let's note one more subtlety. If, say, ancient Egyptian drawings-drawings exude arrogance and grandeur, Mayan images give off otherworldly nightmares, then in the Nazca drawings there is, on the one hand, lightness and simplicity, as in graffiti on concrete fences, and on the other hand, designer grace.

The second feature. Correlating all patterns and spirals with lines or line directions

Third. The attitude of the creators of the bands to the drawings. Very often, the drawings are superimposed on the stripes and vice versa, and sometimes the main stripes completely cover them.

It can be added, and now practically no one doubts that they were intended for the viewer from the air, and from a considerable height.

The second group is enlarged petroglyphs.

Nazca drawings. South America, Peru

Nazca drawings, spider

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, two of our colleagues left for South America - 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, the ancient city of the Inca civilization of Machu Picchu and stone idols on Easter Island. Now we bring to your attention shootings from Nazca.

Chasing the Hummingbird

Nazca drawings, parrot and astronaut

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, there was no one on the observation deck: no tourists, no watchman. It is logical to assume that at 6 in the morning there should not have been anyone there either. Naive...

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.

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

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.

Nazca drawings, monkey

Nazca drawings, whale

Nazca drawings, bird of paradise

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.

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

Nazca drawings, hummingbird

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 ...

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!

home » Vietnam » Drawings in the Nazca desert. Nazca lines in Peru: mysterious geoglyphs in the desert. Herman E. Bossi - The Nazca Code