Huge drawings on the surface of the earth. Nazca and Palpa lines and geoglyphs

The drawings of the Nazca desert are simply amazing! Their lines stretch from horizon to horizon, occasionally converging or intersecting; One involuntarily gets the impression that this is a runway for ancient aircraft. Here you can clearly distinguish flying birds, spiders, monkeys, fish, lizards...
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"Many centuries before the Incas, south coast Peru was created historical monument, unparalleled in the world and intended for posterity. In terms of size and precision, it is not inferior to Egyptian pyramids. But if there we look, raising our heads, at monumental three-dimensional structures of simple geometric shape, then here, on the contrary, we have to look from a great height at wide open spaces, covered with mysterious hieroglyphs, as if drawn on the plain by a giant hand." With these words begins the book of the Nazca desert explorer Maria Reiche. "The Secret of the Desert." Mathematician and astronomer Maria Reiche specially moved from Germany to Peru to study the mysterious drawings. Perhaps she is the main explorer and guardian of the desert plateau, where, thanks to her efforts, a protected area was created, Reiche was the first to draw up maps and plans of all lines, sites and drawings.

The giant drawings scattered between abstract figures and spirals, the size of which reaches tens and sometimes hundreds of meters, are extremely impressive. Of all the animals greatest number- birds. Fantastic and quite reliably drawn, a total of 18 birds are depicted in the desert. But there are also completely mysterious animals, such as a dog-like creature with thin legs and a long tail. There are also images of people, although they are drawn less expressively. Among the images of people there is a bird-man with the head of an owl; the size of this picture is more than 30 meters. And the size of the so-called “big lizard” is 110 meters!

The desert area is approximately 500 square kilometers. The surface of the soil here is surprising in that it is covered with a kind of engraving that resembles a tattoo. This “tattoo” on the surface of the desert is not deep, but huge in size, lines and figures. There are 13,000 lines, more than 100 spirals, over 700 geometric areas (trapezoids and triangles) and 788 figures depicting animals and birds. This "engraving" of the earth stretches approximately 100 kilometers deep in a winding ribbon, the width of which is from 8 to 15 kilometers. These drawings were discovered thanks to photographs taken from an airplane. From a bird's eye view, it can be seen that the figures were created by removing brown stones from the light sandy subsoil, covered with a thin black layer of the so-called “desert tan”, which is formed by manganese and iron oxides.

The figures and lines are perfectly preserved due to the arid climate of the area. A wooden marker stake driven into the ground, found in the desert, was carefully studied and radiocarbon dated, which showed that the tree was cut down in 526 AD. Official science believes that all these figures were created by one of the Indian cultures of the pre-Incan period, which existed in the south of Peru and whose heyday occurred in 300-900. AD The technique for executing the lines of these huge “drawings” is very simple. As soon as you remove the top layer of dark crushed stone, which has darkened over time, from the lighter lower layer, a contrasting strip appears. The ancient Indians first made a sketch of the future drawing measuring 2 by 2 meters on the ground. Such sketches have been preserved close to some of the figures. In the sketch, each straight line was divided into its component segments. Then, on an enlarged scale, the sections were transferred to the surface using stakes and a wooden rope. With curved lines it was much more difficult, but the ancients coped with this too, breaking each curve into many short arcs. It must be said that each drawing is outlined by only one continuous line. And perhaps greatest mystery Nazca drawings is that their creators never saw and could not see them in their entirety.

The question is completely logical: for whom did the ancient Indians do such titanic work? Paul Kosok, a researcher of these drawings, estimates that it took more than 100,000 years of working days to create the complex of Nazca figures by hand. Even if this working day lasted 12 hours. Paul Kosok suggested that these lines and drawings are nothing more than a giant calendar that accurately shows the changing seasons. Maria Reiche tested Kosok's assumption and collected irrefutable evidence that the drawings are associated with the summer and winter solstices. The beak of a fantastic bird, with a neck 100 meters long, is located at the point of sunrise during the winter solstice.

Some scientists put forward the version that the drawings had exclusively cult significance, but such a version is quite doubtful, because a religious building must certainly influence people, and huge drawings on the ground are not perceived at all. Hungarian cartographer Zoltan Selke believes that the Nazca sites are just a 1:16 scale map of the Lake Titicaca area. After exploring the desert for several years, he found a lot of evidence that fully confirmed his hypothesis. In that case, who was this super-giant map intended for? The mystery of the Nazca paintings remains unsolved.

VEDIC SECRETS OF THE NAZCA DESERT

The first incomprehensible lines on Nazca were discovered in 1927 by Peruvian archaeologist Mejia Xesspe, when he accidentally glanced from a steep mountainside onto a plateau. By 1940, he had discovered several more incredible ancient signs and published his first sensational article. June 22, 1941 (the day the Great Patriotic War began) Patriotic War!!!) American historian Paul Kosok took a light plane into the air and discovered a giant stylized bird, the wingspan of which exceeded 200 meters, and next to it something resembling a landing strip. Then he discovered a giant spider, a monkey with a strangely coiled tail, a whale, and finally, on a gentle mountain slope, a 30-meter tall figure of a man with his hand raised in greeting. Thus, perhaps the most mysterious “picture book in the history of mankind” was discovered.
Over the next sixty years, Nazca was studied quite well. The number of discovered drawings has long exceeded several hundred, and the vast majority of them are made up of various geometric shapes. Some lines reach a length of up to 23 kilometers.
And today the solution to the mystery is no closer. What versions and hypotheses have not been put forward during this time! They tried to present the drawings as some kind of gigantic ancient calendar, but no mathematical justification was ever presented to the scientific world.
One of the hypotheses identified the drawings as some kind of designations of zones of influence of Indian clans. But the plateau was never inhabited, and who could deal with these “ger-
bami clans”, when they are only visible from a bird’s eye view?
There is a version that the images of Nazca are nothing more than an alien airfield. There are no words, a number of stripes are indeed incredibly reminiscent of modern runways and landing strips, but where is there any evidence of alien intervention? Others claim that Nazca are signals from alien intelligence.
Recently, voices have begun to be heard that Nazca is generally the brainchild of someone’s falsification. But then a whole army of counterfeiters had to work hard for decades to produce the most gigantic counterfeit in the history of mankind. How could they keep the secret in this case and why, in the end, did they become so disfigured?
The most conservative part of scientists insists that all the variety of drawings and figures was dedicated to a certain god of water: “probably! represented a kind of sacrifice to the ancestors or gods of the sky and mountains, who sent people the water so necessary for irrigating the fields.” But why was it necessary to turn to the god of water in such a remote place, where permanent residence, there was never any agriculture or cultivated fields? The rain that spilled on Nazca was of no particular benefit to the ancient Peruvians.
There is an opinion that ancient Indian athletes once ran along giant ancient lines, that is, some ancient South American Olympics were held on Nazca. Let's say that athletes could run in straight lines, but how could they run in spirals and in the pattern of, for example, monkeys?
There were publications that huge trapezoidal areas were created for the sake of certain mass ceremonies, during which sacrifices were made to the gods and mass celebrations took place. But then why did archaeologists searching all the surrounding areas not find a single confirmation of this artifact? In addition, some of the giant trapezoids are located on mountain peaks, which are not so easy for a professional climber to climb.
There is even a completely absurd version that all the gigantic work was carried out solely for the purpose of a kind of occupational therapy, in order to at least do something to occupy the idle ancient Peruvians... They claim that all the images of Nazca are nothing more than a giant loom of the ancient Peruvians, who they laid out their threads along the lines, since in the pre-Columbian era the Americans did not know the wheel and did not have a spinning wheel... It was even argued that the Nazca drawings were a huge encrypted map of the world. Alas, no one has yet undertaken to decipher it.
The most cautious part of historians defines Nazca drawings and lines as certain “paths that had sacred significance along which ritual processions were carried out.” But then again, who could see these trails from the ground?
Until now, scientists have not come to an agreement on how the Nazca drawings were created, because the production of images of such a huge scale represents a huge technical difficulty even today. Only the technology for direct creation of stripes has been more or less accurately established. It was quite simple: the surface layer of stones was removed from the ground, under which the ground had a lighter color. However, the creators of the drawings had to first create sketches of future giant images on a small scale and only then transfer them to the area. How they managed to maintain the accuracy and correctness of all the lines is a mystery! To do this, at a minimum, they had to have at hand the entire arsenal of modern geodetic equipment, not to mention the most advanced mathematical knowledge. By the way, today's experimenters were only able to repeat the creation of straight lines, but were powerless in the face of ideal circles and spirals... In addition
This means that images were created not only on flat areas of land. They were applied on very steep slopes and even almost sheer cliffs! But that's not all! In the Nazca region there are the Palpa Mountains, some of which are cut off like a table, as if some monster had gnawed their tops. These giant artificial sections also contain drawings, lines and geometric images.
There is also no unity regarding the time of construction. Nowadays it is customary to divide everything created on the plateau into seven conventional cultures, very spaced in time, from Nazca-1 to Nazca-7. Some archaeologists are inclined to attribute the creation of Nazca paintings to the period of time from 500 AD. to 1200 AD Others categorically object, since the Inca Indians inhabiting this region of Peru do not have even remote legends regarding Nazca, which gives grounds to attribute the time of creation of the images to almost 100,000 BC. They tried to determine the age of the stripes from the remains of fragments of clay shards found nearby. It was believed that ancient builders drank from clay jugs and then sometimes broke them. However, shards from all seven cultures were found everywhere on the same strip and, in the end, this dating attempt was considered unsuccessful.
The scientific study of Nazca today is also hampered by government restrictions. Due to the fact that after the discovery of the drawings, the plateau was subjected to a real invasion of “wild” tourists who drove all over the plateau in cars and motorcycles, spoiling the drawings, now it is strictly forbidden for anyone to appear directly on the Nazca Plateau. Nazca has been declared an archaeological park and taken under state protection, and the fine for unauthorized entry into the park is an astronomical amount - 1 million US dollars. Everyone, however, can admire the giant ancient images from the board of tourist planes that continuously circle above mysterious plateau. But for the real ones scientific research This, you see, is still not enough.
But the mysteries of Nazca do not end there. If on the surface of the plateau there are gigantic drawings that are still incomprehensible to human understanding, then in the depths of the caves there are even more incredible pukios - ancient underground water pipes in granite pipes. There are 29 giant puquios in the Nazca Valley. Today's Indians attribute their creation to the creator god Viracocha, but the canals are the work of human hands. Moreover, one of the canals was laid under the local river Rio de Nazca, so much so that its purest water in no way mixed with the dirty water of the river! From the description of an eyewitness: “Sometimes stone spirals lead deep into the earth, and watercourses have an artificial channel, lined with slabs and smoothly hewn blocks. Sometimes the entrance hole is a deep shaft that goes deep into the earth... Everywhere and everywhere these underground channels are artificial structures...” Pukios is also from the realm of eternal mysteries. Who, when and for what purpose created these gigantic water structures under a deserted plateau? Who used them?

In the capital of the province of Nazca, the town of Ica, lives the owner of the most incredible collection in the world, professor of medicine, Hanviera Cabrera. He has more than two and a half thousand figurines made of unfired clay, which the professor obtains from the local Indians. The figurines depict the ancient inhabitants of Peru next to... dinosaurs and pterodactyls. At the same time, ancient Peruvians performed operations on dinosaurs, flew on pterodactyls and looked into space through a spyglass. The age of the figurines is estimated to be from 50,000 to 100,000 years, and maybe even more. As for the radiocarbon method, it gave very contradictory results. In addition to the figurines, Professor Cabrera's collection contains similar drawings on stones, including ones that depict aircraft in the starry sky. Moreover, Professor Cabrera’s collection is no exception. The famous Mexican collection of Acambaro also contains dinosaurs, including flying ones. The same is true in the Ecuadorian collection of Father Crecy. In addition, there is also the collection of Russell Burrows, who found sculptures with strikingly similar subjects in caves in Illinois. The same thing was found not long ago in Japan. Falsification in in this case impossible even theoretically! Well, and finally, the most scandalous discovery on the Paluxy River in the US state of Texas, where archaeologists discovered dinosaur bones and fossilized human traces in the same rock! This means that people already lived in the era of dinosaurs, or, conversely, dinosaurs lived in the era of people! But both of these completely change our ideas about the beginning of the human era, and therefore one can imagine how much irritation, misunderstanding and simply outright opposition these findings cause among the elite of the scientific world, who made a name for themselves on those hypotheses that are now completely crossed out by the findings of recent years!
And how can one not recall here the seemingly absurd assumptions of the Crimean academician A.V. Gokh, who says that it is necessary to create huge amount The protein repeaters of the Crimean pyramids were obtained from huge dinosaur eggs. It should be admitted that the statements of the Crimean academician now look not so groundless.
Now, I think, the time has come to present to readers the hypothesis of the Emil Bagirov Institute regarding the giant geoglyphs in the Nazca desert. However, first two more facts.
First. Quite recently, through the works of the German researcher Erich von Däniken (known to us from the sensational journalistic film “Remembrance of the Future”), a giant... classic MANDALA was discovered in Nazca! Yes Yes! The same sacred mandapa with which today's Tibetans and Hindus designate the pictures they contemplate during meditation! The same mandala that was once the sacred sign of the Aryans and one of the main Vedic symbols. Coincidence? No way!
Second. Ancient texts of the Old World everywhere tell about certain flying machines, and machines of completely earthly origin.
For example, in the “Book of the Greatness of Kings” the flights of King Solomon are described in detail: “The king and all who obeyed his commands flew in a chariot, knowing neither illness, nor sorrow, nor hunger, nor thirst, nor fatigue, and at the same time everything in one day they traveled a journey of three months... He (Solomon) gave her all sorts of wonders and treasures that one could wish for and a chariot that moves through the air and which he created according to the wisdom given to him by God...
And the inhabitants of the Egyptian country told them: in ancient times the Ethiopians visited here; they rode on a chariot like an angel, and at the same time flew faster than an eagle in the sky.” No less indicative are quotes from the famous “Mahatbharata”: “l/i then the king (Rumanvat) with his servants and harem, with his wives and nobles entered the heavenly chariot. They flew over the entire expanse of the sky, following the direction of the wind. The heavenly chariot flew around the entire earth, (flying) over the oceans, and headed towards the city of Avantis, where the holiday was just taking place. After a short stop, the king rose into the air again in front of countless onlookers, who were amazed at the sight of the heavenly chariot.”
Or here’s another: “Arjuna, the terror of his enemies, wished that Indra would send his heavenly chariot after him. And then, in a blaze of light, a chariot suddenly appeared, illuminating the gloom of the air and illuminating the clouds around, and all the surroundings were filled with a roar similar to peals of thunder...”
So, all Indian sources claim that the ancient Aryan civilization airships - vimanas. We find echoes of these unusual means of transportation in the legends of the peoples of the Aryan area, for example, the famous Russian fairy tales about a flying ship and so on. But for the vimanas to take off and land, they needed runways and landing strips. Are there traces of them in the Old World? As it turns out, there is! At the present time, at least three are already known: one in England, the second on the Ustyurt plateau near the Aral Sea and the third in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, similar giant geoglyphs were found everywhere, as in Nazca, although in smaller quantities. And this despite the fact that no targeted searches for ancient airports have ever been carried out anywhere.
So what can we assume? After destruction Tower of Babel, that is, after the collapse of the single ancient Vedic faith into several concessions, the vigorous migration of Aryan tribes began, and with it the export of Vedic religion and knowledge. Of course, the main settlement of the Aryans was by land. It spread throughout Eurasia, where the Vedic influence is felt everywhere to this day. However, most likely, some of the Aryans also used mysterious vimanas, which, as we already know, had a long flight range and could fly across oceans. It was then, most likely, that the heroic throw across Africa and the Atlantic to South America followed. But why was the landing made on Nazca? It can be assumed that for some time this area attracted the Aryans because the Nazca region is rich in deposits of iron and copper ore, gold and silver. Let us also pay attention to the fact that it is in the Nazca region that very ancient abandoned mines for the extraction of all these metals were discovered.
Apparently, for some time the Aryans from the vimanas that arrived lived in these places. They brought the local residents into obedience, organized the mining of metals, introduced and spread among the ancient Peruvians the cult of the Great Goddess-First Mother, the Most Bright Sun-Horsa, the immortality of the soul and rebirth. It was then that runways and geometric signs were built, allowing vimanas to be aimed at them correctly, and underground conduits making it easier to provide water. It seems that the vimanas actively carried out the export of mined metals to Egypt or some other countries that were in the area of ​​​​the then Aryan influence. It is possible that for short flights the Aryans also used tamed local pterodactyls, which was recorded in the ancient clay figurines Peru. Apparently there was such an experience. Suffice it to recall the same “Avesta” and “Rigveda”, numerous European-Aryan mythologies, where heroes very often use flying lizards as a completely suitable means of transportation. The same Russian heroes, for example, on occasion willingly used the legendary Serpent Gorynych for this purpose...
However, the time has come and the Aryans who settled on Nazca, having completed their mission, forever left the place, which was not very suitable for permanent residence, leaving the local residents with Vedic cults, knowledge of crafts and the firm belief that the departed people-gods will one day definitely return. It was then, apparently, that the intensive creation of many drawings began, so that the people-gods flying in the skies past Nazca would see that they were still waiting for them here, as, indeed, in other places in America, where similar geoglyphs have now been found. At the same time, they drew what, in the opinion of the Indians, those who flew away liked most, what once surprised and amused them: unusual monkeys, hummingbirds, whales, iguanas.
Fortunately, the Aryans left the secrets of the technology for creating grandiose images to the local residents. That is why, among other drawings, the Indians placed a grandiose mandala - the sacred Vedic sign of the Aryans, quite logically assuming that seeing it, the people-gods would definitely return to this land, where they were so loved and so faithfully awaited. But, alas, none of the gods returned.

Centuries and millennia passed. The foundations of the Vedic faith, once laid here by Aryan priests, over time became intricately intertwined with local cults. However, the pyramids, the cult of the Sun, and many priestly rituals today are strikingly reminiscent of their Vedic foundations. All this time, the Indians patiently waited for the fair-haired, bearded people-gods carrying great faith and great knowledge. The time has come and bearded men clad in iron really came from the west, but instead of the long-awaited benefits they brought destruction and death. However, this is a completely different story...

What are Nazca paintings?

The giant images on the Nazca Plain in Peru (South America) are the mystical sights of planet Earth. They look like lines on the earth's surface with an area of ​​approximately 500 square meters. m, which are made in the form of recesses. The elm has approximate dimensions of 140x50 cm, its color turns white on a dark rock surface.

At close range it is noticeable: this shade of “scratches” was obtained by cleaning tons of volcanic rock. As a result, the desert base was exposed - a sandy clay base with a yellowish tint. Surprisingly Nazca drawings have smooth and continuous contours, regardless of the landscape they pass through - hilly or flat.

At the same time, many geoglyphs are drawn with lines, over 10 thousand of which are stripes, more than 700 are geometric textures in the form of trapezoids, triangles and spirals, up to 30 are frontispieces of birds and animals, insects, etc.

History of drawings

The first mention of geoglyphs appeared in 1553 in the book of Pedro de Cieza de Leon (Spanish historian). I saw the part first drawings in the Nazca desert archaeologist from Peru Mejia Xessle, who stood on the slope of a mountain one day in 1927.

Discover all the mysterious patterns and install Nazca drawing coordinates It was succeeded only in 1939 by the American archaeologist Paul Kosok, who was flying over the plateau. Since in the desert they look like ordinary depressions, being on the ground, they cannot be seen, but from above the outlines of all the figures are clearly visible.

The history of the drawings seems obvious. They were made in Southern Peru by local people who, for several centuries, decorated desert areas along the coast. The ancient Peruvians painted mysterious signs on the ground using the same method as the ancient Indians, using as a “canvas” dark shade soil.

But to the question: “Why?” no answer has been found yet. Scientists have also not yet established the exact age of the images. Local residents claim that the drawings were made by demigods - Viracochas. They say that they imprinted their presence in the Andes mountain range many thousands of years ago.

But scientists have already proven that everything drawings on the Nazca plateau were done at different time periods. The most ancient ones appeared in the 6th century. BC, the youngest are considered to be those painted in the 1st century. AD

Location and size of drawings

Geoglyphs are scattered throughout the Nazca rock desert between the cities of Nazca and Palpa. A significant number of them are located above the dry land of the Ingenio River. These ancient drawings are illustrated by another mystical drawing in the form of a giant trident, which was carved into a cliff near the town of Paracas.

Among the giant images there are no figures of Homo sapiens or anything related to him. The largest by unknown artists were: a spider with a length of 46 m, a hummingbird with a length of 50 m, a monkey with a length of 55 m, a condor with its wings spread over 120 m, a lizard with a length of 188 m, and a pelican with a length of 285 m.

Almost all images have huge parameters and are made with a continuous border. Lines stretching to the horizon intersect and overlap each other, forming mysterious drawings by their combination. Because of this Nazca desert took on the features of a huge drawing board.

Scientists' assumptions about Nazca drawings

The mystery of the appearance of the images has not yet been studied. Scientists have come up with many versions and hypotheses concerning, among other things, the answer to who and when completed the Nazca drawings. Some researchers believe that the drawings appeared in 750-100 BC. during the heyday of the Paracas Culture.

Others argue that the images were executed between the 2nd century. BC. and VI century. AD, when the Nazca Civilization ruled in this area. The third group of experts is inclined to believe that the geoglyphs were placed on the plateau in the 11th – 16th centuries. during the Inca Empire. The fourth has its own point of view: the drawings were “painted” by extraterrestrial beings in the period 12960 – 10450 BC.

As a result, various assumptions arose about the origin of geoglyphs.

— These drawings were considered ritual, therefore they were used in ancient times in occult ceremonies.

— Geoglyphs - a gigantic astronomical calendar: displayed Nazca drawings on the map very reminiscent of the month book.

“They helped the ancient inhabitants of Nazca contact the deity Viracocha.

— The outlines are airfield runways.

— The Nazca Plateau served as a spaceport for takeoff and landing of interplanetary rockets.

— Images – fires on the original platform for balloons.

— Geoglyphs appeared as a result of the energetic influence of UFOs.

— Photos of Nazca drawings shows that they are a map of the astral sky placed on the earth’s surface, and the figure of the spider is the coordinate system of a gigantic stellar concentration in the constellation Orion.

— The image entitled contains information about the star HD42807 in the constellation Orion.

— Figures related to flora and fauna are drawn as a reminder of the Flood.

— Outlines and images are the most ancient Zodiac.

— The outlines speak of the worship of the deity of the Mountain. For the ritual, the Indians took plants that caused hallucinations and carried out “witch doctor flights” over the valley.

— Drawings are an indispensable attribute of ceremonial dances in honor of the cult of Water, and straight lines denoted the water supply and sewerage systems.

— Nazca geometry is a theory of numbers and measurements, a cipher with the encoded number “pi”.

– Geoglyphs represent ancestral signs with which different families marked the territories they captured.

– Figures and images on the plateau – a gigantic map of the well system, which is placed along the outlines of the mysterious drawings.

Among scientists there are also those who believe: the answer to those located in Peru Nazca drawings lies in the giant geoglyph “Trident of El Candelabro” (its parameters are 128X74 m), known under the pseudonym “Candelabra”. It is located on a rock in Pisco Bay on Cape Paracas at an altitude of 150 meters, and can only be seen from the sea.

It is worth drawing an imaginary line from the middle prong of the “Candelabra” and making sure that it points to the Nazca Plateau. Experts believe that the Paracas Candelabra symbolizes Atlantis and contains important information about Mother Earth.

Based on numerous expeditions to Peru, some scientists have the impression that the Nazca Plateau was created by a petrified mudflow in the form of “tongues” descending from the peaks.

Moreover, the “tongues” froze between the cliffs already on the return path of the tsunami that happened in Pacific Ocean. This is also evidenced by the flora and fauna found in the high-mountain Lake Titicaca (4 km above the sea line), which live in the salt water of the sea, and not in a freshwater reservoir.

Today I decided to add material about the mysterious drawings for which he is famous Nazca desert(Peru). If someone has never heard or seen, then it’s time to catch up. The lines of the figures stretch from horizon to horizon, occasionally converging or intersecting; One involuntarily gets the impression that this is a runway for ancient aircraft. Here you can clearly distinguish flying birds, spiders, monkeys, fish, lizards...

Nazca Desert in Peru: mysterious geoglyphs

Nazca is a desert in Peru, surrounded by low spurs of the Andes and bare and lifeless hills of dense dark sand. This is located between the valleys of the Nazca and Ingenio rivers, 450 kilometers south of the Peruvian city of Lima.

“Many centuries before the Incas, a historical monument was created on the southern coast of Peru, unparalleled in the world and intended for posterity. In terms of size and precision, it is not inferior to the Egyptian pyramids.

But if there we look, raising our heads, at monumental three-dimensional structures of simple geometric shapes, then here, on the contrary, we have to look from a great height at wide open spaces covered with mysterious hieroglyphs, as if drawn on the plain by a giant hand.” The book “The Secret of the Desert” by Nazca desert explorer Maria Reiche begins with these words.

Mathematician and astronomer Maria Reiche specially moved from Germany to Peru to study the mysterious drawings. Perhaps she is the main researcher and guardian of the desert plateau, where, thanks to her efforts, a protected area was created. Reiche was the first to draw up maps and plans of all lines, sites and drawings.

Nazca geoglyphs and their history

The giant drawings scattered between abstract figures and spirals, the size of which reaches tens and sometimes hundreds of meters, are extremely impressive. Of all the animals, the largest number are birds. Fantastic and quite reliably drawn, a total of 18 birds are depicted in the desert. But there are also completely mysterious animals, such as a dog-like creature with thin legs and a long tail. There are also images of people, although they are drawn less expressively. Among the images of people there is a bird-man with the head of an owl; the size of this picture is more than 30 meters. And the size of the so-called “big lizard” is 110 meters!

Nazca Desert covers an area of ​​approximately 500 square kilometers. The surface of the soil here is surprising in that it is covered with a kind of engraving that resembles a tattoo. This “tattoo” on the surface of the desert is not deep, but huge in size, lines and figures. There are 13,000 lines, more than 100 spirals, over 700 geometric areas (trapezoids and triangles) and 788 figures depicting animals and birds. This “engraving” of the earth stretches approximately 100 kilometers deep in a winding ribbon, the width of which is from 8 to 15 kilometers. These drawings were discovered thanks to photographs taken from an airplane.

From a bird's eye view, it can be seen that the figures were created by removing brown stones from the light sandy subsoil, covered with a thin black layer of the so-called “desert tan”, which is formed by manganese and iron oxides.


The figures and lines are perfectly preserved due to the arid climate of the area. A wooden marker stake driven into the ground, found in the desert, was carefully studied and radiocarbon dated, which showed that the tree was cut down in 526 AD. Official science believes that all these figures were created by one of the Indian cultures of the pre-Incan period, which existed in the south of Peru and whose heyday occurred in 300-900. AD The technique for executing the lines of these huge “drawings” is very simple. As soon as you remove the top layer of dark crushed stone, which has darkened over time, from the lighter lower layer, a contrasting strip appears. The ancient Indians first made a sketch of the future drawing measuring 2 by 2 meters on the ground. Such sketches have been preserved close to some of the figures. In the sketch, each straight line was divided into its component segments. Then, on an enlarged scale, the sections were transferred to the surface using stakes and a wooden rope. With curved lines it was much more difficult, but the ancients coped with this too, breaking each curve into many short arcs. It must be said that each drawing is outlined by only one continuous line. And perhaps the greatest mystery of the Nazca drawings is that their creators never saw and could not see them in their entirety.

Geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert: versions and assumptions

The question is completely logical: for whom did the ancient Indians do such titanic work? Paul Kosok, a researcher of these drawings, estimates that it took more than 100,000 years of working days to create the complex of Nazca figures by hand. Even if this working day lasted 12 hours. Paul Kosok suggested that these lines and drawings are nothing more than a giant calendar that accurately shows the changing seasons. Maria Reiche tested Kosok's assumption and collected irrefutable evidence that the drawings are associated with the summer and winter solstices. The beak of the fantastic bird, with a neck 100 meters long, is located at the point of sunrise during the winter solstice.

Beneath the Nazca Plateau means a plain located on a hill. This area, as a rule, has a flat or undulating, slightly dissected topography. From other plain spaces of Nazcaseparated by obvious ledges. This is located nature education in Peru, in its southern part, 450 km southeast of Lima, the capital of the country. However, this territory is notable not for its unusual location, but for its Nazca paintings., located 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 activists struggle every day in so far aimless attempts to answer at least some questions regarding the mysterious images.

Nazca is a geoglyphic territory.

The plateau is vast and extends 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 Nazca plate has an elongated shape. 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 in the vast Nazca area lasts from June to September. This is because in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons 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 close location of the ocean, is a rarity for Nazca. There is also virtually no wind. There are no rivers, streams or lakes in the Nazca area and there cannot be such conditions. The presence of water in these lands is signaled only by the numerous channels of the Nazca rivers that dried up a long time ago 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 strong earthquake. But, fortunately, there were few casualties, since the tremors began at noon and people were prepared. A total of 17 people died during the Nazca earthquake. And about 100 thousand people were left homeless. To date, the city of Nazca has been completely rebuilt. Multi-storey buildings were built on its territory, and the center of the city of Nazca is now decorated with a beautiful square.

However, this area is notable not for its city or plain, but for its 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 Nazca, according to which the lines on the plateau were not drawn by man, but by an alien intelligence or some other unknown force.

Stunning drawings in the Nazca desert.

In total, specialists discovered 13 thousand various lines and stripes on the plateau. In science, these drawings have their own name - geoglyphs (geometric figures of 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 varying widths dug in the soil, which is a mixture of sand and clay. Shallow by Nazca standards - this 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: B in some cases it ranges from 150 to 200 meters.

In addition to lines, all sorts of figures were found on the territory of the plateau, well known to every person from geometry - triangles and quadrangles. Some Nazca Desert designs are trapezoidal because they only have two parallel sides. There are about seven hundred such creations of unknown origin on the plateau. There are also figures that resemble 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 not many of them in total, no more than forty.

The figures amaze the imagination with their enormous size, but people are unable to understand their true purpose. Obviously, the answer may lie in the depths of the plain, which means that in order to understand who created the drawings in the Nazca desert and why, it is necessary to begin excavations. The problem is archaeological excavations 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 tells me that it will remain like this for a very, very long time, until the scientific community comes to its senses.

Mysterious Nazca Lines.

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 found himself in these forbidden lands in 1927. He was an archaeologist from Peru, Mejia Toribio Hesspe. He studied the Nazca Lines from the foothills surrounding the plateau.

In 1930, 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, and separate expeditions of enthusiastic scientists.

It turned out that our distant ancestors or alien entities made the Nazca lines and small trenches by removing the surface of a clay soil layer rich in iron oxide. The gravel has been almost completely removed from the Nazca Lines section, and there is soil underneath it light color. As a result, the Nazca lines became so catchy and at the same time durable.

The light-colored soil of the local lands surrounding the paintings on the Nazca plateau boasts a high lime content. In the open air, it hardens almost instantly and forms a durable protective layer that perfectly prevents erosion. For this reason, the mysterious Nazca Lines have been preserved in their original form for thousands of years, at least this is the opinion of researchers. The longevity of the Nazca lines was also facilitated by the absence of winds as such, precipitation and stable air temperatures. If the climate had been different, 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 simply scientists from all over the world. Official science, which has long formed its attitude towards the Nazca lines, claims that all these geoglyphs, lines and drawings were created during the Nazca civilization. This ancient empire is believed to have existed in the period from 300 BC to 800 AD. A significant part of scientists agree 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, whose golden age 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 was allegedly the floods that the Nazca plateau encountered towards the end of the first millennium. The waters flooded and destroyed the agricultural lands of the ancient people. Some people died of hunger, the rest were forced to leave the poor land. A few centuries later, the Nazca plateau was inhabited by the Incas. However, this was already a completely different, and a different culture, whose customs 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 aborigines make trenches several kilometers long on rough terrain. Even using modern techniques and devices, it is extremely difficult to draw an ideal straight line along the ground, say, 5-8 kilometers long.

In accordance with the theory of scientists, they did all this once or twice. Over the course of 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 the stripes and trenches in the Nazca plateau, unknown artists also created figures of various animals. From the air they appear, although bizarre, but easily recognizable. Again, how the first people in these lands managed to depict, say, a hummingbird with such accuracy is categorically unclear.

The mentioned hummingbird, by the way, like many Nazcas, reaches fifty meters in length. Another picture bird, the condor, is 120 meters long. And the spider, similar to its relatives living in the Amazon jungle, boasts a length of 46 meters. 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 patterns are indistinguishable and appear as a simple series of lines and trenches. Of course, you can make out individual silhouettes and strokes, however, the full picture is only visible from the air.

Obviously, the civilization that inhabited the Nazca plateau did not have any aircraft. There were no balloons, no airplanes, much less rockets in prehistoric times. So how could they recreate their drawings with such precision, 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 images of the Nazca Plateau. Why were they created? Is it really just for the sake of aesthetic beauty or maybe for some religious purposes? Question, question and another unanswered question.

It is generally difficult for modern people to understand the logic of their distant ancestors. We don’t understand people who lived a hundred years ago; how can we understand the motives of those who lived thousands, two thousand years ago. It is quite possible that all the lines and images of the Nazca Plateau have no practical component at all? The ancient people created them to show that they were capable of this. But why was it necessary to spend so much effort and time on self-affirmation?! Wouldn’t it be easier to start another war; in ancient times this seemed to be a much more common practice?!

Nazca drawings and related theories.

There are no less scientists who are confident that a person is behind the creation of mysterious drawings on the territory of the plateau 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 spaceships did not have a vertical take-off, or why to create runways in the bizarre shape of earthly animals? If you wanted to stand out in this way, why not make a couple of Nazca drawings in the shape of the fauna that live in your world? However, it is better not to focus on this, because theories and guesses regarding the motives of alien creators seem even more elusive 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 of scientists agree that this is so, complex drawings The Nazcas were created earlier simple images and trenches. Be that as it may, a simple conclusion suggests itself: did 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 over 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 just more questions, the answers to which we, apparently, will not get very, very soon, if ever.

At the same time, there are a few people in the scientific community who believe that all Nazca drawings were made in the same period. But what scientists agree on is the idea that certain representatives of the ancient Nazca people had knowledge of astronomy.

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

There is another very interesting theory involving the Nazca figures. Archaeologist Johan Reinhard, who is American by birth, believes that the lines and figures of the 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 gods. With the help of Nazca drawings, people asked the celestials for water to irrigate their lands. It’s not entirely clear how exactly this ritual took place, but it doesn’t matter; what’s more important is whether it 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 central place not only in religion, but also in people's daily lives. It is likely that the Nazca civilization actually carried out certain rituals to worship its deities, but it is almost impossible to prove this.

Today, the attention of researchers from all over the world is not focused on the Nazca drawings or even on the mysteries surrounding them. While people are speculating and guessing, a serious environmental threat looms over the plateau. Deforestation, pollution surrounding atmosphere change not in better side balanced and practically 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 answers to the questions posed by the research community will never be obtained. We will never know for sure who and why created this, without exaggeration, wonderful and unique phenomenon.

The Nazca culture is considered the successor to the Paracas culture. Here, similar “designs” are used to make fabrics, household items and jewelry. Children, as was customary in Paracas, continued to have their skulls deformed by squeezing the forehead and back of the head. Some adults sometimes had their skulls trepanned, but not in such large numbers as their predecessors.

It is curious that society’s attitude towards these people (or rather, heads) has changed dramatically. Apparently, all the “trepanned” were specially registered. And when they died, their heads were separated from their bodies, and the headless body was placed in the burial with a small pumpkin attached to it! Dangerous (or especially valuable?), apparently, the heads were buried separately, in special caches.

This one would seem strange fact can serve as proof of L.P.’s hypothesis. Girmak about the attempts of ancient Americans to achieve an altered state of consciousness through neurosurgical intervention. People who underwent trepanation became “sorcerers” or clairvoyants and inevitably occupied a special position in society. It is quite obvious that Paracas had excellent surgeons and many clairvoyants. In Nazca, for some reason unknown to us, this tradition is gradually being lost. It may very well be that the new government decided to do away with witchcraft practices, for which purpose the heads of deceased (possibly killed) sorcerers began to be separated from their bodies. As is known, violation of the integrity of the body during burial, according to the beliefs of many peoples, predetermines the impossibility of the rebirth of the deceased...

However, we will not dwell on the description of this culture, but move on to one of the most big mysteries archaeology, history, anthropology and many other related ones. We'll talk about mysterious drawings Nazca plateau.

These drawings were discovered by chance, thanks to aviation, since they can only be seen from an airplane or from a high elevation. An American explorer was the first to see giant geometric shapes from an airplane in 1920. Paul Kosok. The scientist peered in amazement at this incredible kaleidoscope of trapezoids, triangles and spirals that dotted the plateau over a vast territory. In addition, there were images of over 100 known plants and animals, as well as a scattering of strange, unrelated straight lines.

These lines especially struck the scientist. They cut through the desert in all directions without any apparent order, they were absolutely straight and ran away beyond the horizon, completely ignoring the uneven terrain - through hills and valleys.

The 60 km long Nazca sandy plain is located 400 km south of the Peruvian capital Lima, between the cities of Nazca and Palpa. In these places, the earth does not see moisture for years. Drops of rare rain, falling on a hot rocky surface, immediately evaporate. This lifeless space is an ideal place for burials to ensure incorruption. Later, studying all the drawings on site, Paul Kosok saw that the technology for their execution was surprisingly simple. It was only necessary to move the stones and turf underneath, exposing the soft earth, and lay them in a row. Of course, this took many years. But the images created with great care could be preserved in this waterless, arid place for thousands of years!

The themes of the drawings, as already mentioned, can be divided into two categories: these are figures and lines, the latter either in pairs, like tram tracks, or forming geometric shapes. And since in many places the lines are drawn over the drawings, it is obvious that the drawings were made first. The lines are very straight, and it remains a mystery how the draftsmen managed to adhere to the plan so precisely and achieve the effect straight lines at such long distances.

Since the discovery of the mysterious drawings, scientists have been haunted by questions about their creators and purpose. The theories put forward are varied and fantastic - from space aliens to a system for controlling the earth's population. Each new enthusiast for solving the mystery of Nazca adheres to one theory: astronomical, geometric, agricultural or irrigation, utilitarian-geographical (roads) and creative (art). Other hypotheses have been put forward, but so far none of them has a significant advantage. Even in determining the age of the desert paintings, researchers cannot come to a consensus: some believe that they were created around 200 BC. e., according to others - in 1700 BC. e.

Let's take a closer look at some of the theories regarding the Nazca paintings.

The very first one - astronomical, it came to the mind of the discoverer of the drawings, Paul Kosok. On June 21, 1939, the scientist took the first step towards solving the “mystery of Nazca.” At sunset, he saw how it was setting exactly at the intersection of one of the straight lines with the horizon. Observations in the following days convinced Kosok that his guess was correct: he found the line of the winter solstice (in the southern hemisphere, winter corresponds to our summer) solstice. In addition, Kosok noticed that the drawings and lines indicate the location of certain cosmic bodies (stars and constellations) in the sky in astronomical terms. significant days(full moons, etc.).

But to strengthen the hypothesis, it was necessary to identify all the figures of the Nazca desert with celestial phenomena. This daunting task required great effort, time and complete dedication. Paul Kosok was lucky. He found such an assistant in the person of a modest translator from Spanish, who accompanied him on trips to countries South America, German by origin Maria Reiche. It was to her that the scientist entrusted the fate of his extraordinary discovery and never subsequently repented of it. It took seven years to compile the first rough maps and topological plans of the plateau.

Only in 1947, with the assistance of the Peruvian Ministry of Aviation, Maria was able to use a helicopter. The first time she flew, hanging overboard: she was tied with ropes, and she was holding the camera in her hands. Then an engineer I knew designed a special suspension for her - it became relatively safe. She worked alone, and therefore things went slowly. First detailed diagram Maria completed the images in the Nazca desert only in 1956.

“For ancient peoples, the positions of the Sun served as a calendar,” said Maria Reiche. “It was used to determine the arrival of spring and autumn, seasonal fluctuations in water regime, and, consequently, the timing of sowing and harvesting. That's why we found so many lines. It is difficult to talk about the exact meaning of animal images. I only know that some of them represent entire constellations. Most of all I want to penetrate into the way of thinking of the ancients who left us such unusual writings. And it is also extremely important to understand how people who did not know how to fly over the pampa (the local name for the desert) could design and transfer to its surface a many times enlarged picture of the starry sky?..”

The hypothesis of the astronomical calendar was shared by most scientists around the world for decades, until the famous American astronomer began testing it Gerald Hawkins, author of the monograph “Unraveling the Mystery of Stonehenge.” With the help of a computer, Hawkins brilliantly proved that the famous Stonehenge - a mysterious structure on Salisbury Plain - is nothing more than an astronomical observatory.

Using the same technique, adjusted for the latitude of the Nazca Plateau, Hawkins was convinced that only less than 20% of the lines on the Nazca Plateau point to the Sun or Moon. As for the stars, the accuracy of the directions generally does not exceed the random distribution of numbers. “The computer smashed the theory of the stellar-solar calendar to smithereens,” J. Hawkins was forced to admit. “With bitterness we abandoned the theory of the astronomical calendar.” However, Hawkins' research also provided positive result, since it was he who first noted the strange feature of the Nazca drawings: they were all made one line without a break, which does not intersect anywhere.

The next version of the mysterious Nazca drawings is alien, it is now the most common. And it was first put forward Erich von Däniken(he also did research on the English Stonehenge). He is sure that these drawings served as runways for interplanetary alien spacecraft. His confidence in the cosmic purpose of the signs is based on the fact that the drawings have regular shapes and the lines are perfectly straight, and can only be detected from the air.

Why are these drawings in places where no one can see them from the ground? Or were they intended directly for gods unknown to us?

Those who watched went around the world documentary"Memories of the Future" remembers a sports plane landing on one of these runways. But since they are visible only from an airplane, a natural question arises: “Did the ancient inhabitants of the Cordillera - the Incas - know how to fly?” Here it is appropriate to recall the ancient Inca legend, which speaks of "golden ship", who arrived from distant stars: “They were commanded by a woman named Orjana. She was destined to become the foremother of the earthly race. Oryana gave birth to seventy earthly children, and then returned to the stars."

This legend talks about the ability of the “sons”, the Incas, to “fly over the earth in golden ships.” Perhaps there is some connection between these legends and reports of the English anthropological journal Maine, which, in particular, says: “Analysis of the muscle tissue of the surviving Inca mummies showed that in terms of blood composition they differ sharply from the local population. They were found blood type of the rarest combination. Nowadays, such a blood composition is known only from two or three people in the whole world.”

Developing further the discovery of J. Hawkins, who was the first to discover the continuity of lines in drawings, scientists drew attention to strange additional lines. Being completely alien to the main image, they were, however, connected to the beginning and end of the contour (groove), as if connecting the drawing to a certain Nazca megasystem. The conclusion suggests itself that the drawings resemble electrical circuits made by one conductor, which can neither be crossed (short circuit) nor interrupted (open circuit).

Paying attention to the connection lines, the scientists clearly saw parallel and serial connections of the patterns and suggested that the line-grooves of the Nazca Plateau were apparently filled in ancient times with some kind of phosphor. This substance was capable of glowing under the influence of electric current, similar to the inscriptions and drawings of modern gas-light advertising. Thus, in confirmation of the alien theory, the “runways” did their job, and the luminous patterns, visible from the air tens of kilometers away, did theirs.”

Another version that has an alien basis. The key to solving the mystery of the Nazca Desert may be a huge drawing painted on a 400-meter mountain slope on the Paracas Peninsula (Peru). The design is known as the "Candelabra of Paracas", or "Andean candelabra". Its branches point in the direction of the Nazca Desert. Like the Nazca Desert figures, the lines of this image are indentations that reach into the bedrock - red porphyry.

The age of the “Candelabra” dates back at least two thousand years, and the history of its origin is completely a mystery behind seven seals. According to the bold hypothesis of some Russian researchers, the “Candelabra of Paracas” is nothing more than a “passport of the Earth.” This picture contains all the information about our planet. The left part of the picture represents fauna, the right – flora. And the entire drawing represents a person’s face. Near the top of the mountain there is a mark shaped like a nail. This is a scale showing the “level modern development civilization" (there are six in total). If the “Candelabra” is speculatively rotated 180°, you get a crucifix. This is a kind of symbol - a warning that our planet may die from unreasonable human activity.

Further, the authors of this idea try to explain that this information It was delivered to us by some super-civilization from the constellation. Referring to a large number of sculptural images of a lion on Earth and in all earthly religions in particular, the authors prove that modern earthly civilization is the work of aliens from the constellation Leo.

To the cosmic hypotheses, we can add the cheerful thought that perhaps star tourists simply left a trace of their visit to Earth in this way, like “Vasya was here.” It should be noted that similar interpretations of Nazca drawings are born in all corners of our planet every day, if not every minute. But even the craziest of them should not be dismissed without examining them in detail.

I would like to talk about another version that appeared relatively recently - this is an artificial system of underground water channels located in the depths of a mountain plateau. In the city of Nazca, with a population of 10 thousand people, the river of the same name flows. In its composition and “fragrance” it is not inferior to the sewer canals of large cities, but at the same time, the residents of Nazca do not lack fresh and clean water. It is taken from a system of wells, which are located exactly along the lines of mysterious drawings. And what is especially striking is that two of these underground canals pass directly under the bed of the Nazca River. A general system Nazca's irrigation canals simply cannot but arouse admiration - it is so perfect and productive. It should be noted that the source of prosperity of the people who inhabited Nazca was precisely, therefore this version is based real basis. But who, when and how could build such canals?

It is curious that the drawings were discovered from an airplane that flew over the plateau in search of water sources. And only after some time they found wells with water. Thus, the pilot coped with his task brilliantly, although he offered historians one of the most difficult puzzles of the 20th century - the Nazca drawings.

Time passes, and the Nazca drawings only become more mysterious. Not far from the desert, in the mountains, similar images were discovered that were previously unknown. And in this case, the drawings do not indicate the location of underground water channels.

And 1,400 km from the Nazca plateau, at the foot of Mount Solitary, a giant statue of a man was discovered. They called her the Atacama Giant. It reaches a height of 120 meters, and is surrounded by lines and signs similar to the Nazca drawings. Such mysterious finds every year it becomes more and more, which confuses researchers and stimulates dreamers who put forward new versions of the purpose of the Nazca drawings.

Questions, questions... So far, no satisfactory answer has been found to any of them about these mysterious objects (http://www.inca.nm.ru/Nasca.htm).

New drawings in the Nazca desert

Andrey Zhukov, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Today almost everyone who is interested in the mysteries of the ancient history of mankind knows about the drawings of the Nazca desert. Scientists more than twenty years ago decided on the dating of this mysterious phenomenon, placing it around the middle of the 1st millennium AD. and attributing its creation to the local Indian culture of the same name - Nazca. But the paradox is that after 60 years of research into this ancient phenomenon, scientists are virtually no closer to solving this greatest mystery of human history, which is the Nazca images.

The Nazca Plateau, or as it is called in Peru, Pampa Nazca- This is a desert plateau, cut by numerous channels of long-dried rivers. It is located 450 km south of the capital of Peru, Lima. The total area covered with drawings stretches for more than 50 km from north to south and 5-7 km from west to east. Mysterious lines cover the surface of the desert with an area of ​​approximately 500 square meters. km. Scientists call such images made on the surface of the earth geoglyphs. Main mystery The Nazcas are the lines and stripes themselves, of which there are about 13,000! In addition, about 700 geometric figures are also known on the plateau, primarily triangles and trapezoids, and about 100 spirals.

But there are very few well-known drawings of animals, birds, fish and insects here - just over thirty. All these images in Nazca are made, as it seems at first glance, quite in a simple way, they are dug into the surface of a desert plateau. Those. and the patterns, and the lines, and the stripes are just grooves in the sand and pebble soil. Their depth varies from 10 to 30 cm. But the width of individual lines can reach 100 m, and in exceptional cases even 200 m. And the length of some lines reaches 8-10 km!

Today, there are more than thirty hypotheses trying to explain the origin of these geoglyphs, but none of them can give a clear answer to two main questions: how and why This giant “drawing board” was laid out.

Modern geodetic methods do not allow drawing a straight line up to 8 km long on rough terrain so that the deviation does not exceed 0.1%. And the ancient creators of the Nazca paintings, whoever they were, did this. Moreover, straight lines stretching for kilometers simply ignore the folds of the relief. They descend into ravines, rise to the tops of hills, and at the same time their geometric correctness and parallelism of the lateral boundaries are not disturbed at all.

Moreover, the Nazca Plateau is not the only area in Peru covered with mysterious images. Just ten kilometers from Nazca is the small town of Palpa, around which on a plateau called Palpa Pampa are thousands similar stripes, lines and patterns.

These geoglyphs on the Palpa plateau became known to the general public after the publications of Erich von Däniken only in the early 90s of the last century. The Palpa plateau itself is two times smaller in area than Nazca, but the variety of geoglyphs in Palpa is much greater. As in Nazca, on the Palpa plateau the vast majority of the images are stripes and lines. The stripes can bifurcate, change their direction at right angles, or turn into triangles. A strip 200 m wide was discovered in Palpa. According to some researchers, there are lines here that are much more extensive than in Nazca. The longest of them supposedly reaches 23 km! The logic of the ancient creators of this complex of images remains inaccessible to modern scientists.

Despite the abundance of hypotheses about the origin and purpose of the Nazca and Palpa geoglyphs, today scientists are no closer to solving this mysterious phenomenon. It is difficult to imagine that such a huge amount of work, comparable in scale only to the construction of the Great Wall of China, was carried out for one utilitarian purpose.

The study of the grandiose complex of images of Nazca Palpa is further complicated by the fact that there are still no detailed maps showing the entire picture of the geoglyphs of this area. Using aerial photography, the Americans made fairly detailed maps and diagrams of that part of the Nazca Plateau, which depicts well-known animal figures. But to this day there are no detailed plans for the entire Nazca complex, and even more so for the Palpa plateau. Tourist plane pilots say that almost every year they discover new, previously unknown geoglyphs on the plateau. But pilots are not researchers and are not engaged in recording newly discovered images. This is done by scientists from small archaeological missions from other countries who last years stepped up their work. And then some interesting results appeared...