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 seemingly 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 will move on to one of the biggest mysteries of archeology, history, anthropology and many other related ones. We'll talk about mysterious drawings of the 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 incorruptibility. 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, and the latter are either paired, like tram tracks, or form 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 of straight lines at such large 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 desert paintings, researchers cannot come to a conclusion unanimous opinion: 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 Herculean task required a lot of 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 around the world. 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. ABOUT exact value animal images are difficult to talk about. 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 yielded a positive result, since it was he who first noted the strange feature of the Nazca drawings: all of them were 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 from 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 diagrams, 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 electric current similar to the inscriptions and drawings of current 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 large number 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 for the people who inhabited Nazca was precisely this, so this version has a 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 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. There are more and more such mysterious finds every year, which confuses researchers and stimulates dreamers who put forward new versions of the purpose of the Nazca paintings.
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
Almost everyone who is interested in riddles knows about the drawings of the Nazca desert today. ancient history humanity. 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 of mysteries. human history, which are the images in Nazca.
The Nazca Plateau, or as it is called in Peru, Pampa Nazca- this is a desert plateau, cut by numerous riverbeds long ago dried up 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 desert surface with an area of approximately 500 square meters. km. Scientists call such images made on the surface of the earth geoglyphs. The main mystery of Nazca is 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 it's good famous drawings There are very few 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 Chinese wall, was carried out for a single utilitarian purpose.
The study of the grandiose complex of images of Nazca-Palpa is further complicated by the fact that it still does not exist detailed maps, displaying the whole picture of geoglyphs in this area. Using aerial photography, the Americans made fairly detailed maps and diagrams of that part of the Nazca Plateau, where well-known animal figures are depicted. But detailed plans the entire Nazca complex, and even more so the Palpa plateau, does not exist to this day. 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 recent years stepped up their work. And then some interesting results appeared...
Nazca Drawings are on Nazca Plateau- one of the most mysterious places on Earth. It is located 450 km south of the capital Peru, between cities Nazca And Palpa. Here the entire territory is 500 sq. km. covered with lines and drawings of unknown origin. They are nothing special if you look at them standing next to them.
Map of Nazca drawings
In 1553 Cieza de Leon was the first to report the Nazca drawings. From his words: “Through all these valleys and through those that have already been traversed, the beautiful, great Inca Road runs along its entire length, and here and there among the sands signs are seen to guess the route laid.”
ABOUTMonkey, Nazca drawing
The drawings were noticed in 1939, when an airplane flew over the plateau American archaeologist Paul Kosok. A huge contribution to the study of mysterious lines belongs to the German doctor of archeology Maria Reiche. Her work began in 1941. However, she was able to photograph the drawings from the air only in 1947, using the services of military aviation.
In 1994, the Nazca Geoglyphs were listed World Heritage UNESCO.
Tree and handsNazca drawing
Nazca Plateau occupies 60 kilometers and approximately 500 sq. m of its territory is covered with a pattern of strange lines folding into bizarre shapes. The main mystery of Nazca is geometric figures in the form of triangles and more than thirty huge drawings of animals, birds, fish, insects and people of unusual appearance. All images on the Nazca surface are dug into sandy soil, the depth of the lines varies from 10 to 30 centimeters, and the width of the stripes can reach as much as 100 meters. The lines of the drawings stretch for kilometers, without changing at all under the influence of the relief - the lines rise up hills and descend from them, while remaining almost perfectly smooth and continuous. Who and why created these drawings - unknown tribes or aliens from outer space - there is still no answer to this question. Today there are many hypotheses, but none of them can be a solution.
Dog, Nazca drawing
Whale, Nazca drawing
Hummingbird has a length of 50 meters, spider — 46, condor extends from beak to tail feathers for almost 120 meters, and heron has a length of up to 188 meters. Almost all the drawings are made on this huge scale in the same manner, when the outline is outlined by one continuous line. Perfect straight lines and the stripes go beyond the horizon, crossing dry river beds, climbing hills and without deviating from their direction (although modern geodetic methods do not allow drawing a straight line up to 8 kilometers long on rough terrain so that the deviation does not exceed 0.1 degrees) . The true form of the images can only be observed from a bird's eye view. There is no such natural elevation nearby, but there are half-mountain humps. But the higher you rise above the plateau, the smaller these drawings become and turn into incomprehensible scratches.
Hummingbird,Nazca drawing
Spider, Nazca drawing
Condor, Nazca drawing
Heron, Nazca drawing
What scientists have been able to establish more or less accurately is the age of the images. Based on ceramic fragments found here and data from analyzes of organic remains, they established that in the period between 350 BC. and 600 AD there was a civilization here. However, this theory cannot be accurate, since objects of civilization could have been brought here much later than the appearance of the images. One theory is that these are works of the Nazca Indians, who inhabited areas of Peru before the formation of the Inca Empire. The Nazcas did not leave anything behind except burial places, so it is unknown whether they had writing and whether they “painted” the desert.
"Astronaut", drawing by Nazca
The Nazca Lines pose many questions to historians: who created them, when, why and how. In fact, many geoglyphs cannot be seen from the ground, so we can only assume that with the help of such patterns the ancient inhabitants of the valley communicated with the deity. In addition to the ritual, the astronomical significance of these lines cannot be ruled out.
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 natural formation is located 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 region 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 strong earthquake. But, fortunately, there were few casualties, since the tremors began at noon and people were prepared. In total, 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. On its territory were built multi-storey buildings, 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 by human hands. However, 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: 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 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 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 plot 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 existence of lines in Nazca. Archaeologists got the opportunity to closely study such unique creations only in 1946. But this was not a targeted government or research program with appropriate funding, but individual 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 soil of the local lands surrounding the paintings on the Nazca plateau boasts high content lime 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. There was this ancient empire, is assumed to be 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, the golden age of which dates back to 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 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, full picture visible only from the air.
Obviously there are no aircraft the civilization that inhabited the Nazca plateau did not. Neither balloons, neither airplanes, nor even rockets existed 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 affecting Peru, the Nazca plateau, of course, has the right to life, it remains unclear why spaceships the aliens did not have vertical take-off, or why 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 scientists agree that this is so, complex drawings The Nazcas were created before 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, did the masters of ancient civilization lose technology or simply forget 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 still 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 most bright 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 a central place not only in religion, but also in everyday life people. 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 and environmental pollution do not change 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 certainly never know who and why created this, without exaggeration, wonderful and unique phenomenon.
The giant ground drawings of the Peruvian Nazca plateau are deservedly considered one of the most mysterious attractions not only of South America, but of the entire planet.
About 500 are covered with mysterious lines folding into bizarre shapes. square meters plateau territory. The lines that form the Nazca drawings are applied to the surface of the earth in a unique way - by excavating the soil, resulting in the formation of trenches up to 1.5 meters wide and up to 30-50 centimeters deep.
Lines form huge amount geoglyphs - geometric and figured patterns: over 10,000 stripes, more than 700 geometric shapes (mainly trapezoids, triangles and spirals), about 30 images of birds, animals, insects and flowers.
The Nazca paintings are impressive in their size. For example, the figures of a spider and a hummingbird are about 50 meters long, the figure of a condor extends to 120 meters, the image of a pelican - almost 290 meters. It is amazing that with such a gigantic size, the contours of the figures are continuous and surprisingly accurate. Almost perfectly smooth stripes cross the beds of dried up rivers, climb high hills and descend from them, but do not deviate from the required direction. Modern science is not able to explain such a phenomenon.
These amazing ancient figures were first discovered by pilots only in the 30s of the last century.
This is explained by the fact that from the ground it is almost impossible to recognize figures stretching tens and hundreds of meters in length.
Despite decades of research, it remains a mystery how, by whom and for what purpose these drawings were made. The estimated “age” of the images is from fifteen to twenty centuries.
Today, about 30 designs, about 13 thousand lines and stripes, about 700 geometric figures (primarily triangles and trapezoids, as well as about a hundred spirals) are known.
Most researchers attribute the authorship of the drawings to representatives of the Nazca civilization, who inhabited the plateau before the appearance of the Incas. The level of development of the Nazca civilization has not been sufficiently studied, so it is impossible to say with certainty that its representatives possessed technologies that allowed them to create such drawings.
There are many versions explaining the purpose of the Nazca geoglyphs. The most common of them is astronomical. Its supporters consider the Nazca Lines to be a kind of astronomical calendar. The ritual version is also popular, according to which the giant drawings are intended to communicate with the heavenly Deity.
Multiple repetitions of the same lines and figures, as well as the identified mathematical patterns in their proportions and relative positions, give the right to assume that the Nazca drawings represent a kind of encrypted text. According to the most fantastic hypotheses, the figures on the plateau function as landmarks for the landing of alien ships.
Unfortunately, targeted and regular study of Nazca geoglyphs is not carried out in our time. The centuries-old mysteries of the famous Peruvian drawings are still waiting for their researchers.
Geoglyphs Nazca and Palpa from a copter. Peru 2014 hd
Satellite drawings of Nazca
These gigantic drawings are visible only from a great height: only when flying by plane over the Nazca plateau, which is located in the southern part of Peru, can one see this “ art gallery", consisting of images of birds and animals, flowers and insects. The regular contours of a lizard, hummingbird, monkey, condor and spider are intersected by numerous straight lines, spirals, triangles, trapezoids and other geometric shapes.
Where did this heritage come from, what was the purpose of the ancient artists who created desert masterpieces, and, finally, what technologies allowed them to preserve perfect proportions drawings, the size of the smallest of which is 46 meters, and the largest - a pelican - reaches 285 meters? These questions have occupied the heads of scientists from the very moment the Nazca geoglyphs were discovered - since 1939, when a plane with an American archaeologist on board flew over the desert.
The technique for making all the drawings is the same: the outline of the image is a single unbroken line that stretches for tens and hundreds of meters and often crosses hills, depressions and dry river beds. Tell me, how, without the help of special instruments and control from a height, was it possible to draw all these straight lines, curves and broken lines, without ever deviating even half a degree from the given direction?
Yes, hundreds of meters - the lines of some geometric shapes stretch for 8 kilometers! Without the opportunity to rise high above the “canvas”, it is more than difficult to get an idea of the nature of the drawing and, moreover, the correctness of the direction taken. And that's not all. Careful studies of drawings and figures have shown that all geoglyphs are subject to strict mathematical laws.
How were these “canvases” created? Like many other geoglyphs, with the help of digging trenches: moving along a given contour, the ancient creators plowed the desert land, digging up soil along the entire length of the pattern, 120-140 cm wide and 25-35 cm deep. Due to the peculiarities of the semi-desert climate, the drawings of the Nazca plate have survived to this day.
Another mystery that haunts researchers: how did it happen that the workers digging numerous trenches (remember that some lines are several kilometers long) did not leave any traces of their presence - at least trampled paths? By and large, pundits do not have exact answers to any of the pressing questions - only hypotheses.
Except that the time of creation of the drawings and lines was determined relatively accurately - the geoglyphs were formed before the 12th century, when the Incas settled the valley. This means that the authorship of the marvelous patterns is attributed to the predecessors of the Incas - the Nazca civilization. One can only guess about the purpose of creating a “gallery” in the desert. Based on the fact that the huge paintings are visible only from a great height, it is logical to assume that the ancient people who inhabited the desert tried to communicate with the deities in this way.
According to other versions, representatives of the Nazca civilization tried to reproduce a celestial map of constellations using patterns and drawings or transmitted an encrypted message to someone. One of the idle assumptions is completely devoid of common sense: supposedly the signs inscribed on the face of the earth served as a landing strip for alien ships. One thing is clear: there are still far more questions in the matter of the geoglyphs of the Nazca plateau than answers - huge drawings in the middle of the desert remain an unsolved mystery to this day.