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500BCc. 500 BC – AD 500 · Nazca and Palpa desert, Ica

The Nazca Lines

Aerial view of the hummingbird geoglyph etched into the Nazca desert floor
Photo: Diego Delso. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Between about 500 BC and AD 500 the Paracas and then the Nazca peoples scraped away the dark stones of the coastal desert to draw hundreds of straight lines, geometric shapes and some 70 animals and plants, among them a monkey, a hummingbird and a spider. Their purpose is still debated, most likely ritual and linked to water. The German mathematician Maria Reiche spent decades mapping and protecting them.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Mirador on the Pan-American HighwayRoadside tower looking down on the Hands and the Tree figures.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Maria Reiche MuseumThe house where Reiche lived and worked, with her tools, plans and grave.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: CahuachiAdobe mounds of the Nazca ceremonial centre in the desert west of town.Map ↗

Guides who take you there

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More from the Ancient World

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