2 weeks of exploring Peru – lots of early starts and long coach days but scenery was fabulous so worth the journey.
Nazca Lines
Adventure Holidays to the Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines: an awe-inspiring collection of more than 300 figures, all super-sized, etched into the sprawling desert of southern Peru, and only visible from up high. We don’t know who made them. We don’t know why. We don’t even know how the ancient artists could view them without an aircraft. The Nazca Lines are one massive, marvellous mystery. Try to unravel it for yourself on one of our Peru adventures that include a tour to the Nazca Lines.
One of the most elaborate figures is a 45-metre-long spider. Drawn in one continuous line it is styled on a miniscule Amazonian species that is only a 1cm long and found 1,000km away on the other side of the Andes. Figure that one.
Nazca Lines Adventure Holidays
Tracy Meakin Essential Peru
Karen Healey Essential PeruExcellent tour with good variety of things to see and do. I booked extra days either side of the tour to explore Lima as the tour essentially starts and ends there, with no time for sightseeing or exploring unless you arrive earlier or leave later.
Esther Iglich Essential PeruDiversity of visited sites, excellent guide, great participants
Solving the Enigma: Top Nazca Lines Theories
Only discovered in the 1930s, countless theories claim to solve the enigma of Nazca – from astronomical calendars to extraterrestrial airports:
1 Astronomical advice
One of the earliest Nazca researchers Maria Reiche, who dedicated most of her life to studying the lines, was convinced they represented a vast astronomical calendar constructed to map the places on the horizon where celestial bodies rose and set. Unfortunately other academics have found her evidence wanting.
2 For the eyes of the Gods
Many believe that an ancient culture constructed the lines for the eyes of the gods, not for human viewing at all. All of the lines point towards the Andes, suggesting worship of the mountains and the precious water that flows from them to this arid area. Their creation may also have been a reaction to a unique series of solar eclipses in Peru at the time, when the eclipsed sun could have been taken for the “eye of god”.
3 Water works
Another water theory suggests that the lines indicate where rich sources of water flow under the desert floor. They may have acted as a guide for thirsty ancient Nazcan people, so they could locate water when they needed it, wherever they were in the desert.
4 Alien ancestors
One of the best known Nazca theories was put forward in Erich von Daniken’s “Chariots of the Gods” where he claims the lines were alien aircraft landing strips. He argues they are simply too complex to be drawn from earth so they must have been made from the air. Other theorists agree on this point, some proposing the ancient Nazcans must have constructed hot air balloons from the primitive materials available at the time.
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