The Hieroglyphics of Nazca In Peru the lines of the GODS
In South America, in southern Peru, on the Nazca Plateau, covering an area of about 500 square kilometers, lies one of the most fascinating mysteries of archaeology. In this extremely arid place, where fierce winds blow, in the 1920s a military pilot spotted strange signs in the desert. He filed a formal report, but since then, for 50 years, Nazca became a state secret. On the plateau's surface, a remarkable series of anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and geometric figures were created with incredible precision, all executed with continuous lines. To see them, one must be at an altitude of at least 300 meters above the ground; to view them all together, one must exceed 1,000 meters. Hundreds of these drawings are so large that they are visible only from above, and because there are no high points nearby, observing them requires a flying vehicle. For instance, the monkey measures 130 meters in length and 90 meters in width. How were they able to draw such figures without being able to check the proportions of the glyphs from above?
The Hummingbird is 50 meters long, the spider 45 meters, the condor 120 meters, and so is the pelican; the lizard reaches 188 meters! These glyphs can be defined as the largest graphic work in the world. They were created by removing the superficial layer of black volcanic pebbles from the ground, revealing the lighter-colored sand underneath.
Mysteries abound in Nazca. The operation involved only a few tens of centimeters. The eternity of these works is ensured by a particular climatic combination that creates a fixing effect of the pebbles on the ground: once placed, they do not move anymore. So far, scholars have determined with certainty only that there have been two distinct phases: the oldest and most advanced is that of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic depictions, while the more recent and less advanced is that of geometric themes. The various forms are so complex that they are difficult to reproduce even with paper and pen. The zoomorphic figures (such as the dog, monkey, spider, condor, whale...), as well as anthropomorphic ones (human heads, hands...), and those depicting plants and flowers, are surrounded by a labyrinth of geometric shapes of astounding precision. The largest figure is a rectangle. There are perfectly straight lines that are over 8 km long; one stretches to 65 km!
In Nazca, mysteries are commonplace. The spider glyph represents one of the rarest arachnids in the world, found only in the Amazon rainforest and identifiable by having its reproductive organ on one of its legs—a detail visible only under a microscope. Why did the Nazca artists cross the Andes, venture into the Amazon forest, discover one of these rare spiders, and then depict it in a drawing that no one could see from below?
And what about the drawings depicting the whale and the monkey? It cannot be said that these are common animals in Peru. There is also a depiction of a man with his right arm raised and boots on his feet. Numerous enigmatic heads surrounded by shining halos are also present. In the Bay of Pisco, there is a glyph of a candelabrum or trident, also of impressive dimensions, which marks from the ocean the exact location of the Nazca glyphs through its precise orientation. As for dates, forget about them, because dating a work done by removing pebbles from the ground is impossible. For whom were these figures drawn, since they are visible only from above? The obvious answer is that they were made for someone who could see them from above—that is, for someone flying in the sky. According to some astronomers, the spider figure is a precise diagram of the Orion constellation, designed to study the movements of its three belt stars over epochs, much like how a sundial works. The stellar alignments at Nazca are still under study, but already, lines have been discovered that accurately indicate solstices, equinoxes, and specific celestial phenomena. According to some mathematicians, the Nazca lines should be considered a coded writing—a sort of glyphic sentence containing a precise, organic, and thus intelligent message, still waiting to be deciphered. According to local populations, the markings in the desert were made by the gods, the Viracochas—very particular divine figures worshiped by the Incas. They were beings with white skin and European features, sporting beards, coming from the sea (or from the sky above the sea), bringing civilization and peace to their ancestors, and before leaving, promising to return one day.
The most contested theory about Nazca is the Extraterrestrial hypothesis. Essentially, the glyphs would serve as a sort of road sign for UFOs, containing the necessary information for sky travelers. A variant of this theory proposes that the Nazca lines are actual landing strips. It should be noted that due to the softness of the terrain, both traditional and vertical landings would be impossible. Naturally, a craft that moves, lands, and takes off using electromagnetic fields without physically touching the ground (such as those described by many witnesses of close encounters of the third and fourth kind) would have no issues.
Nazca remains an archaeological mystery, a puzzling challenge for all those scholars who insist on categorizing the people who lived on this planet thousands of years ago as primitive.
Architects in hot air balloons?
Among the various hypotheses to try to understand how the gigantic glyphs of Nazca could have been created, there is the theory of the hot air balloon. It's important to remember that to create a design spanning 100 meters, it's essential to be able to oversee the proportions from above. In Nazca, straight lines, which can be marked by aligning three stakes by eye, run for kilometers (in some cases over 8 km) with a margin of error of just 2 meters per kilometer (0.2%). Even today, with modern technology, achieving the same precision would be challenging. Absolutely inexplicable are the zoomorphic or otherwise "figurative" designs, created with a single continuous line, within a labyrinth of arabesques and with a stylization that is far from primitive. How could they verify these designs from above?
The hypothesis put forward by some scientists is that the Nazca Indians had discovered the use of hot air balloons. On board these balloons, overseers could ensure the correct execution of the glyph and provide directives. The idea stems from a decoration found on fragments of pottery in the area, depicting an object resembling a hot air balloon. Near some of the lines, dark circles have been found that could be traces of the combustion pits used to heat the air in the balloons. In 1975, an experiment was attempted that demonstrated with materials available between 500 BC and AD 700 (the dating accepted by more orthodox scientists for the Nazca lines), it was possible to create a hot air balloon capable of making short flights.
However, this theory is not accepted by all scholars for two reasons: no remains of the alleged balloons have ever been found, and the possible flights were too short and risky to allow for adequate and continuous oversight of the work.
Not only in Peru:
- In Russia, on the bottom of the Aral Sea, an enormous drying salt lake, a new Nazca is slowly emerging, spanning an area of 500 square kilometers. The extraordinary aspect of the Russian glyphs is that they appear to have a precise order, all converging towards a point marked by an arrow. Otherwise, they are very similar to those in Nazca: visible only from above and incredibly precise.
- In the Mojave Desert, California, along the course of the Colorado River, on the bottom of now-dry lakes, there is a row of artificially cut canals arranged regularly, known as the Mojave Labyrinth.
- On the walls of Titus Canyon, in Death Valley, there are giant engravings depicting sheep, lizards, geometric figures, an upside-down candelabra similar to that in Nazca, and wavy lines.
- In Chile, there are strange patterns of regular canals visible only from above.
- In Australia, photographing from the Europa I satellite during the day with infrared rays, on the Nullarbor Plain (an expanse of sand covering 167,000 square kilometers), five parallel lines have been noticed on the ground. These lines are about 14 km wide, 400 km long, and spaced 80 to 100 km apart from each other. A complex too regular and extensive to be a trick of nature.
- Figures similar to those in Nazca, but smaller, are also found in the Andes around Lake Titicaca.
