What are the origins and significations of Nazca lines?

At the south of Lima, on the coast, the region of Nazca city is characterized by a desert of sand that extends over thousands of kilometers. Away from the town, entering into the desert, we can see a spectacle of amazing geoglyphs, drawings and figures delineated on the floor. 

On the dunes of this desert, traces of Nazca civilization, pre-Inca culture that lived from 300 to 800 years before our era, drew on the grey floor. Shapes of bird, monkey, hummingbird, condor or geometric shapes like swirls or broken lines, measure until 270 m long and seem to represent the divinities of this old civilization. The incredible preservation of this shapes is due to the severe drought (that inhibits the growth of plants) and to the absence of winds, due to the very hot air that rules on this desert.

Several theories exist about the signification of this strange drawings. One of the most listened is the one of a German mathematician, Maria Reich, who dedicated her entire life to study the traces on the floor. According to her, it is an enormous astronomic calendar, where the principal lines would give the star direction or major constellations. This theory has been refuted later and replaced or enhanced by other works; ritual sites, the way to find again water sources, amplifiers of sounds to prevent earthquakes, or the strangest one, a runway for aliens… The experts don’t find an agreement about the origin and use of those strange shapes.

The UNESCO classified this site World Humanity Heritage in 1994 and we can admire those wonderful rests of the past by flying over from little plans that shuttle for tourists.