Nasca

The Pan-American highway crossing the Nasca desert

Many of you have heard about the Nasca Lines. These figures drawn in the desert that can only be seen from the air. And it is from the air that in the 1930's when commercial and postal planes started to fly over the area that pilots reported seeing what were clearly man made figures on the desert floor. There are thousands of drawings spread over an area of about 350km². There are many straight lines, geometric figures and about 70 zoomorphic drawings. 

Traces of ancient floodings

There are many theories as to what they represent and what was the purpose of these drawings. They mostly revolve around water. The Nasca people lived in this desert plain, a place where every drop of water is vital. In 2010 for example there was only 30 minutes of rain. This year 22 minutes so far ! And most of Nasca town today receives only one hour of water a day. 

30% of all the lines point directly to water sources as if to ask the gods to send more water. Then, many of the lines are in perfect alignment to the rising and setting of the sun and the three most luminous stars in the sky at exactly summer and winter solstices. This sort of giant astrological calendar would tell the Nasca people when to start preparing the land, when to sow the seeds and when best to use the small amount of water at their disposal to irrigate.

The Hummingbird

Finally many of the animals drawn are symbols of water : the whale living in the ocean, the hummingbird and the monkey that live in jungles where there is plenty of water. 

The Humanoid - a figure that fuels the Alien theory 

Of course there are also theories that this civilization knew about the existence of aliens and have drawn some kind of landing pad for them. But obviously very few observers in the scientific community pay any attention to this.

Anyway I booked myself a flight (7-seater Cessna) to see for myself 13 of the animal drawings that this very advanced people drew. The flight lasted only 35 minutes but it was magical. 

For more picutres : Nasca Lines

The Spider

The Condor

A perfect triangle - part of the geometric designs

The 9-fingered hands occur often - we don't know what they represent

The tree - symbol of water

After that exhausting adventure, it was time to relax a little bit by a welcoming swimming pool ...

Roxana could not be in a better place