Nazca, Peru travel guide: The Nazca Lines are a series of large geoglyphs etched into the surface of the Nazca Desert on the arid Pampas de Jumana plateau in…
The Nazca Lines are a series of large geoglyphs etched into the surface of the Nazca Desert on the arid Pampas de Jumana plateau in southern Peru. They were created by the Nazca culture between approximately 500 BCE and 500 CE by removing the reddish iron-oxide coated pebbles from the desert surface to reveal the pale yellow-grey ground beneath. The extreme aridity of the Nazca Desert — one of the driest places on earth, with virtually no wind at ground level — has preserved them in near-original condition for 2,000 years. There are over 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures (trapezoids, spirals, triangles), and at least 70 animal and plant figures (biomorphs). The biomorphs include a 93m hummingbird, a 46m spider, a 180m pelican, a 270m lizard, and the 32m figure sometimes called the 'Astronaut' (actually a stylised anthropomorphic figure). The figures range in size from a few metres to over 370m. UNESCO inscribed the Nazca and Palpa Lines as a World Heritage Site in 1994.
Crowd: low · Noise: quiet · Best time: Morning flights (7–11am) — the dry Nazca desert air is most stable in the morning. Afternoon thermals create turbulence that makes the small Cessna flights uncomfortable. Depart from Nazca or Ica airport by 8am for the best conditions.
geoglyphs, flight, desert, archaeological, inca
Maria Reiche arrived in Peru in 1932 as a governess and never left. She first visited the Nazca plateau in 1946 and spent the rest of her life there. She mapped the geoglyphs by hand on her knees with measuring tape and graph paper, later with a small ladder she carried herself to gain elevation. She slept on the pampa, paid for the work with her own savings and later with lecture income, and personally funded guards to protect the lines from agricultural encroachment in the 1950s and 1960s. She was the person who established that the geoglyphs were made by the Nazca culture (not some other people, not aliens) and who systematically documented their dimensions. The Peruvian government eventually gave her residency, then citizenship. She died in 1998 in Nazca, 95 years old, still working. The Nazca airport is named for her: Aeropuerto Internacional María Reiche Neuman.
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