Nazca Lines

The Nazca Lines are in Peru, a country in South America.

They are giant pictures and lines on the dry desert ground. One bird picture is 285 meters long!

The Nazca Lines are on a dry coastal plain in southern Peru, about 400 km south of the capital, Lima. They cover about 450 square kilometers.

They are geoglyphs: pictures and shapes made on the ground itself. Some show animals, birds and plants; others are straight lines and shapes such as triangles, spirals and rectangles. UNESCO calls them among archaeology's greatest puzzles, because there are so many of them, they are so big, and people kept making them for so long.

The geoglyphs lie on the arid coastal plain of southern Peru, about 400 km south of Lima, in the provinces of Nasca and Palpa, Department of Ica, and cover about 450 km². UNESCO's short description dates them to between 500 BCE and 500 CE and calls them among archaeology's greatest enigmas because of their quantity, nature, size and continuity.

ICOMOS, in its 1994 evaluation, judged that no other geoglyphs in the Americas or Europe compare remotely with their extent, diversity and long duration. UNESCO's protected property, as listed today, covers 75,358.47 hectares.

Some lines make pictures of animals. There is a monkey, a spider and a hummingbird.

Other lines are long and straight. Some make big triangles and spirals.

ICOMOS sorted the geoglyphs into two groups. The first group are pictures: animals, birds, insects, flowers, plants, trees and everyday objects. ICOMOS listed the Spider at 46 meters long, the Hummingbird at 50 meters, the Monkey at 55 meters and the Pelican at 285 meters, almost three times the length of a 100-meter race.

The second group are lines. Most are straight and cross the plain in every direction, and some are several kilometers long. Others form shapes such as triangles, spirals, rectangles and wavy lines.

In 1994 ICOMOS noted about seventy identified representational figures, stylistically close to the pottery and textiles of the period: among them the Spider (46 m), the Hummingbird (50 m), the Monkey (55 m), the Killer Whales (65 m), the Lizard (180 m), the Guanay or guano bird (280 m) and, largest of those it listed, the Pelican (285 m). A few human-like figures exist, and ICOMOS noted that they had acquired fanciful nicknames such as 'the Astronaut'.

The lines proper criss-cross the pampa; some run for several kilometers, others form geometric figures or radiate from a central point, and so-called 'tracks' seem to have been laid out for large numbers of people. ICOMOS rejected theories linking the lines to visitors from space; the consensus in 1994 was that they had ceremonial functions connected with astronomy and played a part in the social and economic life of local clans.

In the photo, a huge pale shape stretches across the dark desert.

Thin straight lines cross the ground too. In 2024, scientists told the world about hundreds of new pictures!

The photo, taken from high above in July 2015, shows a long, pale shape that gets narrower toward the far end, with thin straight lines crossing the dark ground and paler winding marks around them. A green strip of land lies far away.

In 2024 scientists from Yamagata University in Japan, with help from artificial intelligence (AI) that sped up their fieldwork, announced 303 new figures on the Nazca Pampa. That brought the number known there to 733. The new figures average about 9 meters. The small relief figures show human activity, such as people and domesticated camelids, the animal family of llamas, and are commonly found a short distance from winding paths.

The aerial photo (29 July 2015) shows a long trapezoid narrowing into the distance, thin straight lines crossing the dark, gravel-covered pampa, and pale, branching ground marks on either side, with hills and a green strip on the horizon.

Scientific study began in 1941, when Paul Kosok worked with the Peruvian Air Force; from 1946 Maria Reiche devoted her life to studying and caring for the lines. In September 2024 Yamagata University, working with IBM, announced 303 newly found geoglyphs, adding to the 430 known before for 733 on the Nazca Pampa, with about 30% of the area explored. Peru's Andina agency reported that the new figures average 9 m, and that the small relief geoglyphs depict human activity, including people and domesticated camelids, and usually lie a short distance from winding paths. UNESCO notes that the Pan-American Highway crosses the property and has damaged some lines, although most are in fair condition.