Desert Nazca and the mystery of her drawings

What wonders in itself is not kept by ancient history! How many secrets have not yet been solved, and how many of them will never solve! However, stepping into the future, people increasingly understand the past and replace guesswork and myths with real history. So, it is believed that the archaeologists have finally solved the riddle, which was concealed in the desert Nazca. Outskirts of Peru became famous back in 1947, when the first scientific publications appeared on incomprehensible lines and mysterious drawings. Later, the idea arose that these are the runways of the aliens. Many inhabitants of the planet took this idea with interest. So the myth originated.

The Mystery of Geoglyphs

Scientists and amateurs for decades have tried to explain the origin in the desert of geometric patterns occupying an area of almost 500 square kilometers. Although at first glance the history of their occurrence in South Peru is quite understandable. The Nazca desert for several centuries served as a canvas for the ancient Indians, to which they for some reason applied mysterious signs. On the surface are dark stones, and if they are removed, light sedimentary rocks are exposed. Such a sharp contrast of colors and used by Peruvians to create drawings, geoglyphs: the background for images was the dark color of the soil. Desert areas they decorated with straight lines, trapezoids, spirals and huge figures of animals.

The Desert of Nazca. Picture coordinates

These signs are so huge that you can see them only from an airplane. However, everyone who wishes can now admire the mysterious symbols without leaving home, it is enough to launch any program on the computer that demonstrates satellite imagery of the Earth. The coordinates of the desert are 14 ° 41'18.31'S 75 ° 07'23.01'W.

In 1994, unusual drawings were included in the list of monuments that make up the World Cultural Heritage. And then the whole world knew where the Nazca desert was. People wondered about who was destined for the mysterious gallery. Are the gods in heaven reading human souls? Or maybe, in this ancient country, the aliens were once building a cosmodrome, so the markings remained? Or is it the first textbook on astronomy, where the course of the planet Venus represents the wing of a bird? Or maybe these are the family signs that the clans used to mark the territories they inhabited? It was even suggested that in this way Indians designated the flow of underground streams, supposedly a secret map of water sources. In general, there were a great many hypotheses, the best minds competed in interpreting the meaning of the inscribed, but no one took the time to pick up the facts. Almost all the assumptions were built speculatively - to go to an unlikely distance, rarely anyone dared. That left the desert Nazca (photo below) one of the most mysterious places on the planet, and its ancient inhabitants - one of the most interesting cultures of pre-Columbian America.

The way to unraveling

From 1997 to 2006, scientists from various fields of knowledge conducted a thorough study in the Peruvian desert. The facts that were collected by them were completely debunked by all the explanations of the esotericists. No cosmic secrets left! It turned out to be the earthly desert of Nazca. Her drawings also speak of the earthly, even too terrestrial. But first things first.

Expedition to Peru

In 1997, the expedition organized by the German Archaeological Institute began to study the geoglyphs and culture of the inhabitants of Nazca in the vicinity of the settlement of Palpa. The place was chosen proceeding from the fact that it is in close proximity to the villages where the ancient Indians lived. "To understand the meaning of the drawings, it is necessary to peer at the people who created them," the scientists said.

Study of the landscape

Within the framework of the project, climatic features of the area were studied. This clarified the origin of the symbols. Previously, in the place where the Nazca desert was now, there was a flat steppe area. It was formed from a basin dividing the Andes and the Coast Cordillera (another mountain chain). During the Pleistocene, it was filled with sedimentary rocks and gravel. So there was an ideal "canvas" for drawing all kinds of drawings.

A couple of millennia ago, palm trees grew here, llamas grazed, and people lived like in a garden of Eden. Where there is today the Nazca desert, there used to be even heavy rains and floods. But approximately in 1800 BC. E. The climate has become much drier. The drought burned the grassy steppe, so people had to settle in river valleys - natural oases. But the desert continued the offensive and came close to the mountain ranges. At 20 kilometers in the direction of the Andes, its eastern edge moved, and the Indians were forced to withdraw to mountain valleys, located at an altitude of 400-800 meters above sea level. And when the climate became drier (around 600 AD), the culture of Nazca disappeared altogether. Remained from it are only inscribed on the ground mysterious signs. Thanks to the extremely dry climate, they have been preserved for thousands of years.

The Desert of Nazca. Drawings

After studying the environment of the creators of mysterious geoglyphs, the researchers were able to interpret them. The earliest lines appeared about 3800 years ago, when the first settlements appeared near the city of Palpa. Southern Peruvians created their "picture gallery" in the open air, among the rocks. They cut down and scratched various patterns, chimeras and people, mythological creatures and animals on brownish-red stones. "The revolution in art" occurred in the Peruvian desert somewhere in 200 BC. E. Artists, who used to cover only with rocks, took to painting the largest canvas, given by nature itself, stretching before the eyes of the plateau. Here the masters had to turn around. But instead of figurative compositions now the experts gave preference to lines and geometric figures.

Geoglyphs are part of the ritual

So what were these signs for? Certainly not for the fact that we admired them today. Scientists believe that the drawings were part of the "sanctuary", these are the so-called ceremonial figures, which have a purely mystical meaning. Geophysics investigated the soil along the lines (their depth is almost 30 centimeters) and revealed that it is highly compacted. 70 geoglyphs, depicting some creatures and animals, are considerably trampled down, as if crowds of people walked here for centuries. In fact, various festivals were held here, connected with the cult of water and fertility. The more the plateau became drier, the more often the priests performed magical ceremonies to invoke rain. Of the ten trapezoids and lines, nine are facing towards the mountains, to where the saving precipitations came from. Magic for a long time helped, and the wet clouds returned. However, in 600 AD, the gods were very angry at the people who settled in this land.

Debunking the myth

The greatest drawings in the Nazca desert appeared at a time when the rains were almost stopped. Most likely, people thus asked the severe Indian god to heed their suffering, they hoped that even such signals he would notice. But God remained deaf and blind to pleas. The rains did not go. Eventually, the Indians left their native land and went to seek a flourishing country. And in a couple of centuries, when the climate became softer, the Nazca desert regained its inhabitants. People settled there who did not know anything about the previous owners of these lands. Only the distant lines on the ground reminded us that once here a man tried to speak with the gods. However, the meaning of the drawings was already forgotten. Now only scientists are beginning to understand the reason for the appearance of these letters - huge signs, ready, it seems, to survive eternity.