There are some places where ancient accomplishments seem to defy logic. The Nazca lines and geoglyphs in Peru's Sechura Desert is one such place.
The Nazca lines site is impressive on so many levels. The first level is its timeline: the Nazca people lived in the area between 100 BC and 700 AD. Next is the scale of the lines: they are located all over an area 25km by 60km long sandwiched between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The third is the volume: there are well over 1100 straight lines, geometric figures, animal and plant designs, and more are still being discovered. Lastly is the fact that they can only be truly seen from the air (which is where the whole alien conspiracy theory is born).
The animal and plant figures are most impressive. They are made of a single, unbroken line that does not cross. They are all unique and beautiful, and perfectly symmetrical. The largest span is 370m in length.
To view the lines, you arrive at the Nazca airport in the morning. They prefer morning flights as the afternoon weather can make the flights too dicey. It all starts with boarding a small airplane, complete with a pilot and guide.
It isn't long before you see your first geoglyphs. The first one you see is appropriately named the 'astronaut'. If you look closely, the right arm is raised and appears to be waving. It is the only one you see that is on the side of a hill. The remaining geoglyphs are all on the flat, desert expanse.
The following shapes are the 'condor', 'monkey', 'humming bird', 'pelican', 'spider' and if you look closely you can find the 'whale'.
Some lines are simply geometric shapes or landing strips for alien craft.
The flight is about 30 minutes long. It may not sound like a long time but the vomit factor is real and an extra 10 minutes would probably push many people over the edge. The pilot does a great job circling and turning so that each side of the airplane has an opportunity to see each of the featured geoglyphs.
If flying isn't for you. There are towers constructed near a couple of the geoglyphs that will give you a sense of what the lines look like from above. The towers can be seen from the air in the photo below.
The last photo was taken from the highway driving past the towers. It gives you an idea of what the Nazca people were working with when they created these outstanding drawings so long ago.
