You are walking along a field and you see lines scratched into the ground, spreading across a huge area. Later when you see these lines from an airplane, you realize that these lines are forming the image of a giant monkey.

You must be thinking how can this be possible? Well, read more to know about them!!!

The year was 1927, when Airlines started flying over Peru and the Nazca region (Globe time!!!) that passengers reported strange lines, figures and shapes on the ground making pictures of things like animals and plants.

 

Soon these patterns gathered the attention of the world and they began to be known as the ‘Nazca Lines’. Nobody fully knows about how these lines were created but there are some interesting theories around it.

When people first saw the Nazca Lines from planes some suggested that aliens must have made them because of their humongous size. But they were actually made by ancient people who lived in the area.

 

The lines are called geoglyphs. Geoglyphs are images or drawings made on the ground. They can be made by either scratching the ground or using arrangements of rocks.

Reasearchers think now that the lines were most likely made for religious reasons. These ancient people believed in what are called sky gods.

 

The pictures were probably made to be seen by them. Very little rain falls in this area. The lines may have been part of a ritual asking the gods to send rain.

 

The reason the Nazca lines survived so long is because of the weather conditions in the region. The surface is made of stone, not sand, and the climate of the area is such that there is practically no erosion.

 

Fun Facts

Nazca might be one of the earliest known examples of applied geometry.

There are three basic types of Nazca Lines: straight lines, geometric designs and pictorial representations.

There are over 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures and 70 animal and plant designs, also called biomorphs. Some of these images measure up to 1200 feet (370 meters) long.

The Nazca lines were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994.

In December 2014 Greenpeace placed large letters near the site, visible from the air, which read “Time for change! The future is renewable GREENPEACE”. The organisation left footprints in the area close to the hummingbird design, which caused Peru’s government to enact a lawsuit against them. Greenpeace later apologised.