The Nazca Plains

THE NAZCA PLAINS
Impossible Portraits

Chapter Seven: Easter Island

Back Home

For information on the origin of these figures, go to the Current Theories section. Otherwise, continue on to Easter Island.

The forms are so difficult to see from the ground that they were not discovered until the 1930's when aircraft surveying for water spotted them. The plain, crisscrossed, by these giant lines with many forming rectangles, has a striking resemblance to a modern airport. The Swiss writer, Erich von Daniken, even suggested they had been built for the convenience of ancient visitors from space to land their ships. Though this theory may appear well-researched, it has been shown that the desert floor at Nasca is soft earth and loose stone, not tarmac, and would not support the landing wheels of aircraft. The main reason that theories like those of Erich von Daniken abound is that a large glyph was found with a strong resemblance to a man, 32 metres tall, waving at the skies in salutation, wearing what appears to be some kind of suit, suggested as being a space suit, and some sort of head gear, again, suggested as being a helmet, similar to those used by modern-day astronauts and cosmonauts. An example of this curious glyph can be seen in figure 2.

The American explorer Paul Kosok, who made his first visit to Nasca in the 1940s, suggested that the lines were astronomically significant and that the plain acted as a giant observatory. He called it "the largest astronomy book in the world." Gerald Hawkins, an American astronomer, tested this theory in 1968 by feeding the position of a sample of lines into a computer and having a program calculate how many lines coincided with an important astronomical event. Hawkins showed the number of lines that were astronomically significant were only about the same number that would be the result of pure chance. This makes it seem unlikely Nasca is an observatory.

Figure 2: The Nazca Astronaut, waving at the sky with his right hand, wearing boots, a helmet, and some kind of suit. Click for larger image (see fig 7, no. 14)

About 1,400 kms south of the plain is the largest human figure in the world laid out upon the side of Solitary Mountain, shown in figure 5. The Giant of Atacama stands 115 metres high and is surrounded by lines similar to those at Nasca.

Figure 7: Map of the Sierra Pintada, with glyphs labelled one to twenty six. 1. Killer Whale,2. Wing,3. Baby Condor,4. Heron,5. Animal,6. Spiral,7. Lizard,8. Tree,9. Hands,10. Spiral,11. Spider,12. Flower,13. Dog,14. Astronaut,15. Triangle,16. Whale,17. Trapezoids,18. Star,19. Pelican,20. Condor,21. Trapezoid,22. Hummingbird,23. Trapezoid,24. Monkey,25. Llama,26. Trapezoids.

Click on the map for an larger image.

It has been shown that these glyphs could have been drawn using a grid method, similar to the grid method taught in the initial stages of an artistic drawing course. Symbols can be made by drawing the desired figure at some reasonable size, then using a grid system to divide it up. The symbol could then be redrawn at full scale by recreating the grid on the ground and working on each individual square one at a time. But the question remains; why draw these figures, that can only be seen from the sky? Why, when at the time no human could fly? What spurned their interest in showing these images to be viewed only from the sky? Why create a man to wave in salutation towards the sky? Who was he welcoming, or saying goodbye to?

Figure 5: The Giant of Atacama, standing 115 m high. Click for larger image.

Figure 6: Along the Pacific Coast in the foothills of the Andes Mountains is etched a figure resembling a giant candelabra.

Just 210 kms from Nazca, dug into a sloping hill at Pisco Bay on the Peruvian coast, the drawing, shown in figure 6, strongly resembles a candlestick, giving this glyph the name "Candelabra of the Andes". There has been much speculation about the purpose of the 180 metre high candelabra, but no definitive answer has been forthcoming. It is constructed in a different manner to the Nazca lines, using trenches up to one metre in depth, and is best viewed from out at sea - it is reputed to be seen from as far away as 20 kms.

Further south, Sierra Pintada, which means "the painted mountain" in Spanish, is covered with vast pictures including spirals, circles, monkeys, whales, and a condor. This site is depicted in figure 7.

In the Peruvian desert, about 320 kilometres south of Lima, lies the Nazca Plains, between the Inca and Nasca valleys. Across this plain, in an area measuring 60 kilometres long and 2 kilometres wide, is an assortment of perfectly straight lines, many running parallel, others intersecting, forming a grand geometric form. In and around the lines there are also trapezoidal zones, strange symbols, and pictures of birds and beasts all etched on a giant scale that can only be appreciated from the sky.

The figures come in two types: biomorphs and geoglyphs. The biomorphs are some 70 animal and plant figures that include a spider, hummingbird, monkey and a 300-metre-long pelican. The biomorphs are grouped together in one area on the plain.

There are about 900 geoglyphs on the plain. Geoglyphs are geometric forms that include straight lines, triangles, spirals, circles and trapezoids. They are enormous in size. The longest straight line goes nearly 15 kilometres across the plain.

Figure 1: Geoglyph on the Nazca Plains, some 1.1 kilometres in length.

Figure 3: The hummingbird biomorph on the Nacza Plains, as seen in figure 7, number 22.

Figure 4: Goemorph of the Killer Whale, as seen in figure 7, number 1.

Figure 10: Geomorph of the Condor, as seen in figure 7, number 20.

Figure 8: Geomorph of the Heron, with a strangely elongated neck, as seen in figure 7, number 4.

Figure 9: Geomorph of the Spider, as seen in figure 7, number 11. Click for larger image.

Figure 11: Geomorph of the dog, as seen in figure 7, number 13.

Figure 12: Geomorph of the Monkey, as seen in figure 7, number 24. Click for larger image.