misterious Nazca Lines

Nazca Lines are the most outstanding group of geoglyphs in the world. Etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand about 300 hundred figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes and pictures of animals and birds - and their patterns are only clearly visible from the air.

If you have Google Earth installed, use this Nazca Google Earth Placemark file (Save and Open) and it will fly you to a location*. If not, you will need to install Google Earth first (available at http://earth.google.com ).

Google Earth streams the world over wired and wireless networks enabling users to virtually go anywhere on the planet and see places in photographic detail. This is not like any map you have ever seen. This is a 3D model of the real world, based on real satellite images combined with maps, guides to restaurants, hotels, entertainment, businesses and more. You can zoom from space to street level instantly and then pan or jump from place to place, city to city, even country to country.

There are three mysterious aspects to Nazca Plateau

First, the straight lines, many kilometers long, crisscross sectors of the pampas in all directions (as shown on images above). Many of the lines appear to be random and seem to have no pattern to them.

Second, many of the lines form geometric figures: angles, triangles, bunches, spirals, rectangles, wavy lines, etc. Other lines form concentric circles converging with or emanating from a promontory. Other prints have formed "roads" like geometric planes and appear to have been occupied by large groups of the population.

Third, many lines form animal patterns.

Could these geoglyphs be effigies of ancient animal gods or patterns of constellations? Are they roads, star pointers, maybe even a gigantic map? If the people who lived here 2,000 years ago had only a simple technology, how did they manage to construct such precise figures? Did they have a plan? If so, who ordained it? It all seems so otherworldly. To comprehend the Nasca lines, created by the removal of desert rock to reveal the pale pink sand beneath, visitors have proposed every imaginable explanation - from runways for spaceships to tracks for Olympic athletes, from op art to pop art, to astronomical observatories.

It is believed that the geoglyphs were built by a people called the Nasca- but why and how they created these wonders of the world has defied explanation.

As much as the lines awe us, we marvel equally at the imagination of the people who have sought explanations for them.



Mysterious Nazca-like "roads" near Pisco, Peru

Another strange "road" is located near Pisco in Peru.

Satellite photo of the "Band of Holes" near Pisco Valley .
Note: The location of the band of holes is highlighted brown.

This is another strange road in the Pisco region in Peru. It is about 20m wide and goes for many miles through the desert. It is lighter than its surroundings and marked by small craters spread apart by approximately 200m