Mysterious Lines in the Desert

A remarkable discovery was made in 1926 in the Nazca desert. An aircraft crossing the desert discovered mysterious lines spreading over a large area. The travelers looked down and saw huge rectangles and other geometric shapes, together with fine line drawing of animals, including a monkey, a spider, a bird, and even a whale, as well as flowers, hands and spirals. This discovery rejected an earlier theory that the lines might have been ancient roads. Even from a bird`s eye view it was obvious that they clearly acted as something more than just roads.

Why should the Nazca Indians have marked the desert in this way? The patterns of lines were certainly not meant to be an aristic creation, because the Nazcas had no way of looking down on them. What intrigued scientists was not the making but the purpose of the lines. A German mathematician, Maria Reiche, concluded that the lines were intended for astronomical observations. She was almost certain that the lines must have pointed to prominent stars or to the Sun, enabling the Nazca Indians to calculate dates. She thought that the animals and the other figures may have represented star constellations. The whole extraordinary web was probably a huge calendar. Other scientists also turned their attention to the Nazca lines after discovering similar astronomical set of lines at Stonehenge, southern England`s Neolithic temple.

A British movie maker, Tony Morrison, was also fascinated by the enigma and wanted to find the solution. Morrison was convinced that the answer lay in the knowledge of the customs and religion of the Nazca people. Although the Nazcas had vanished long ago, sites with similar lines existed elsewhere in the Andes and so he hoped that the Indians living on such sites might have been able to reveal their purpose. In his book "Pathways to Gods", Morrison described his adventures and his belief that the lines are sacred pathways. He suggested that the Nazca drawings were probably sacred representations of gods and animal spirits, while large, cleared areas were probably sites for religious gathering.

The enigma of the Nazca lines is not totally resolved. And much remains to be learned about the history and ways of life of the Nazcas themselves. The Nazca lines are now guarded and preserved for future investigators, because every unturned stone may conceal vital clues.