What miracles in itself does not store the ancient history! How many secrets have not yet been solved, and how many of them will never be solved! However, stepping into the future, people increasingly understand the past and replace guesses and myths with real history. So, it is believed that archaeologists have finally solved the riddle that the Nazca desert concealed. The outskirts of Peru became famous back in 1947, when the first scientific publications on incomprehensible lines and mysterious drawings appeared. Later, the idea arose that these were alien runways. Many people on the planet took this idea with interest. So the myth arose.
The mystery of geoglyphs
Scientists and amateurs have been trying for decades to explain the origin of geometric patterns in the desert, covering an area of almost 500 square kilometers. Although at first glance the history of their occurrence in South Peru is quite understandable. For several centuries, the Nazca desert served as a canvas for the ancient Indians on which for some reason they applied mysterious signs. Dark stones lie on the surface, and if they are removed, light sedimentary rocks will be exposed. Such a sharp contrast of colors was used by the Peruvians to create geoglyphic drawings: the background color for the images was the dark color of the soil. They decorated desert areas with straight lines, trapezoids, spirals and huge figures of animals.
The Nazca Desert. Drawing Coordinates
These signs are so huge that they can only be seen from an airplane. However, anyone who wishes today can admire the mysterious symbols, without leaving home, just run on your computer any program that shows satellite images of the Earth. The coordinates of the desert are 14 ° 41'18.31'S 75 ° 07'23.01'W.
In 1994, unusual drawings were included in the list of monuments that make up the World Cultural Heritage. And then the whole world knew where the Nazca desert is. People wondered who the mysterious gallery was intended for. To the gods in heaven who read human souls? Or maybe in this ancient country aliens once built a cosmodrome, so there was a marking? Or is it the first textbook on astronomy, where the course of the planet Venus represents the wing of a bird? Or maybe these are family characters with which the clans marked the territories they inhabited? It was even suggested that in this way the Indians marked the course of underground streams, supposedly this is a secret map of water sources. In general, there were a great many hypotheses; the best minds competed in interpreting the meaning of the inscription, but no one was in a hurry to pick up the facts. Almost all the assumptions were made speculatively - rarely anyone dared to go to an extraordinary distance. That left the Nazca desert (photo below) one of the most mysterious places on the planet, and its ancient inhabitants - one of the most interesting cultures of pre-Columbian America.
Clue path
From 1997 to 2006, scientists from various fields of knowledge conducted a thorough study in the Peruvian desert. The facts that they collected completely debunked all the explanations of the esotericists. No cosmic secrets left! It turned out to be quite an earthly desert of Nazca. Her drawings also speak of the earthly, even too earthly. But first things first.
Expedition to Peru
In 1997, an expedition organized by the German Archaeological Institute began to study the geoglyphs and culture of the Nazca people in the vicinity of the village of Palpa. The place was chosen based on the fact that it is in close proximity to the villages where the ancient Indians lived. “To understand the meaning of the drawings, you need to peer at the people who created them,” the scientists said.
Landscape exploration
As part of the project, the climatic features of the area were studied. This clarified the origin of the characters. Previously, at the place where the Nazca desert now stretches, there was a flat steppe plot. It was formed from the hollow separating the Andes and the Coastal Cordillera (another mountain range). During the Pleistocene, it was filled with sedimentary rocks and pebbles. So there was an ideal “canvas” for applying all kinds of drawings.
Palm trees grew here a couple of millennia ago, llamas grazed, and people lived like in a garden of Eden. Where the Nazca desert stretches today, even heavy rains and floods occurred before. But around 1800 BC e. the climate has become much drier. Drought burned the grass steppe, so people had to settle in river valleys - natural oases. But the desert continued the offensive and crept close to the mountain ranges. Its eastern edge moved 20 kilometers towards the Andes, and the Indians were forced to go into the mountain valleys located at an altitude of 400-800 meters above sea level. And when the climate became drier (around 600 AD), the Nazca culture completely disappeared. Only mysterious signs inscribed on the earth remained of her. Due to the extremely dry climate, they persisted for millennia.
The Nazca Desert. Drawings
After studying the living environment of the creators of the mysterious geoglyphs, the researchers were able to interpret them. The earliest lines appeared about 3,800 years ago, when the first settlements arose in the Palpa area. The South Peruvians created their "art gallery" in the open air, among the rocks. They carved and scratched various patterns of chimeras and people, mythological creatures and animals on brown-red stones. "Revolution in art" occurred in the Peruvian desert somewhere in 200 BC. e. Artists who previously covered only rocks with paintings began to decorate the largest canvas given to them by nature itself - a plateau stretching before the eyes. Here the masters had where to turn around. But instead of figurative compositions, now artisans preferred lines and geometric shapes.
Geoglyphs - part of the ritual
So why were these signs created? It’s certainly not for us to admire them today. Scientists believe that the drawings were part of the "sanctuary", these are the so-called ceremonial figures, which have a purely mystical meaning. Geophysicists examined the soil along the lines (their depth is almost 30 centimeters) and found that it is highly compacted. 70 geoglyphs depicting some creatures and animals are significantly trampled, as if crowds of people walked here for centuries. In fact, various festivities related to the cult of water and fertility were held here. The drier the plateau, the more often the priests performed magical ceremonies in order to invoke rain. Of the ten trapeziums and lines, nine are facing the mountains, to where the salvage rains came from. Magic helped for a long time, and the moisture-bearing clouds returned. However, in the year 600 of the new era, the gods were completely angry with the people who settled in this region.
Debunking a myth
The largest drawings in the Nazca desert appeared at a time when the rains almost stopped. Most likely, people in this way asked the harsh Indian god to heed their suffering, they hoped that at least he would notice such signals. But God remained deaf and blind to supplications. It did not rain. In the end, the Indians left their native land and went to look for a flourishing country. And after a couple of centuries, when the climate became milder, the Nazca desert regained its inhabitants. Here settled people who did not know anything about the previous owners of these lands. Only the lines that went far into the earth reminded that once here a man tried to speak with the gods. However, the meaning of the drawings was already forgotten. Now only scientists are beginning to understand the reason for the appearance of these letters - huge signs, ready, it seems, to survive eternity.