Oh man, Peru has so much great archaeology i completely blanked on the Nazca lines being here.
Great timing on the post, thanks! I'll be driving by Nazca in a few days.
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
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There's a tower along the highway that you can go up (for a few soles) and see a few of the figures. If you want a really good look, you can get a plane ride, but that's expensive.
Oh dang, thanks for the tip. Yea, I'm good with a tower. Or honestly, peering from my bus window, haha, I've spent a lot of time looking at their satellite images.
You really got around the country. Did you take tours or drive around yourselves?
You really won't see it from the bus window. You'll just know it's there from the tower. We took collectivos mostly and the occasional bus. Collectivos were a whole lot easier than buses. The last part of the trip, we hooked up with Peruhop.
And so far, Greenpeace has only irreparably damaged one of them!
Seriously? Why?
It was a misguided attempt to send a message.
Yeah, it's sad, actually.
This one in particular was created by the Paracas people (400-200BC), which is older than the Nazca culture (200BC - 500 AD)
Bonus: The Nazca were pre-dated by another people called the Paracas who also made lines like that:
Paracas Culture - 800 BC to 100 BC.
Nazca - 100 BC to 800 AD.
The candelabra is actually Paracas.
Yeah, I did know that, but I didn't get a really good picture of the Nazca lines. We went up the tower, but they didn't show up very well.
Time without TV or internet. They got bored. Simple as.
I have so many questions—What are we actually looking at here? Seems like impressions on a sand mound/hill/dune, but if that's true, how are they so old? How does weather/age/erosion not make these disappear? I cannot believe anywhere on earth is tame enough to never have enough wind or tectonic movement to disrupt I guess. Tell me it's not AI please
Ancient Peruvians were masters of AI technology.
The common thought is that this is a cactus. All these lines are in a desert, but not a sand desert. It's just rocks and gravel. Therefore, they don't get filled in with sand. Also, they only get a cm or two of rain a year and often that comes as mist, so very little erosion. The lines were made by scraping of the top 10 to 15 cm of pebbly rock to expose a slightly different colour of rock underneath. This particular figure is not in the Nazca region (therefore not made by the Nazca people). It was in the Paracas national park. You can't actually get to it by land. It's on a hill slope on the coast. I took a picture of it while passing by on a tour to the Ballestas Islands. The actual Nazca lines can be seen from a tower along the highway, but it isn't high enough to get a really good picture. You can take a plane ride, but I'm not that rich.
So we have no information on why they made these? I mean probably to worship some god that they believe in? Was there no writing then, or anyone who passed the knowledge down?
The thought is they were for astronomical or religous reasons.
The candelabra is carved 2 feet deep and surrounded by rocks.
The wind definitely makes it blurry from time to time though!
This is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Aliens...it was Mr.Crispy
He's teriyaki style.