The mystery of the Nazca Lines is age old and is still heavily debated and studied even today. The theories range from religious walking trails, to extraterrestrial landing strips. Like some of the other ancient mysteries existing today, the Nazca Lines have managed to stump great minds for centuries. The biggest questions have been exactly how and why they were built.
The Nazca Lines are believed to have been built over 2,000 years ago by an ancient people called the Nazca. They are located in the Nazca desert in Peru. The “lines” are composed of over 300 geometric shapes and other figures that are only visible from the air. Some of the geoglyphs resemble creatures such as humans, monkeys, fish or even what some say look like spaceships and astronauts. Others seem to be more purposeful roads, lines etc. The lines as they are called, bear striking similarities to modern day landing strips and roads. What were they used for? Did these ancient people build these as extraterrestrial landing strips or was there another reason?
The lines were made by removing the reddish pebbles and stone to reveal the lighter colored ground beneath. The big question is how did these ancient people survey the land and manage to create these massive and nearly perfect shapes that could only be seen from the heavens? The lines and shapes are contsructed across a 193 square mile radius, with the longest being over 886 feet. It is also believed that some type of surveying equipment was being used by the Nazca to
build these amazing geoglyphs. This was due to evidence of ancient wooden stakes being found at the end of some of the lines
The most popular theory regarding the Nazca Lines is that they were built to worship gods that the Nazca people believed were able to see from the sky. Who were these Gods? Was there another reason? We may never know what the ancient Nazca had in mind when these lines were constructed, but you can be sure that people will continue to study and develop new theories for many years to come.
