A few hours South of Lima and inland a bit is the sizeable town of Nazca. It would undoubtedly be a tiny little smudge of a town but for the legendary Nazca Lines. The town gets lots of tourists passing through who pretty much all (including me) stop at the local airport and take a flight over the desert to see the lines.
The desert here is what Id call gibber plain... Which is to say that it is a very arid plain that is covered completely with rocks and stones from about 1cm in size up to 30cm or so. All the sand and smaller material has been blown away by the wind over the centuries.
The "lines" were created by an aincient culture by clearing away the rocks in small areas and in long lines (either straight or outlining images). You have to actually experience the size of the lines and the heat of the desert and the difficulty in walking over the gibber plain to appreciate just how much effort the creators put into making these lines and pictures.
And there really is no way that the makers could get any sort of a look at their final product... There are just no hills big enough to see 90% of the figures and lines... These images simply MUST have been intended for their gods (who clearly dwealt in the skies or heavens) to see.
Most of the lines and figures are within an area of about 30Km x 30Km or so, and given the size of the desert out here, its no wonder that they were not discovered till relatively recently.
The lines were "discovered" by Westerners in the 40s I think, with most of the figures being identified in the 60s. But,some of the more complex/geometrical images were not discovered till as recently as the mid eighties... And Im sure there will be new ones in the future too :)
Many of the figures are more or less recognised by all of us (through glimpses in the media and books etc.), but there are also many many more that are not so well publicised and recognised because they are not so Iconic. But, most of the figures are not on that grand a scale in my opinion. They are mostly less than say 100m - 200m on a side.
Another interesting feature of the figures is that they are mostly "drawn" with one continuous line rather than "lifting up and putting down the pen" so to speak... Just interesting, thats all :))
But, the "lines" are on a much larger scale... They go for hundreds of meters or kilometers! Some are only about 20cm wide, but others are 3m-4m wide... And there are hundreds of them. Some seemed to converge at a few spots, but others do not... I have no idea what they meant.
And then there are the more modern "scribbles" of motorized vehicles that go all over the place... Its clear that the original lines have pretty much all been "cleaned up" over the years by people studying them and they used cars and the tracks from these are all over the place... But you cant drive out there any more - Its now a park and seems well enough protected.
But modern humans are not the only "destructive" agent acting on the lines. The lines are on a "flood plain" from hills further inland, and even though it is incredibly dry, it clearly dose dump down rain from time to time, and you can see the braided-stream trails all over the plain... Many lines and presumably figures have been damaged or completely oblitterated by these natural processes over the centuries.
The flight its self was in a small four person aircraft and my pictures were through the plexiglass windows, so as usual, they could be better. But the window quality was not the biggest problem... Its a very hot desert here and for those who dont know, the strong sun (at the equator here) on the dark stone/earth desert makes for lots of strong "thermals". Which, as a passenger in a light aircraft, you experience as "clear air turbulence". In simple terms, as you fly along, you feel like you are sitting in an express elevator that has "lots its mind" and cant decide which way it wants to go!
It was definitely "strong air", and it was a real challenge trying to just aim the camera at your desired target and take a picture before you "lurched" up or down and lost your aim... again!... And thats another thing; Even trying to get your "target" visible on a tiny little LCD screen in BRIGHT sunlight on the back of your itsy-bitsy little point-and-shoot camera... Lots of fun :)))
So, for a flight of a bit less than an hour, it cost about $75... And actually, that was plenty...
It took me a good fifteen minutes to get over the motion sickness "queezyness" that I got from the flight :)))
So much for "lines in the sand"... :)))
