Some 303 previously uncharted geoglyphs made by the Nazca, a pre-Inca civilization in present-day Peru dating from 200 B.C. to 700 A.D., were identifi

Hundreds More Nazca Lines Emerge in Peru’s Desert

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2024-11-23 16:30:07

Some 303 previously uncharted geoglyphs made by the Nazca, a pre-Inca civilization in present-day Peru dating from 200 B.C. to 700 A.D., were identified with the help of machine learning. Credit...

Gouged into a barren stretch of pampa in southern Peru, the Nazca Lines are one of archaeology’s most perplexing mysteries. On the floor of the coastal desert, the shallow markings look like simple furrows. But from the air, hundreds of feet up, they morph into trapezoids, spirals and zigzags in some locations, and stylized hummingbirds and spiders in others. There is even a cat with the tail of a fish. Thousands of lines jump cliffs and traverse ravines without changing course; the longest is bullet-straight and extends for more than 15 miles.

The vast incisions were brought to the world’s attention in the mid-1920s by a Peruvian scientist who spotted them while hiking through the Nazca foothills. Over the next decade, commercial pilots passing over the region revealed the enormousness of the artwork, which is believed to have been created from 200 B.C. to 700 A.D. by a civilization that predated the Inca.