In 1939, an American archaeologist Paul Kosok, flying over Nazca Desert, discovered strange lines and shapes. Previously, no one knew about them, because they can only be clearly seen from a sufficiently high altitude. From that moment on, the study of strange figures began. German doctor of archeology Maria Reiche dedicated her whole life to this. She also achieved protection of the lines from destruction at the highest level. Now lines And geoglyphs The Nazcas are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Thanks to the desert climate, the drawings have not disappeared over the centuries, although they are very easily destroyed: after all, they are simply the top layer of soil that has been removed. But there is something to protect the lines from. Lines that have lasted for centuries can easily be destroyed by humans, because both cars and people leave noticeable marks on the surface. And the route passing right through some geoglyphs Panamericana Sur poses an even greater threat.

Many lines extend over 8 kilometers in length, and the figures can reach 250 meters in size. In the photo below - circular (360 degrees) photo panorama Nazca desert in high resolution, taken from a hill near the highway.

Currently, about 30 basic and hundreds of lesser-known designs are known, about 700 geometric figures, most of which are spirals, and about 13,000 lines of various geometries. No less interesting geoglyphs were also discovered north of Nazca - near the city Palpa. Due to their obvious similarity, we will describe them together.

Major geoglyphs of Nazca

On the map below we have highlighted the most famous geoglyphs - drawings of the Nazca desert. You can also see numerous lines on the map. Please note: the “Astronaut” figure is made at a great distance from the others - on the map below on the right, moreover, on the slope of a hill and in a different manner, this may indicate a different nature of origin compared to other geoglyphs.

Types of Nazca and Palpa figures

Conventionally, all the figures of both the Nazca desert and the Palpa desert can be divided into 6 types according to geometry:

Mysteries of Nazca and Palpa

1. Overlay weirdness. Repeatedly intersecting and overlapping lines, figures and drawings refute the theory that the drawings were made later than the lines. Because somewhere the drawings are above the lines, and somewhere vice versa. But something else is strange: the drawings and lines located on top do not destroy the drawings and lines that are under them.

   

2. Passage through terrain. If you observe the view from space, then all the lines look absolutely even. But if you take pictures from an airplane, you can see that the lines often run through rough terrain. In this case, it is not clear how it was possible to complete the lines so accurately not from a height, but while on the ground.

   

3. The manner of drawing. Almost all the drawings are made with one line, which does not intersect anywhere. The manner in which the drawings are executed strongly resembles the manner in which zigzags, spirals and parallel lines are executed - as if they were drawn with one beam under the control of a computer program.

   

4. Location of drawings. Almost all drawings are located parallel or at right angles to nearby lines.

   

5. Incoming and Outgoing Drawing Lines. Many drawings such as Hummingbird, Spider, Monkey, are drawn not as a closed line, but as coming from somewhere and returning somewhere, as if the drawings were drawn “at the same time” with the lines. Often such entrances and exits are located in the area of ​​the genital organs of the animals depicted.
   

   

6. Location of drawings. Nazca and Palpa are not the only places of the lines. The lines are scattered throughout the desert part of almost all of Peru, many hundreds of kilometers from Nazca. Well known geoglyph " Chandelier", located in Paracas and clearly visible from the Ballestas Islands.
   

   

7. Interdependence of drawings. Thin lines suddenly turn into wide ones, the line can be continued with a pattern, and the wide line ends at the intersection of another wide one.

   

The lines represent a removed layer of soil from 20 to 50 cm. But there are no embankments nearby - only very minimal ones, and there are no piles of stones in the distance. And on smooth turns of wide lines when clearing, the sides on the outer circumferences of the sides should be wider than on the inner ones. In addition, it is worth understanding that in order to draw some large stripes, you need to remove thousands of tons of such rubble from the surface.



8. Dependence on relief. Thickening of the lines often occurs with a decrease in ground level. Thick lines often break at the base of mountains or rivers. And some wide lines are located on the mountains and seem to cut off their peaks, which are almost perfectly flat.

   

9. Rows of embankments. The purpose of the rows of points - embankments - is not clear. In some places they fill wide swaths.

   

10. Unexplored artifacts. In the area of ​​the lines there are many strange formations - square and round depressions, geometrically evenly located rock formations, which scientists have not yet explored. Therefore, until this is done, it is difficult to give final versions of the purpose of the drawings.

    

11. There are no traces except lines. To draw such lines from the ground, you need to use some kind of equipment, you need the presence of people. All this would leave technological traces. Today you can see distinct traces of cars and people. Even, for example, after Greenpeace carried out its unsuccessful action and left traces, which greatly outraged the Peruvians. But the ancient lines have no traces except the lines themselves.

    

Versions of scientists

There are several main versions of the origin and purpose of the Nazca lines and geoglyphs. And they are all quite controversial.

1. Astronomical version. German researcher Maria Reiche, who devoted her life to studying the figures, came to the conclusion that the drawings were made by someone who lived in this area about 2,000 years ago. The drawings on their ceramic dishes, similar to geoglyphs, also speak for this. Radiocarbon dating proves approximately this period of appearance of geoglyphs. The drawings, according to Reiche, represent a large astronomical calendar, an open-air observatory. The calendar served to determine the time of agricultural work. Doctor Phillips Pitlugi, for example, claims that the image of a spider and the lines diverging from it resembles a cluster of stars in the constellation Orion. Modern scientists (starting with the American Gerald Hawkins) dispute this version, citing the fact that there are so many lines that of course you can find those that resemble the arrangement of stars. But what to do with the rest is not clear.
2. Religious version. This version does not dispute the version of origin, but considers release rites to be their purpose. For example, shamans walked along these stripes and called out to the souls of the dead. Or the inhabitants of Nazca tried to appeal to the gods in this way so that they would give water in the form of rain. After all, the Nazca civilization presumably died out precisely because of climate change, which gradually dried out previously fertile lands.
3. Alien scanning. This version assumes that the lines and drawings, except for the clearly anthropomorphic ones ("Family", "Llamas"), were drawn from a great height - only in this case they could be so even. It is also assumed that a computer program was used that could draw such perfectly calibrated figures. Perhaps alien creatures took soil samples, the zigzags and spirals indicate this. And thick lines may indicate the collection of minerals from the surface. For example, iron ore is present in the rocks on the desert surface. There is another interpretation of this version. An antediluvian civilization, not aliens, was looking for cities buried under layers of mud, scanning the area from above. The fact that there was a mudflow in this area is evidenced by the composition of the desert soil: rounded stones in clay, and here and there peaks sticking out former mountains. Also, the destroyed buildings of the city speak a lot about the flood.
4. Alien ships. This version says that the lines were runways. However, it is not clear why there are so many of them, why in such viscous soil, and why then the patterns and zigzags. And no traces of a possible takeoff and landing were found. But it can be assumed that the numerous lines in the sand are scanning to find a place for ships to land or take off, and since the soil is soft, the scanning continued further until the ideal place was found - in the solid mountains of Palpa. This version is supported by the fact that it is there that the stripes do not represent the removal of a couple of tens of centimeters from the surface of the soil, but as if the top of the mountain was deliberately cut off and leveled.

How to observe

The best way to observe the Nazca and Palpa lines is, of course, from an airplane. If you have purchased a tour to Peru, please note that a flight over the Nazca Lines is included. Then you don't have to worry about organizing it. Those traveling on their own should note that you must register for the flight at least a day in advance. At the same time, you can spend the night in Nazca, Ica or Paracas - they are closest to the geoglyphs.

The second option is economical. When you drive through Panamericana Sur, there are two sightseeing spots you can't miss. If you come from the south, then the first place is Hill, next to which there is a parking lot. Our panorama photo was taken from the hill (at the beginning of the article). Plus, observing from a hill - unlike flying on an airplane, you can see the lines very close. In addition, some lines are very clearly visible from the hill.

Well, the third option is a little further north along Panamericana Sur. This was done on purpose, even under Maria Reichel. tower, from which you can see 3 figures. On the one side hands And tree, and on the other - from afar the tip reptiles. Near the tower, various souvenirs dedicated to the Nazca lines and geoglyphs are sold. Entrance to the tower is paid.

You can visit the Palpa drawings; we’ll drive a little further north, but to see them it’s better to leave Panamericana Sur.

“Geo” translated from Greek, as we know, means “earth”. And a “glyph” is a “concave line.” The Nazca geoglyphs are huge, beautiful and mysterious. They are surrounded by a seemingly chaotic network of lines and contours. Scientists have no doubt that these images and lines appeared in the pre-Columbian era. Their clear time barrier has also been determined - until the 12th century, when the Incas, who had a completely different culture, entered the territory of present-day Peru. But regarding the framework of the beginning and end of the period in which the main Nazca geoglyphs were created, there are different points of view. Archaeologists, knowing that on fragments of ceramics of the Nazca people the same geometric elements are found as on earth, and the heyday of this civilization dates back to the 100s. BC e. to the 700s n. e., insist on these dates. To this their opponents object that the images were not necessarily created during this entire period. Objections are based on analysis of manganese and iron oxides at the edges of the lines. These oxides in Nazca, in conditions of almost complete anhydrity, form the so-called desert tan of sandy soil, a kind of crust that has formed over thousands of years. Beneath it is sandstone. That is why the Nazca lines are so clearly visible: the dark crust and light sandstone contrast sharply and clearly with each other. And they are nothing more than witnesses of time. According to this concept, the Nazca geoglyphs are attributed by geologists mainly to the 1st century. n. e., and the latest - to the 6th century. n. e. However, neither a purely archaeological nor a purely geological approach can be considered exhaustively reliable; there are still too many unanswered questions in each version.
The history of the discovery of Nazca geoglyphs began only in the 20th century, because they can be seen in their entirety only from a bird's eye view. Until airplanes appeared here, Nazca remained “terra incognita” for the world. Although the shepherds, and then the travelers, of course, saw and understood that the lines on the ground were clearly of man-made origin: the trenches were smooth, lined with pebbles along the edges. In 1553, Ciesade Leon (1518/1520-1554), a Spanish priest, geographer and historian, reported about them this way: “Through all these valleys and those that have already been passed, along the entire length there is a beautiful, great Inca road , and here and there among the sands you can see signs to guess the path laid out.” Archaeologists Alfred Krebe and Toribio Mejia Xesspe in 1927 suggested that this was a system of irrigation structures; Xesspe, however, later changed his mind, agreeing with Leon. Even then it was noticed that the furrow lines were laid strictly in a straight line; they did not bypass any elevations or dry river beds. But the scale of the drawings itself remained unknown. Until the American archaeologist Paul Kosok (1896-1959) flew over them on an airplane in 1939. And when, in 1941, the German Maria Reiche (1902-1998), a mathematician by profession, began to collaborate with him, a new meaning was revealed, and what a new meaning. She believed, and Kosok agreed with her, that all these contours and lines are nothing more than an astronomical calendar: straight and spiral figures symbolize the constellations, and symbolic animal figures symbolize the positions of the planets. The movement of planets and constellations in the sky could be associated with calculations of the rainy season. And also have sacred meaning- a message to the heavenly rulers of the forces of nature with a request to send life-giving moisture or, who knows, not only about that. About something purely spiritual, judging by the truly artistic inspiration with which the images were created. If we remember that their creators could not fly into the air on anything, and the contours are drawn in continuous lines, then one cannot help but bow our heads respectfully before the power of their imagination and the accuracy of the execution of their plans.
In 1994, the geoglyphs of the Nazca Desert were included in the List World Heritage UNESCO.
The Nazca Plateau is a sandy, arid plain in the southern part of Peru, in the province of the same name in the Ica region, which lies approximately in the center of the country's Pacific coast and 40 km from the ocean, 380-440 km southeast of the country's capital city. In this region they retreat from the coast, and the topography here is predominantly flat and level, with minor elevations. The plateau extends between the small cities of Palpa in the north and Nazca in the south, almost 60 km from north to south and has a width of 5 to 7 km from west to east. The Andes spurs approach it from the east. The Pan-American Highway passes through the Pampa de Nazca, as the plateau is called in Peru.
Hypotheses about the origin and purpose of the Nazca geoglyphs, from mathematical to ufological, have long since acquired the character of an avalanche of disputes, in which no one has yet been able to put a weighty and irrefutable point.
But there are still counterpoints in this flow.
Geological and hydrological studies have established that 62 “radial centers” are located on elevations from which river beds (mostly dry today) are visible. Many lines pass directly over faults and, therefore, aquifers, especially in the east of the pampa, closer to the Andes. That is, in the complex it could well be a map of the distribution of groundwater.
Maria Reiche, who spent more than 40 years studying the Nazca geoglyphs, also found small copies of them, sketches. And therefore, she concludes, ancient artists knew how to scale an image, that is, they understood the laws of mathematics and physics (optics), albeit not in theory, but as they manifest themselves in nature. These guesses by Reiche are shared by the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Orefici (b. 1946), today the world's most authoritative expert on Nazca, as well as the adjacent pyramidal structures of the city of Cahuachi. And he doesn’t just separate them, he checks them using computer programs. He also has his own impressive hypothesis. Studying Cahuachi since 1982, he came to the conclusion that the Nazca civilization was generally much more highly developed than commonly thought, and put forward a hypothesis about its existence until approximately the middle of the 1st century. n. e. on the plateau of a large city called Suashi. He modeled this city in 3D graphics, based on multispectral analysis of the soil and archaeological finds, in particular in the Nazca necropolises. All the people buried there were without weapons, which means they lived peacefully. And when a person lives in the world, he develops his intellect and talents. The Nazcas did not know writing, but they designed their pyramids perfectly, built them up to 20 m high, they even had a water supply system with multi-level wells, like the kariz in Central Asia, which we write about in the same issue. (An amazing coincidence is evidence that human intelligence develops according to general laws.) On the Orefici monitor, a city built up with temples and pyramids appeared, which went underground as a result of two natural disasters at once - an earthquake and a flood: in that era, Nazca was not as arid as Now. Orefici's calculations showed that only 20% of geoglyphs could be related to observations of the starry sky, and that was hypothetical. And mistakes among the pyramid builders, although rare, did occur; after all, it is human nature to make mistakes. But aliens from other planets, who, according to some versions, are the true authors of geoglyphs, would hardly be mistaken; their level of knowledge, by definition, should have been much higher.
And yet, no scientific conclusions can compare in popularity among the general public with the flight of fancy of supporters of the theory of the participation of extraterrestrial civilizations here. Based on the book of the Swiss ufologist Erich Däniken (b. 1935) “Chariots of the Gods,” in 1970 Harald Reinl made the film “Memories of the Future,” which is documentary in form, but is distinguished by an extremely arbitrary interpretation of the filmed material and conjectures arising from it. This film is widely known in the world. He made millions of people seriously believe that the Nazca geoglyphs are runways for aliens from other planets and were most likely created by them (like the Egyptian pyramids, and the statues of Easter Island, and other famous grandiose and mysterious structures on the planet ). Many times these conclusions have been disputed by serious and responsible scientists, but this film and other ufological works are still taken on faith.
One thing is certain: the Nazca Desert will open up many more unexpected and extremely interesting things for all of us.

general information

Images from the Nazca Plateau in Peru.
Administrative affiliation: Ica region, Nazca province.
Official language in Peru: Spanish.
Currency of Peru: new salt.

The US dollar is also the most widely used currency.
The largest river of the Nazca plateau: El Ingenio (drying).

Nearest airport: Jorge Chavez (international) in the capital of Peru, Lima.

Numbers

Area of ​​the Nazca Plateau: about 500 km 2.

Population of the Nazca Plateau: about 20,000 people.

Population density: 40 people/km 2 .
Width of trench lines- up to 135 cm, depth - up to 50 cm, on average - 35 cm.

Climate and weather

Subtropical dry, semi-desert.

Average annual temperature: +22°С.

Average annual precipitation: about 180 mm.

Economy

Tourism.
Transport services(Pan American Highway).

Attractions

■ More than 30 images, the most famous of which are “Astronaut” (a person in clothes similar to a spacesuit) - 30 m long, “Hummingbird” - 50 m, “Spider” - 46 m, “Monkey” - 50 m high and more than 100 m wide , “Condor” - 120 m, “Lizard” - 188 m, “Heron” - 285 m. Other images - flowers, trees, real and fantastic animals.
■ Straight, long and short lines(about 13 thousand, long ones stretch for a distance of several kilometers).
■ About 780 geometrically correct figures- triangles, spirals, trapezoids, located both separately and in various combinations with other figures and lines (zigzags, “ray centers”).
■ Research Center named after. Maria Reiche(her former house).
■ Archaeological Museum of Antonini(finds by J. Orefici).
■ Nearby: geoglyphs of the Palpa plateau, ruins of Cahuachi - Great Temple and other buildings (II century BC - VIII century AD), Cantayoc aqueducts - spiral wells (IV-VII centuries AD), necropolis Chauchilla, open graves, mummies (presumably III-IX centuries).

Curious facts

■ In 2011, Japanese scientists from Yamagata University announced that they had discovered previously unnoticed images on the Nazca plateau, presumably created in the period from 400 AD. BC e. to 200 BC e. These are two figures whose “faces” are clearly visible, that is, the points of the eyes and mouth. The left one measures 13x7 m, the right - 9x8.5 m. The head of the right figure is separated from the body. Yamagata University cultural anthropology professor Masato Sakai has suggested that the scene depicts a ritual execution.
■ The image of the “Monkey” reveals a harmonious mathematical combination. Two long axes drawn near it form an oblique cross, similar to an X. The axis of symmetry drawn through the intersection point passes exactly between the monkey’s legs. The angle between the oblique lines is 36°. And if the monkey’s figure is repeated on exactly the same scale relative to point X, then we get 10 monkeys, forming a closed circle without any stretch. Moreover, the center of the spiral of the tail of each monkey coincides with the center of the head of its next double.
■ Early in the morning, Maria Reiche, the first explorer of geoglyphs, often found various fruits and nuts in baskets on the ground near the tent or adobe hut where she lived. The Indians brought them at night. They treated her with irony mixed with respect and sympathy, and nicknamed Maria “The Crazy Gringa.”
■ Nazca geoglyphs have analogues. The most famous of them are located nearby - on the Peruvian plateau of Palpa. They are not that large, but there are more of them. They are located mainly on the flat tops of hills, and these peaks give the impression of being cut horizontally on purpose, while the nearby hills have a natural cone shape. Humanoid figures are often found on the hillsides of Palpa. In Peru, near the city of Pisco, there is a single geoglyph “Andean candelabra”. A landmark of the Atacama Desert in Chile is the “Giant”, an image of a man (86 m). There are several geoglyphs similar to Peruvian ones near the city of Blythe in California (USA). Terrestrial imagery has also been found in Ohio; in England (“White Horse”, “Giant”); on the Ustyurt plateau in Kazakhstan; on Southern Urals(“Elk of Zyuratkul”); in Africa (south of Lake Victoria and Ethiopia); in Australia (“Murry Man”, the largest geoglyph on Earth, 4.2 km long).
■ If we continue the clearest straight lines of Nazca, it turns out, as some researchers prone to the so-called paranormal versions believe, that they point to the capital Ancient Egypt Thebes, an ancient city in Mexico, the period of greatest prosperity of which falls on 250-600 years. n. e. Both there and there, as you know, there are pyramids. The third line is directed to the pyramidal-shaped burial mounds... in China, in the province of Shaanxi, and another one is directed to the pyramid-like natural mountainous formations of the flagrons in Europe, in Bosnia. With equal success, you can find any other objects on imaginary lines, which have much in common.

The Nazca culture is considered the successor to the Paracas culture. Here, similar “designs” are used to make fabrics, household items and jewelry. Children, as was customary in Paracas, continued to have their skulls deformed by squeezing the forehead and back of the head. Some adults sometimes had their skulls trepanned, but not in such large numbers as their predecessors.

It is curious that society’s attitude towards these people (or rather, heads) has changed dramatically. Apparently, all the “trepanned” were specially registered. And when they died, their heads were separated from their bodies, and the headless body was placed in the burial with a small pumpkin attached to it! Dangerous (or especially valuable?), apparently, the heads were buried separately, in special caches.

This seemingly strange fact can serve as proof of L.P.’s hypothesis. Girmak about the attempts of ancient Americans to achieve an altered state of consciousness through neurosurgical intervention. People who underwent trepanation became “sorcerers” or clairvoyants and inevitably occupied a special position in society. It is quite obvious that Paracas had excellent surgeons and many clairvoyants. In Nazca, for some reason unknown to us, this tradition is gradually being lost. It may very well be that new government decided to do away with witchcraft practices, for which the heads of deceased (possibly killed) sorcerers began to be separated from their bodies. As is known, violation of the integrity of the body during burial, according to the beliefs of many peoples, predetermines the impossibility of the rebirth of the deceased...

However, we will not dwell on the description of this culture, but will move on to one of the biggest mysteries of archeology, history, anthropology and many other related ones. We'll talk about mysterious drawings of the Nazca plateau.

These drawings were discovered by chance, thanks to aviation, since they can only be seen from an airplane or from a high elevation. I saw the giant ones first geometric figures from an airplane in 1920, an American explorer Paul Kosok. The scientist peered in amazement at this incredible kaleidoscope trapezoids, triangles and spirals that dotted the plateau over a vast territory. In addition, there were images of over 100 known plants and animals, as well as a scattering of strange, unrelated straight lines.

These lines especially struck the scientist. They cut through the desert in all directions without any apparent order, they were absolutely straight and ran away beyond the horizon, completely ignoring the uneven terrain - through hills and valleys.

The 60 km long Nazca sandy plain is located 400 km south of the Peruvian capital Lima, between the cities of Nazca and Palpa. In these places, the earth does not see moisture for years. Drops of rare rain, falling on a hot rocky surface, immediately evaporate. This lifeless space is an ideal place for burials to ensure incorruptibility. Later, studying all the drawings on site, Paul Kosok saw that the technology for their execution was surprisingly simple. It was only necessary to move the stones and turf underneath, exposing the soft earth, and lay them in a row. Of course, this took many years. But the images, created with great care, could be preserved in this waterless, arid place for thousands of years!

The themes of the drawings, as already mentioned, can be divided into two categories: these are figures and lines, the latter either in pairs, like tram tracks, or forming geometric shapes. And since in many places the lines are drawn over the drawings, it is obvious that the drawings were made first. The lines are very straight, and it remains a mystery how the draftsmen managed to adhere to the plan so precisely and achieve the effect straight lines at such long distances.

Since the discovery of the mysterious drawings, scientists have been haunted by questions about their creators and purpose. The theories put forward are varied and fantastic - from space aliens to a system for controlling the earth's population. Each new enthusiast for solving the mystery of Nazca adheres to one theory: astronomical, geometric, agricultural or irrigation, utilitarian-geographical (roads) and creative (art). Other hypotheses have been put forward, but so far none of them has a significant advantage. Even in determining the age of the desert paintings, researchers cannot come to a consensus: some believe that they were created around 200 BC. e., according to others - in 1700 BC. e.

Let's take a closer look at some of the theories regarding the Nazca paintings.

The very first one - astronomical, it came to the mind of the discoverer of the drawings, Paul Kosok. On June 21, 1939, the scientist took the first step towards solving the “mystery of Nazca.” At sunset, he saw how it was setting exactly at the intersection of one of the straight lines with the horizon. Observations in the following days convinced Kosok that his guess was correct: he found the line of the winter solstice (in the southern hemisphere, winter corresponds to our summer) solstice. In addition, Kosok noticed that the drawings and lines indicate the location of certain cosmic bodies (stars and constellations) in the sky in astronomical terms. significant days(full moons, etc.).

But to strengthen the hypothesis, it was necessary to identify all the figures of the Nazca desert with celestial phenomena. This Herculean task required a lot of effort, time and complete dedication. Paul Kosok was lucky. He found such an assistant in the person of a modest translator from Spanish, who accompanied him on trips to the countries of South America, a German by birth Maria Reiche. It was to her that the scientist entrusted the fate of his extraordinary discovery and never subsequently repented of it. It took seven years to compile the first rough maps and topological plans of the plateau.

Only in 1947, with the assistance of the Peruvian Ministry of Aviation, Maria was able to use a helicopter. The first time she flew, hanging overboard: she was tied with ropes, and she was holding the camera in her hands. Then an engineer I knew designed a special suspension for her - it became relatively safe. She worked alone, and therefore things went slowly. Maria completed the first detailed diagram of images in the Nazca desert only in 1956.

“For ancient peoples, the positions of the Sun served as a calendar,” said Maria Reiche. “It was used to determine the arrival of spring and autumn, seasonal fluctuations in water regime, and, consequently, the timing of sowing and harvesting. That's why we found so many lines. It is difficult to talk about the exact meaning of animal images. I only know that some of them represent entire constellations. Most of all I want to penetrate into the way of thinking of the ancients who left us such unusual writings. And it is also extremely important to understand how people who did not know how to fly over the pampa, ( local name desert), could they design and transfer to its surface a many times enlarged picture of the starry sky?..”

The hypothesis of the astronomical calendar was shared by most scientists around the world for decades, until the famous American astronomer began testing it Gerald Hawkins, author of the monograph “Unraveling the Mystery of Stonehenge.” With the help of a computer, Hawkins brilliantly proved that the famous Stonehenge - a mysterious structure on Salisbury Plain - is nothing more than an astronomical observatory.

Using the same technique, adjusted for the latitude of the Nazca Plateau, Hawkins was convinced that only less than 20% of the lines on the Nazca Plateau point to the Sun or Moon. As for the stars, the accuracy of the directions generally does not exceed random distribution numbers. “The computer smashed the theory of the stellar-solar calendar to smithereens,” J. Hawkins was forced to admit. “With bitterness we abandoned the theory of the astronomical calendar.” However, Hawkins' research also yielded a positive result, since it was he who first noted the strange feature of the Nazca drawings: all of them were made one line without a break, which does not intersect anywhere.

The next version of the mysterious Nazca drawings is alien, it is now the most common. And it was first put forward Erich von Däniken(he also did research on the English Stonehenge). He is sure that these drawings served as runways for interplanetary alien spacecraft. His confidence in the cosmic purpose of the signs is based on the fact that the drawings have regular shapes and the lines are perfectly straight, and can only be detected from the air.

Why are these drawings in places where no one can see them from the ground? Or were they intended directly for gods unknown to us?

Those who watched the worldwide documentary “Memories of the Future” remember the landing of a sports plane on one of these runways. But since they are visible only from an airplane, a natural question arises: “Did the ancient inhabitants of the Cordillera - the Incas - know how to fly?” Here it is appropriate to recall the ancient Inca legend, which speaks of "golden ship", who arrived from distant stars: “They were commanded by a woman named Orjana. She was destined to become the foremother of the earthly race. Oryana gave birth to seventy earthly children, and then returned to the stars."

This legend talks about the ability of the “sons”, the Incas, to “fly over the earth in golden ships.” Perhaps there is some connection between these legends and the reports of the English anthropological journal Maine, which, in particular, says: “Analysis of the muscle tissue of the surviving Inca mummies showed that in terms of blood composition they differ sharply from the local population. They were found blood type of the rarest combination. Nowadays, such a blood composition is known only from two or three people in the whole world.”

Developing further the discovery of J. Hawkins, who was the first to discover the continuity of lines in drawings, scientists drew attention to strange additional lines. Being completely alien to the main image, they were, however, connected to the beginning and end of the contour (groove), as if connecting the drawing to a certain Nazca megasystem. The conclusion suggests itself that the drawings resemble electrical circuits made by one conductor, which can neither be crossed (short circuit) nor interrupted (open circuit).

Paying attention to the connection lines, the scientists clearly saw parallel and serial connections of the patterns and suggested that the line-grooves of the Nazca Plateau were apparently filled in ancient times with some kind of phosphor. This substance was capable of glowing under the influence of electric current, similar to the inscriptions and drawings of modern gas-light advertising. Thus, in confirmation of the alien theory, the “runways” did their job, and the luminous patterns, visible from the air tens of kilometers away, did theirs.”

Another version that has an alien basis. The key to solving the mystery of the Nazca Desert may be a huge drawing painted on a 400-meter mountain slope on the Paracas Peninsula (Peru). The design is known as the "Candelabra of Paracas", or "Andean candelabra". Its branches point in the direction of the Nazca Desert. Like the Nazca Desert figures, the lines of this image are indentations that reach into the bedrock - red porphyry.

The age of the “Candelabra” dates back at least two thousand years, and the history of its origin is completely a mystery behind seven seals. According to the bold hypothesis of some Russian researchers, the “Candelabra of Paracas” is nothing more than a “passport of the Earth.” This picture contains all the information about our planet. The left part of the picture represents fauna, the right – flora. And the entire drawing represents a person’s face. Near the top of the mountain there is a mark shaped like a nail. This is a scale showing the “level modern development civilization" (there are six in total). If the “Candelabra” is speculatively rotated 180°, you get a crucifix. This is a kind of symbol - a warning that our planet may die from unreasonable human activity.

Further, the authors of this idea try to explain that this information was delivered to us by a certain supercivilization from the constellation. Referring to a large number of sculptural images of the lion on Earth and in all earthly religions in particular, the authors prove that modern earth civilization is the work of aliens from the constellation Leo.

To the cosmic hypotheses, we can add the cheerful thought that perhaps star tourists simply left a trace of their visit to Earth in this way, like “Vasya was here.” It should be noted that similar interpretations of Nazca drawings are born in all corners of our planet every day, if not every minute. But even the craziest of them should not be dismissed without examining them in detail.

I would like to talk about another version that appeared relatively recently - this is an artificial system of underground water channels located in the depths of a mountain plateau. In the city of Nazca, with a population of 10 thousand people, the river of the same name flows. In its composition and “fragrance” it is not inferior to the sewer canals of large cities, but at the same time, the residents of Nazca do not lack fresh and clean water. It is taken from a system of wells, which are located exactly along the lines of mysterious drawings. And what is especially striking is that two of these underground canals pass directly under the bed of the Nazca River. And the general system of Nazca irrigation canals simply cannot but arouse admiration - it is so perfect and productive. It should be noted that the source of prosperity for the people who inhabited Nazca was precisely this, so this version has a real basis. But who, when and how could build such canals?

It is curious that the drawings were discovered from an airplane that flew over the plateau in search of water sources. And only after some time they found wells with water. Thus, the pilot coped with his task brilliantly, although he offered historians one of the most difficult puzzles of the 20th century - the Nazca drawings.

Time passes, and the Nazca drawings only become more mysterious. Not far from the desert, in the mountains, similar images were discovered that were previously unknown. And in this case, the drawings do not indicate the location of underground water channels.

And 1,400 km from the Nazca plateau, at the foot of Mount Solitary, a giant statue of a man was discovered. They called her the Atacama Giant. It reaches a height of 120 meters, and is surrounded by lines and signs similar to the Nazca drawings. Such mysterious finds every year it becomes more and more, which confuses researchers and stimulates dreamers who put forward new versions of the purpose of the Nazca drawings.

Questions, questions... So far, no satisfactory answer has been found to any of them about these mysterious objects (http://www.inca.nm.ru/Nasca.htm).

New drawings in the Nazca desert

Andrey Zhukov, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Almost everyone who is interested in riddles knows about the drawings of the Nazca desert today. ancient history humanity. Scientists more than twenty years ago decided on the dating of this mysterious phenomenon, placing it around the middle of the 1st millennium AD. and attributing its creation to the local Indian culture of the same name - Nazca. But the paradox is that after 60 years of research into this ancient phenomenon, scientists are virtually no closer to solving this greatest of mysteries. human history, which are the images in Nazca.

The Nazca Plateau, or as it is called in Peru, Pampa Nazca- This is a desert plateau, cut by numerous channels of long-dried rivers. It is located 450 km south of the capital of Peru, Lima. General area, covered with drawings, stretches for more than 50 km from north to south and 5-7 km from west to east. Mysterious lines cover the desert surface with an area of ​​approximately 500 square meters. km. Scientists call such images made on the surface of the earth geoglyphs. Main mystery The Nazcas are the lines and stripes themselves, of which there are about 13,000! In addition, about 700 geometric figures are also known on the plateau, primarily triangles and trapezoids, and about 100 spirals.

But there are very few well-known drawings of animals, birds, fish and insects here - just over thirty. All these images in Nazca are made, as it seems at first glance, in a fairly simple way; they are dug into the surface of the desert plateau. Those. and the patterns, and the lines, and the stripes are just grooves in the sand and pebble soil. Their depth varies from 10 to 30 cm. But the width of individual lines can reach 100 m, and in exceptional cases even 200 m. And the length of some lines reaches 8-10 km!

Today, there are more than thirty hypotheses trying to explain the origin of these geoglyphs, but none of them can give a clear answer to two main questions: how and why This giant “drawing board” was laid out.

Modern geodetic methods do not allow drawing a straight line up to 8 km long on rough terrain so that the deviation does not exceed 0.1%. And the ancient creators of the Nazca paintings, whoever they were, did this. Moreover, straight lines stretching for kilometers simply ignore the folds of the relief. They descend into ravines, rise to the tops of hills, and at the same time their geometric correctness and parallelism of the lateral boundaries are not disturbed at all.

Moreover, the Nazca Plateau is not the only area in Peru covered with mysterious images. Just ten kilometers from Nazca is the small town of Palpa, around which on a plateau called Palpa Pampa are thousands similar stripes, lines and patterns.

These geoglyphs on the Palpa plateau became known to the general public after the publications of Erich von Däniken only in the early 90s of the last century. The Palpa plateau itself is two times smaller in area than Nazca, but the variety of geoglyphs in Palpa is much greater. As in Nazca, on the Palpa plateau the vast majority of the images are stripes and lines. The stripes can bifurcate, change their direction at right angles, or turn into triangles. A strip 200 m wide was discovered in Palpa. According to some researchers, there are lines here that are much more extensive than in Nazca. The longest of them supposedly reaches 23 km! The logic of the ancient creators of this complex of images remains inaccessible to modern scientists.

Despite the abundance of hypotheses about the origin and purpose of the Nazca and Palpa geoglyphs, today scientists are no closer to solving this mysterious phenomenon. It is difficult to imagine that such a huge amount of work, comparable in scale only to the construction of the Great Wall of China, was carried out for one utilitarian purpose.

The study of the grandiose complex of images of Nazca Palpa is further complicated by the fact that there are still no detailed maps showing the entire picture of the geoglyphs of this area. Using aerial photography, the Americans made fairly detailed maps and diagrams of that part of the Nazca Plateau, where well-known animal figures are depicted. But to this day there are no detailed plans for the entire Nazca complex, and even more so for the Palpa plateau. Tourist plane pilots say that almost every year they discover new, previously unknown geoglyphs on the plateau. But pilots are not researchers and are not engaged in recording newly discovered images. This is being done by scientists from small archaeological missions from other countries, who have intensified their work in recent years. And then some interesting results appeared...

The drawings of the Nazca desert are simply amazing! Their lines stretch from horizon to horizon, occasionally converging or intersecting; one involuntarily gets the impression that this runway ancient aircraft. Here you can clearly distinguish flying birds, spiders, monkeys, fish, lizards...
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Nazca is a desert in Peru, surrounded by low spurs of the Andes and bare and lifeless hills of dense dark sand. This desert stretches between the valleys of the Nazca and Ingenio rivers, 450 kilometers south of the Peruvian city of Lima.

“Many centuries before the Incas, on the southern coast of Peru, a historical monument was created, unparalleled in the world and intended for descendants. In size and precision of execution, it is not inferior to the Egyptian pyramids. But if there we look, raising our heads, at the monumental three-dimensional structures simple geometric shape, here, on the contrary, you have to look from a great height at wide expanses covered with mysterious hieroglyphs, as if drawn on the plain by a giant hand." The book by Nazca desert explorer Maria Reiche begins with these words. "The Secret of the Desert". Mathematician and astronomer Maria Reiche specially moved from Germany to Peru to study the mysterious drawings. Perhaps she is the main researcher and guardian of the desert plateau, where, thanks to her efforts, a protected area was created. Reiche was the first to draw up maps and plans of all lines, sites and drawings.

The giant drawings scattered between abstract figures and spirals, the size of which reaches tens and sometimes hundreds of meters, are extremely impressive. Of all the animals greatest number- birds. Fantastic and quite reliably drawn, a total of 18 birds are depicted in the desert. But there are also completely mysterious animals, such as a dog-like creature with thin legs and a long tail. There are also images of people, although they are drawn less expressively. Among the images of people there is a bird-man with the head of an owl; the size of this picture is more than 30 meters. And the size of the so-called “big lizard” is 110 meters!

The desert area is approximately 500 square kilometers. The surface of the soil here is surprising in that it is covered with a kind of engraving that resembles a tattoo. This “tattoo” on the surface of the desert is not deep, but huge in size, lines and figures. There are 13,000 lines, more than 100 spirals, over 700 geometric areas (trapezoids and triangles) and 788 figures depicting animals and birds. This "engraving" of the earth stretches approximately 100 kilometers deep in a winding ribbon, the width of which is from 8 to 15 kilometers. These drawings were discovered thanks to photographs taken from an airplane. From a bird's eye view, it can be seen that the figures were created by removing brown stones from the light sandy subsoil, covered with a thin black layer of the so-called “desert tan”, which is formed by manganese and iron oxides.

The figures and lines are perfectly preserved due to the arid climate of the area. A wooden marking peg driven into the ground, found in the desert, was carefully studied and subjected to radiocarbon dating, which showed that the tree was cut down in 526 AD. Official science believes: all these figures were created by one of Indian cultures pre-Incan period, which existed in the south of Peru and which flourished in 300-900 years. AD The technique for executing the lines of these huge “drawings” is very simple. As soon as you remove the top layer of dark crushed stone, which has darkened over time, from the lighter lower layer, a contrasting strip appears. The ancient Indians first made a sketch of the future drawing measuring 2 by 2 meters on the ground. Such sketches have been preserved close to some of the figures. In the sketch, each straight line was divided into its component segments. Then, on an enlarged scale, the sections were transferred to the surface using stakes and a wooden rope. With curved lines it was much more difficult, but the ancients coped with this too, breaking each curve into many short arcs. It must be said that each drawing is outlined by only one continuous line. And perhaps the greatest mystery of the Nazca drawings is that their creators never saw and could not see them in their entirety.

The question is completely logical: for whom did the ancient Indians do such titanic work? Paul Kosok, a researcher of these drawings, estimates that it took more than 100,000 years of working days to create the complex of Nazca figures by hand. Even if this working day lasted 12 hours. Paul Kosok suggested that these lines and drawings are nothing more than a giant calendar that accurately shows the changing seasons. Maria Reiche tested Kosok's assumption and collected irrefutable evidence that the drawings are associated with the summer and winter solstices. The beak of a fantastic bird, with a neck 100 meters long, is located at the point of sunrise during the winter solstice.

Some scientists put forward the version that the drawings were exclusively cult meaning, however, such a version is quite doubtful, because a religious building must certainly influence people, and huge drawings on the ground are not perceived at all. Hungarian cartographer Zoltan Selke believes that the Nazca sites are just a 1:16 scale map of the Lake Titicaca area. After exploring the desert for several years, he found a lot of evidence that fully confirmed his hypothesis. In that case, who was this super-giant map intended for? The mystery of the Nazca paintings remains unsolved.

VEDIC SECRETS OF THE NAZCA DESERT

The first incomprehensible lines on Nazca were discovered in 1927 by Peruvian archaeologist Mejia Xesspe, when he accidentally glanced from a steep mountainside onto a plateau. By 1940, he had discovered several more incredible ancient signs and published his first sensational article. On June 22, 1941 (the day the Great Patriotic War began!!!), the American historian Paul Kosok took off a light plane and discovered a giant stylized bird, the wingspan of which exceeded 200 meters, and next to it something resembling a landing strip. Then he discovered a giant spider, a monkey with a strangely coiled tail, a whale, and finally, on a gentle mountain slope, a 30-meter tall figure of a man with his hand raised in greeting. Thus, perhaps the most mysterious “picture book in the history of mankind” was discovered.
Over the next sixty years, Nazca was studied quite well. The number of discovered drawings has long exceeded several hundred, and the vast majority of them are made up of various geometric shapes. Some lines reach a length of up to 23 kilometers.
And today the solution to the mystery is no closer. What versions and hypotheses have not been put forward during this time! They tried to present the drawings as some kind of giant ancient calendar, but there was no mathematical justification scientific world was never presented.
One of the hypotheses identified the drawings as some kind of designations of zones of influence of Indian clans. But the plateau was never inhabited, and who could deal with these “ger-
bami clans”, when they are only visible from a bird’s eye view?
There is a version that the images of Nazca are nothing more than an alien airfield. There are no words, a number of stripes are indeed incredibly reminiscent of modern runways and landing strips, but where is there any evidence of alien intervention? Others claim that Nazca are signals from alien intelligence.
Recently, voices have begun to be heard that Nazca is generally the brainchild of someone’s falsification. But then a whole army of counterfeiters had to work hard for decades to produce the most gigantic counterfeit in the history of mankind. How could they keep the secret in this case and why, in the end, did they become so disfigured?
The most conservative part of scientists insists that all the variety of drawings and figures was dedicated to a certain god of water: “probably! represented a kind of sacrifice to the ancestors or gods of the sky and mountains, who sent people the water so necessary for irrigating the fields.” But why was it necessary to turn to the god of water in such a remote place, where permanent residence, there was never any agriculture or cultivated fields? The rain that spilled on Nazca was of no particular benefit to the ancient Peruvians.
There is an opinion that ancient Indian athletes once ran along giant ancient lines, that is, some ancient South American Olympics were held on Nazca. Let's say that athletes could run in straight lines, but how could they run in spirals and in the pattern of, for example, monkeys?
There were publications that huge trapezoidal areas were created for the sake of certain mass ceremonies, during which sacrifices were made to the gods and mass celebrations took place. But then why did archaeologists searching all the surrounding areas not find a single confirmation of this artifact? In addition, part of the giant trapezoids is located on mountain peaks, which is not so easy for a professional climber to climb.
There is even a completely absurd version that all the gigantic work was carried out solely for the purpose of a kind of occupational therapy, in order to at least do something to occupy the idle ancient Peruvians... They claim that all the images of Nazca are nothing more than a giant loom of the ancient Peruvians, who they laid out their threads along the lines, since in the pre-Columbian era the Americans did not know the wheel and did not have a spinning wheel... It was even argued that the Nazca drawings were a huge encrypted map of the world. Alas, no one has yet undertaken to decipher it.
The most cautious part of historians defines Nazca drawings and lines as certain “paths that had sacred significance along which ritual processions were carried out.” But then again, who could see these trails from the ground?
Until now, scientists have not come to an agreement on how the Nazca drawings were created, because the production of images of such a huge scale represents a huge technical difficulty even today. Only the technology for direct creation of stripes has been more or less accurately established. It was quite simple: the surface layer of stones was removed from the ground, under which the ground had a lighter color. However, the creators of the drawings had to first create sketches of future giant images on a small scale and only then transfer them to the area. How they managed to maintain the accuracy and correctness of all the lines is a mystery! To do this, at a minimum, they had to have at hand the entire arsenal of modern geodetic equipment, not to mention the most advanced mathematical knowledge. By the way, today's experimenters were only able to repeat the creation of straight lines, but were powerless in the face of ideal circles and spirals... In addition
This means that images were created not only on flat areas of land. They were applied on very steep slopes and even almost sheer cliffs! But that's not all! In the Nazca region there are the Palpa Mountains, some of which are cut off like a table, as if some monster had gnawed their tops. These giant artificial sections also contain drawings, lines and geometric images.
There is also no unity regarding the time of construction. Nowadays it is customary to divide everything created on the plateau into seven conventional cultures, very spaced in time, from Nazca-1 to Nazca-7. Some archaeologists are inclined to attribute the creation of Nazca paintings to the period of time from 500 AD. to 1200 AD Others categorically object, since the Inca Indians inhabiting this region of Peru do not have even remote legends regarding Nazca, which gives grounds to attribute the time of creation of the images to almost 100,000 BC. They tried to determine the age of the stripes from the remains of fragments of clay shards found nearby. It was believed that ancient builders drank from clay jugs and then sometimes broke them. However, shards from all seven cultures were found everywhere on the same strip and, in the end, this dating attempt was considered unsuccessful.
The scientific study of Nazca today is also hampered by government restrictions. Due to the fact that after the discovery of the drawings, the plateau was subjected to a real invasion of “wild” tourists who drove all over the plateau in cars and motorcycles, spoiling the drawings, now it is strictly forbidden for anyone to appear directly on the Nazca Plateau. Nazca has been declared an archaeological park and taken under state protection, and the fine for unauthorized entry into the park is an astronomical amount - 1 million US dollars. Everyone, however, can admire the giant ancient images from the board of tourist planes that continuously circle over the mysterious plateau. But for real scientific research, you will agree, this is still not enough.
But the mysteries of Nazca do not end there. If on the surface of the plateau there are gigantic drawings that are still incomprehensible to human understanding, then in the depths of the caves there are even more incredible pukios - ancient underground water pipes in granite pipes. There are 29 giant puquios in the Nazca Valley. Today's Indians attribute their creation to the creator god Viracocha, but the canals are the work of human hands. Moreover, one of the canals is located under the local river Rio de Nazca, so much so that it pure water in no way mixed with dirty water rivers! From the description of an eyewitness: “Sometimes stone spirals lead deep into the earth, and watercourses have an artificial channel, lined with slabs and smoothly hewn blocks. Sometimes the entrance hole is a deep shaft that goes deep into the earth... Everywhere and everywhere these underground channels are artificial structures...” Pukios is also from the realm of eternal mysteries. Who, when and for what purpose created these gigantic water structures under a deserted plateau? Who used them?

An ancient clay figurine depicting surgery on a dinosaur.

In the capital of the province of Nazca, the town of Ica, lives the owner of the most incredible collection in the world, professor of medicine, Hanviera Cabrera. He has more than two and a half thousand figurines made of unfired clay, which the professor obtains from the local Indians. The figurines depict the ancient inhabitants of Peru next to... dinosaurs and pterodactyls. At the same time, ancient Peruvians performed operations on dinosaurs, flew on pterodactyls and looked into space through a spyglass. The age of the figurines is estimated to be from 50,000 to 100,000 years, and maybe even more. Concerning radiocarbon method, it gave very contradictory results. In addition to the figurines, Professor Cabrera's collection contains similar drawings on stones, including ones that depict aircraft in the starry sky. Moreover, Professor Cabrera’s collection is no exception. The famous Mexican collection of Acambaro also contains dinosaurs, including flying ones. The same is true in the Ecuadorian collection of Father Crecy. In addition, there is also the collection of Russell Burrows, who found sculptures with strikingly similar subjects in caves in Illinois. The same thing was found not long ago in Japan. Falsification in this case is impossible even theoretically! Well, and finally, the most scandalous discovery on the Paluxy River in the US state of Texas, where archaeologists discovered dinosaur bones and fossilized human traces in the same rock! This means that people already lived in the era of dinosaurs, or, conversely, dinosaurs lived in the era of people! But both of these completely change our ideas about the beginning of the human era, and therefore one can imagine how much irritation, misunderstanding and simply outright opposition these findings cause among the elite of the scientific world, who made a name for themselves on those hypotheses that are now completely crossed out by the findings of recent years!
And how can one not recall here the seemingly absurd assumptions of the Crimean academician A.V. Gokh, who says that the protein necessary to create a huge number of repeaters of the Crimean pyramids was obtained from huge dinosaur eggs. It should be admitted that the statements of the Crimean academician now look not so groundless.
Now, I think, the time has come to present to readers the hypothesis of the Emil Bagirov Institute regarding the giant geoglyphs in the Nazca desert. However, first two more facts.
First. Quite recently, through the works of the German researcher Erich von Däniken (known to us from the sensational journalistic film “Remembrance of the Future”), a giant... classic MANDALA was discovered in Nazca! Yes Yes! The same sacred mandapa with which today's Tibetans and Hindus designate the pictures they contemplate during meditation! The same mandala that was once the sacred sign of the Aryans and one of the main Vedic symbols. Coincidence? No way!
Second. Ancient texts of the Old World everywhere tell about certain flying machines, and machines of completely earthly origin.
For example, in the “Book of the Greatness of Kings” the flights of King Solomon are described in detail: “The king and all who obeyed his commands flew in a chariot, knowing neither illness, nor sorrow, nor hunger, nor thirst, nor fatigue, and at the same time everything in one day they traveled a journey of three months... He (Solomon) gave her all sorts of wonders and treasures that one could wish for and a chariot that moves through the air and which he created according to the wisdom given to him by God...
And the inhabitants of the Egyptian country told them: in ancient times the Ethiopians visited here; they rode on a chariot like an angel, and at the same time flew faster than an eagle in the sky.” No less indicative are quotes from the famous “Mahatbharata”: “l/i then the king (Rumanvat) with his servants and harem, with his wives and nobles entered the heavenly chariot. They flew over the entire expanse of the sky, following the direction of the wind. The heavenly chariot flew around the entire earth, (flying) over the oceans, and headed towards the city of Avantis, where the holiday was just taking place. After a short stop, the king rose into the air again in front of countless onlookers, who were amazed at the sight of the heavenly chariot.”
Or here’s another: “Arjuna, the terror of his enemies, wished that Indra would send his heavenly chariot after him. And then, in a blaze of light, a chariot suddenly appeared, illuminating the gloom of the air and illuminating the clouds around, and all the surroundings were filled with a roar similar to peals of thunder...”
So, all Indian sources claim that the ancient Aryan civilization had airships - vimanas. We find echoes of these unusual means of transportation in the legends of the peoples of the Aryan area, for example, the famous Russian fairy tales about a flying ship and so on. But for the vimanas to take off and land, they needed runways and landing strips. Are there traces of them in the Old World? As it turns out, there is! At the present time, at least three are already known: one in England, the second on the Ustyurt plateau near the Aral Sea and the third in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, similar giant geoglyphs were found everywhere, as in Nazca, although in smaller quantities. And this despite the fact that no targeted searches for ancient airports have ever been carried out anywhere.
So what can we assume? After the destruction of the Tower of Babel, that is, after the collapse of the single ancient Vedic faith into several concessions, the vigorous migration of Aryan tribes began, and with it the export of Vedic religion and knowledge. Of course, the main settlement of the Aryans was by land. It spread throughout Eurasia, where the Vedic influence is felt everywhere to this day. However, most likely, some of the Aryans also used mysterious vimanas, which, as we already know, had a long flight range and could fly across oceans. It was then, most likely, that the heroic throw across Africa and the Atlantic to South America. But why was the landing made on Nazca? It can be assumed that for some time this area attracted the Aryans because the Nazca region is rich in deposits of iron and copper ore, gold and silver. Let us also pay attention to the fact that it is in the Nazca region that very ancient abandoned mines for the extraction of all these metals were discovered.
Apparently, for some time the Aryans from the vimanas that arrived lived in these places. They brought the local residents into obedience, organized the mining of metals, introduced and spread among the ancient Peruvians the cult of the Great Goddess-First Mother, the Most Bright Sun-Horsa, the immortality of the soul and rebirth. It was then that runways and geometric signs were built, allowing vimanas to be aimed at them correctly, and underground conduits making it easier to provide water. It seems that the vimanas actively carried out the export of mined metals to Egypt or some other countries that were in the area of ​​​​the then Aryan influence. It is possible that the Aryans also used tamed local pterodactyls for short flights, which was depicted in the ancient clay figurines of Peru. Apparently there was such an experience. Suffice it to recall the same “Avesta” and “Rigveda”, numerous European-Aryan mythologies, where heroes very often use flying lizards as a completely suitable means of transportation. The same Russian heroes, for example, on occasion willingly used the legendary Serpent Gorynych for this purpose...
However, the time has come and the Aryans who settled on Nazca, having completed their mission, forever left the place, which was not very suitable for permanent residence, leaving the local residents with Vedic cults, knowledge of crafts and the firm belief that the departed people-gods will one day definitely return. It was then, apparently, that the intensive creation of many drawings began, so that the people-gods flying in the skies past Nazca would see that they were still waiting for them here, as, indeed, in other places in America, where similar geoglyphs have now been found. At the same time, they drew what, in the opinion of the Indians, those who flew away liked most, what once surprised and amused them: unusual monkeys, hummingbirds, whales, iguanas.
Fortunately, the Aryans left the secrets of the technology for creating grandiose images to the local residents. That is why, among other drawings, the Indians placed a grandiose mandala - the sacred Vedic sign of the Aryans, quite logically assuming that seeing it, the people-gods would definitely return to this land, where they were so loved and so faithfully awaited. But, alas, none of the gods returned.

Centuries and millennia passed. The foundations of the Vedic faith, once laid here by Aryan priests, over time became intricately intertwined with local cults. However, the pyramids, the cult of the Sun, and many priestly rituals today are strikingly reminiscent of their Vedic foundations. All this time, the Indians patiently waited for the fair-haired, bearded people-gods, carrying great faith and great knowledge, to return from the west from across the ocean. The time has come and bearded men clad in iron really came from the west, but instead of the long-awaited benefits they brought destruction and death. However, this is a completely different story...

Plateau Nazca is located in the south of the state of Peru. Due to its dry climate and lack of water and vegetation, the area is also called the Nazca Desert. The name of the plateau is associated with

Pre-Columbian civilization,
existed in these places in the time period of 500 years. BC . and 500 g. AD Its fame plateau Nazca received thanks to geoglyphs - huge drawings drawn on the ground, which can only be seen from the air.

Discovery of the Nazca geoglyphs.
Mysterious drawings in the desert plateau became known back in 1553 from the Spanish priest Pedro Cieza de Leon. Traveling through the territory of the modern state of Peru, he wrote in his notes about the many lines drawn on the ground, which he called the “Inca Road,” and about certain signs also drawn in the sand. The first to see these signs from the air was the American archaeologist Paul Kosok, who was flying over the vast plateau in 1939. A major contribution to the study of Nazca paintings was made by the German archaeologist Maria Reiche. In 1947, she flew over the plateau in an airplane took a photo geoglyphs from the air.

Description of the drawings on the Nazca plateau
Geoglyphs measure several tens of meters in size, and the Nazca lines extend for many kilometers and sometimes even go beyond the horizon, crossing hills and dried up river beds. Images are applied to the surface by extracting soil. They form furrows about 135 cm wide and 30 -50 cm deep. The drawings have survived to this day due to the dry semi-desert climate. Today we know about 30 drawings depicting geometric figures, animals, and only one depicts humanoid a creature about 30 meters high, similar to an astronaut. Among the animal images, the most famous are the spider, hummingbird, whale, condor and monkey. The geoglyph depicting a condor is one of the largest in the desert. Its length from beak to tail is 120 meters. For comparison: the size of a spider is 46 meters, and a hummingbird is 50.

Mysteries of the Nazca Desert geoglyphs
The mysterious drawings have left archaeologists and historians with many questions. Who created them? How and for what purpose? It is impossible to see geoglyphs from the ground. They are visible only from the air, and there are no mountains nearby from which these lines and drawings could be seen. Another question that arises is that next to the drawings and lines there are no traces of ancient artists, although if a car passes over the surface, traces will remain. It is noteworthy that the monkey and whale depicted on the geoglyphs do not live in this area.

Exploring the Nazca Plateau
Some scientists believe that geoglyphs had ritual significance for the ancient inhabitants of the valley. Since they could only be seen from the air, only the gods, whom people addressed with the help of drawings, could see them. Many researchers adhere to the hypothesis that the Nazca images were created by the civilization of the same name, which lived in these places in the 2nd century BC. Explorer Maria Reiche believes that geoglyphs were first made on small sketches, and only then applied to the surface in full size. As evidence, she provided a sketch found in these places. In addition, at the ends of the lines depicting the drawings, wooden posts driven into the ground were found. They could serve as coordinates of points when drawing geoglyphs. The research results showed that the images were created at different times. The intersecting and overlapping lines indicate that ancient painting covered the land of the valley in several stages.

Various versions of the origin of Geglyphs
Many historians and archaeologists adhere to astronomical versions of drawings. The ancient inhabitants of the Nazca Desert may have been well versed in astronomy. The created gallery is a kind of star map. This version was supported by the German archaeologist Maria Reiche. American astronomer Phyllis Pitlugi cites in favor of this version the fact that the geoglyph depicting a spider is a drawing showing a cluster of stars in the constellation Orion. However, British researcher Gerald Hawkins is confident that only a small part of the lines and patterns of the Nazca Desert are associated with astronomy. Some ufologists suggest that the drawings were a guide for landing alien alien ships, and the lines of the Nazca Plateau served as runways. Skeptics do not agree with this version, if only because alien spaceships capable of traveling tens of light years do not require acceleration to take off. They can rise into the air vertically. Jim Woodman, who studied the Nazca plateau in the 70s of the last century, came to the conclusion that the ancient inhabitants who created these drawings could fly in a hot air balloon. He explains this by the depiction of this flying object on clay figurines preserved from ancient times. To prove it, Woodman made a balloon from by-products that could only be obtained in the immediate area. Hot air was supplied to the balloon and it was able to fly a fairly long distance. The German archaeologist Maria Reiche, mentioned above, called the geometric figures and lines of the Nazca plateau an encrypted text, similar to a set of letters and signs.
There is still no consensus on the origin and purpose of the mysterious geoglyphs. The Nazca Plateau remains one of the greatest mysteries on our planet...