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nDidnyou know that there are gigantic pictures of animals and plantsnetched into the ground in southern Peru?
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nSomenpeople have speculated that ancient humans could not have creatednsuch huge drawings and would have had no reason to do so—becausenwho would ever get to see them? There were, after all, no airplanesnin ancient Peru!
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nThosenpeople often go on to suggest that aliens arrived in Peru vianspacecraft, and then built airfields. I suppose this suggestion isnsupposed to explain the many straight lines and geometric figuresnthat accompany the creature pictures—after all, why would thenaliens’ runways would look like Earthly monkeys and hummingbirds?—butnthere isn’t a shred of evidence that aliens were involved. n
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nInnactual fact, the Nazca lines and figures can be seen from atopnthe surrounding foothills. Indeed, they were first discovered by anPeruvian archeologist named Toribio Mejia Xesspe when he was hikingnin those foothills. Also, there seems a pretty good chance that thenNazca Indians who created the figures meant to communicate with theirngods, who might be presumed to see them from on high. Then“technology” used to create the pictures was super simple:nreddish pebbles were removed, uncovering whitish/grayish groundnbeneath the pebbles.
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nMarianRieche, who was born in Germany on this date in 1903, worked in Perunwith American historian Paul Kosok. The two were the first scholarsnto study the Nazca lines, and Rieche ended up succeeding in gettingnthe government to recognize the lines’ importance. Thanks to her, thenland on which the lines appear has been preserved, and Rieche evennlived long enough to see (when she was 92 years old!) the Nazca Linesndeclared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. n
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nNational Geographic Kids suggests a way to create your own large-scalendrawings.
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nThis preview of Philip Day’s “Nasca Lines: The Buried Secrets” givesna pretty good view of many of the Nazca lines and hints at whatnarcheology tells us about the people who created them. (I wonder ifnthe entire documentary is available on Netflix? It is available onnDVD from National Geographic Store.)
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nAlsonon this date:
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nWizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum’s birthday
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nParaguay’s Independence Day