Nazca Lines Research Paper

The Nazca Lines one of the biggest archaeological enigmas on Earth. They are located approximately 200 miles south of Lima, Peru. The Nazca Lines are a large series of geoglyphs, lines carved into the earth. They were first discovered in 1926 by the Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe. Though the real extent was discovered by planes flying over the desert in the 1930s. Later the American professor Paul Kosok found himself at the end of a line on June 22 the day after the winter solstice. At the end of the day, he looked up to find that the line was in perfect alignment with the setting sun. Then a German woman, Maria Reiche was also known as the Lady of the Lines, dedicated 40 years to studying and protecting the lines from clueless tourists.
The lines are called geoglyphs, in pictures, they appear to be white lines on a red rock. The desert rock is oxidized so when the top foot is removed a light colored sand appears. The lines have survived for 500 - 2000 years because of the little rain, wind, and erosion the desert receives. Scientists assume that the lion's share of the lines were created from 500 B.C. to 500 B.C.E. It’s amazing that the lines have been around for over 1500 years without completely disappearing. …show more content…
Some of the famous biomorphs are the spider, hummingbird, tree, condor, monkey, and the heron. The lengths of the designs range from anywhere between 25 meters long to 300 meters long or 80 feet long to 1000 feet long. All of these lines are large enough to see several hundred feet in the air. The biomorphs are thought to be around 500 years older than the geoglyphs. They were constructed by digging through the outer layer of the ground and exposing the white coloration underneath. The Nazca people constructed them for some mysterious purpose we have several theories