Almost everyone knows about the drawings of the Nazca desert today. Even in children's textbooks, you can find photographs of these drawings. Scientists have already decided on the dating of this mysterious phenomenon more than twenty years ago, referring it to about 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 on this ancient phenomenon, scientists have hardly come close to solving one of the greatest mysteries of human history, which is the images in Nazca.
As it turned out quite recently, for the first time these lines were mentioned in a Spanish chronicle of 1547, where they were called "guiding signs for wanderers." But then, for four centuries, practically no one knew about the mysterious Nazca lines. They were reopened only at the beginning of the twentieth century with the beginning of the rapid development of aviation.
The first explorer to discover Nazca lines and drawings in 1927 was Toribio Xesspe. But the systematic study of this ancient complex began only in 1946 and it is associated, first of all, with the name of the outstanding enthusiast and researcher, the German scientist Maria Reiche, who devoted more than forty years of her life to the study of Nazca. Having settled in the city of Nazca in 1946, Maria Reiche, until her death in 1998, was exclusively engaged in the study of the mysterious drawings of Nazca and, thanks to her efforts, the entire territory of the plateau was declared a national archaeological park and taken under state protection.
The Nazca Plateau, or as it is called in Peru, Pampa Nazca is a desert plateau, cut by numerous beds of long-dried rivers. It is located 450 km south of the capital of Peru, Lima. The total 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 of approximately 500 square meters. km. Such images, taken on the surface of the earth, are called geoglyphs by scientists.
When reading the literature about the Nazca plateau, one gets the impression that its main mystery is the drawings, to which most researchers devote their main attention. But this is far from the case. A little over 30 drawings are known on the plateau today. Thus, they represent only 0.2% of the total number of images. And the main mystery of Nazca is 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. All these images in Nazca are made, as it seems at first glance, in a fairly simple way, they are dug in the surface of the desert plateau. Those. and drawings, and lines, and stripes are just grooves in the sandy-pebble soil. Their depth varies from 10 to 30 cm. But the width of individual strips can reach 100 m,and in exceptional cases - even 200 m. And the length of some lines reaches 8-10 km! And even at the first acquaintance with this phenomenon, questions arise that are difficult to find answers.
Where have thousands of cubic meters of excavated rock gone? After all, the images, which are shallow trenches, do not have dumps from the excavated soil on their sides. Was it carefully scattered over the entire surface of the desert? In addition, the color of the ground inside the images is no different from the color of the surface of the surrounding desert. But at the same time, when viewed from the air, all the images are perfectly visible, since they stand out with their much lighter color. Many lines and stripes for visual perception do not look like depressions in the surface, but rather like convex, i.e. bulk images. Scientists believe that all the images were made by the ancient Indians by hand, using the simplest tools. The surface of the plateau is such that once a car has driven across it, it leaves traces of its wheels forever. Therefore, today the territory of Nazca is carefully guarded, and for damage to drawings, even unintentional ones, they face imprisonment for up to 5 years or a fine of up to $ 30,000. And here's what's surprising. With tens of thousands of geoglyphs on the Nazca plateau, there are practically no traces of trails. And if people carried out excavation work to make strips of several tens of meters wide and hundreds of meters and even kilometers long, then where are the footprints of numerous workers who had to trample a huge number of paths along which they went to these excavations? The paths can be found on the slopes of the hills, where local peasants used to be before the establishment of the reserve. But no trails that should have been left by thousands of builders' feet have not been found on the Nazca plateau itself. And their absence completely refutes the hypothesis thatthat these images were executed in the form of simple excavation work.
Lines and stripes intersect each other many times, stripes are superimposed on drawings, geometric shapes intersect stripes. This suggests that the Nazca complex was covered with images not at one time, but in several stages. But at the same time, the images made later and superimposed on top do not destroy the contours of the geoglyphs below them. How is this possible, because when one "trench" crosses another, it is clear that it must destroy the boundaries of the previous one. But this does not happen in Nazca.
Neither photographs nor video materials make the impression that the Nazca lines, perceived with our own eyes from a bird's eye view, make. Perfectly straight lines run away beyond the horizon, crossing dry river beds, climbing hills, and at the same time not deviating from their direction at all. Today there are more than thirty hypotheses trying to explain the origin of these geoglyphs, but none of them can give an intelligible answer to two fundamental questions: how and why this giant "drawing board" was drawn. Modern geodetic methods do not allow to draw 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 Nazca drawings, whoever they were, did it. Moreover, straight lines stretching for kilometers,just ignore the folds of the relief. They descend into ravines, climb to the tops of hills, and at the same time their geometric correctness and parallelism of the lateral boundaries are not disturbed at all.
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Most of the hypotheses put forward by scientists over the past decades boil down to an explanation of what the Nazca geoglyphs were intended for. Basically, these hypotheses associate giant images with either astronomical-calendar or cult purposes. Maria Reiche also adhered to the astronomical hypothesis. She believed that the main lines and stripes indicated the points of rise on certain days of the most important stars and planets, and drawings of animals and birds could indicate constellations. However, special studies of American scientists in the 70-80s of the last century, carried out using computer programs, did not confirm the presence of any significant astronomical context in the arrangement of the figures. Only 20% of the lines and stripes they studied had a more or less definite orientation to celestial objects. Moreover,that the Nazca lines are pointing in almost all directions, it may be a coincidence. In addition, the abundance of low mountains along the perimeter of the plateau provides much simpler and more reliable landmarks for astronomical research. Since the position of stellar objects changes over time as a result of the precession process, it is possible to determine the specific orientation of the lines to the celestial bodies only if there is accurate dating.
The complex of images on the Nazca plateau is dated to the middle of the 1st millennium AD. These data were obtained from the results of radiocarbon dating of pottery samples and remains of wooden stakes found on lines and stripes. Laboratory studies of these samples have shown that they date back to the Nazca culture. From which it was concluded that geoglyphs were made by people of this culture about 1500 years ago. However, this conclusion is too superficial and unconvincing. The presence of the remains of pottery of the Nazca Indians only indicates that they visited these images. Perhaps they even performed certain rituals on them. But nothing more. The 20th century memorial plaques on the Kremlin wall do not at all indicate that the wall was built by the commanders of the Red Army.
Russian radiophysicist Alla Belokon, after many years of studying the Nazca phenomenon, put forward a hypothesis about how these images could have been made. Its assumption does not fit into the framework of modern ideas about the history of mankind, but at the same time it can explain a number of facts that academic scientists are unable to explain. Having studied the nature of lines, stripes, as well as drawings and features of their projection, she came to the conclusion that all these images could only be made from the air, i.e. from the air vehicle. Alla Belokon suggested that technically this could be done by acting on the ground with a stream of directed energy of a nature unknown to us. As an analogue, she cites numerous so-called "field drawings" that appear today in many countries of the world, including Russia.
More than ten so-called "centers" are also known on the Nazca plateau. These are points from which radially emerge in different directions along a set of lines. From the outside, it resembles the coordinate system that was used on medieval nautical charts. Alla Belokon also revealed a number of strict mathematical patterns in the relative position of these centers and large bands. According to her assumption, the complex of main images on the Nazca plateau is a diagram of a three-dimensional crystal-like composition, reflecting the structure of our solar system.
As for the drawings, they are not scattered throughout the plateau, but are located in a limited area about 5 km wide, adjacent to the Ingenio River valley. A little more than 30 drawings are known, the overwhelming majority of which are images of birds and animals. Among the birds, hummingbirds, pelican, parrot and condor can be easily identified. Animals are represented by a monkey, dog, llama and whale. The sizes of these images are different. For example, a spider is 46 m long, a condor is 110 m. The most significant image is a drawing of a strange bird with a serpentine zigzag neck and an elongated thin beak that makes up half of the entire length of the drawing. The size of this image is over 250 m. The drawings were made using the same technique as lines and geometric shapes. All outline drawings made in a single line,which is nowhere interrupted and does not cross itself. The line width can range from 30 cm to 3 meters. Some of the drawings are "tied" to geometric images and in some cases it is noticeable that the drawings are made over earlier triangles and trapezoids. On the other hand, the drawings themselves in a multitude intersect, and sometimes overlap with stripes and lines. This indicates several stages of drawing images on the Nazca plateau. It is possible that they were made in different eras and in different cultures. This indicates several stages of drawing images on the Nazca plateau. It is possible that they were made in different eras and in different cultures. This indicates several stages of drawing images on the Nazca plateau. It is possible that they were made in different eras and in different cultures.
The drawings themselves are very remarkable and mysterious. So in the image of the monkey, you can recognize the long-tailed macaque. This primate species lives in the jungle east of the Andes, i.e. hundreds of kilometers from the Nazca desert. The monkey's drawing itself is 60 m long, but from its tail, the drawing line, without interruption, turns into a complex zigzag, and then a sinusoidal figure. And even an inexperienced eye can see a strict geometric pattern in the construction of this entire complex. American researcher Gerald Hawkins called the Nazca drawings "the hell of frozen mathematics."
It is also interesting that the drawing of the monkey has three toes and an unequal number of fingers on the hands - five on one and four on the other. This could be considered an arbitrariness of the artist who left this image, if not for another geoglyph located nearby. These are the so-called "hands" - a strange rather abstract pattern in which you can recognize a pair of hands: one - five-fingered and the other - four-fingered. This indicates that we simply do not have access to the system of symbols embedded in the images of the Nazca complex.
Few other than experts know that the Nazca plateau is not the only territory in Peru covered with mysterious images. Just a dozen kilometers from Nazca is the small town of Palpa, around which there are thousands of similar stripes, lines and patterns on a plateau called Palpa Pampa. Surprisingly, it is a fact that Maria Reiche, who spent almost half a century researching Nazca, did not mention the neighboring plateau in her works, although she could not be unaware of it. These images on the Palpa plateau became available to the general public after the publications of the famous researcher of antiquities Erich von Daniken only in the early 90s of the last century.
The Palpa plateau itself is twice as large as Nazca, but the variety of geoglyphs in Palpa is much greater. As in Nazca, on the Palpa plateau, the vast majority of images are stripes and lines, stripes are ten times wider than lines, and often have a trapezoidal ending. The stripes can bifurcate, change their direction at right angles, and turn into triangles. The logic of the ancient creators of this complex of images remains inaccessible to modern researchers.
In addition, the Palpa complex is significantly distinguished by its unusual relief. If the Nazca plateau is a huge desert plateau, then Palpa is a set of low hills, with long tongues protruding into the plain, and wide man-made stripes and lines stretch along their flat tops. The tops of some hills seem to have been cut off by a giant knife, so flat and level is their surface. There are stripes on the Palpa plateau, the width of which reaches several hundred meters. As in Nazca, here stripes and lines intersect each other and overlap one another, which clearly indicates several different periods of drawing images.
On the Nazca plateau, only one drawing is known depicting a humanoid creature, the so-called. "astronaut". It is located on the slope of a small hill and reaches a height of 30 m. And in Palpa there are about a dozen images of human beings. They are made in different manners and with varying degrees of complexity and vary considerably in size. All drawings of humanoid creatures are located on the slopes of the hills, and not on the horizontal surface of the plateau. Humanoid creatures have strange headdresses in the form of a hat, feathers, or even something that looks like a rounded helmet. In addition, several images of animals are known in Palpa: a whale (or killer whale), birds similar to a condor, various mammals.
But what distinguishes the Palpa complex from the Nazca drawings is the presence of several geometric images, striking in their complexity and mathematical harmony of proportions. First of all, this is a drawing that the locals call "a star", although most of all this image looks like a traditional Indian mandala. The drawing is a complex composition, the authors of which clearly did not seek to create some kind of geometric pattern that serves as a simple ornament. There is no doubt that this figure carries specific information encrypted in accordance with a certain code. "Star" is three circles, two small and one large central, connected to each other by lines into a single composition, the total size of which reaches about a kilometer in length. The center of the composition is a regular eight-pointed star,composed of two superimposed squares at an angle of 45 ° to each other. A double circle is inscribed in the "star", in the center of the inner circle there are two intersecting rectangles, giving in superposition one more square, and inside it - a sixteen-rayed star. Throughout the composition, at the intersection points of the geometric shapes that make up the composition, there are round holes, a kind of markers. And the circles of the small rings located on the sides of the central one are made not by a line, but by chains of the same holes. Eight-pointed stars are depicted at the centers of these small rings. There is no doubt that the "star" pattern is one of the key ones in the entire Palpa complex, but its meaning remains hidden from us. And the only analogy to this image that comes to mind is the well-known field drawings,the same mathematically rigorous and carrying information inaccessible to us. By the way, in the summer of 2001 in England a “grain circle” was recorded and photographed, almost completely repeating the “star” of the Palpa plateau.
Another, no less mysterious image is located just a kilometer from the "star". Local guides call it "sundial", believing that the drawing was used to observe the sun. They claim that on certain days, for example, on the days of the solstice, the rays of the luminary fall along the main axes of the picture. The center of the composition is represented by a double spiral or labyrinth, from which a straight zigzag of six oscillating lines extends in two directions. Near the "clock" there is a whole complex of stripes and lines that cross each other in seeming disorder. At one end of this drawing is a small image of a human head with two tall "horns" or feathers, and underneath is a writhing snake. Images of a snake are not known anywhere else in Palpa and Nazca, but the snake motif is very typical of the ancient Indian cultures of Peru.
Another mysterious image is a rectangular "table" located at the top of a low mountain. It consists of intersecting lines like on a chessboard: 36 transverse and 15 longitudinal. These lines are not solid, they consist of small rectangular dots, and thus form a table of many crosses. Surprisingly, this pattern is clearly visible from the air, since the entire table shines, as if it were made of shale rocks. Next to the "table" is a whole "bunch" of thin lines overlapping the person's drawing. And on top of the lines is an image of a circle consisting of eight small squares. That is, this complex of drawings was made by unknown ancient masters in at least three steps.
In general, the Palpa plateau significantly surpasses Nazca both in the variety of images and in size. It was in Palpa that a 200 m wide strip was discovered. According to some researchers, there are lines much longer here than in Nazca. The longest of them supposedly reaches 23 km! The responsibility for the study and protection of the Nazca complex is currently vested in the Peruvian Cultural Institute in Lima, but it does not have sufficient funds to conduct large-scale field research. An Italian expedition has been working on the plateau for about five years, but the scale of the work does not allow us to hope for quick results. A long-term complex expedition is needed here, capable of not only measuring images, but also carrying out geological and archaeological research.
With all the abundance of hypotheses about the origin and purpose of the geoglyphs of Nazca and Palpa, today scientists have not come any 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 any one utilitarian purpose. All grandiose and significant human constructions have always pursued specific, although sometimes not clear to us today, tasks. The macro-complex of Nazca-Palpa images is distinguished by one fundamentally important feature, which can be called “conditional secrecy”. After all, all these images can only be seen from the air, i.e. their production was not focused on the people themselves who lived in the region. Then for whom? Perhaps this is a kind of huge book, the creators of which counted onthat in the distant future people will be able to read messages written in the universal language of mathematics?
The study of this complex is further complicated by the fact that there are still no detailed maps showing the whole picture of the geoglyphs of this area. With the help of aerial photography, the Americans made fairly detailed schematic maps of that part of the Nazca plateau, where the well-known figures of animals are depicted. But there are no detailed plans for the entire Nazca complex, and even more so for the Palpa plateau. Pilots of tourist planes fly on standard routes, showing tourists the most remarkable and understandable drawings to the untrained eye. At the same time, the pilots themselves say that almost every year they discover new, previously unknown geoglyphs on the plateau. And some local guides claim that further east of Palpa in the mountains there are other plateaus with similar lines and patterns,which none of the researchers has seen and does not even know about their existence.
Magazine "Sacvoyage SV", N 6
ANDREY ZHUKOV