On the western coast of South America, in Chile, is the Atacama Desert, the driest desert on the planet. Here the air humidity is lowest, there are almost no plants and animals. But there are interesting geoglyphs, the origin of which remains a mystery today.
In some parts of the Atacama Desert, it rains only once in several decades. And there are places in which not a single rain has ever been registered by meteorologists. Due to such a dry climate, flora and fauna are poorly developed, but there are deposits of copper and other minerals. It contains the world's largest reserves of natural sodium nitrite, which is widely used in the food industry as a preservative.
Local residents in this region are experiencing an acute shortage of drinking water. In part, they solve this problem with the help of "mist eliminators" - special devices in the form of a high cylinder. The walls of this cylinder are made of nylon threads. Mist as condensation falls on the walls of the cylinder and flows down the threads into the barrel. Thanks to such a simple device, people manage to collect up to 18 liters of water per day.
There are also amazing geoglyphs in the Atacama Desert. One of them is the labyrinth in San Pedro, the purpose of which is unknown. Scientists investigated the labyrinth and found that during its construction, the ancient builders used two methods: on the slopes of the hills, they scraped off the top layer of the soil, and then created the outline of the images, laying stones on the surface of the earth. Another sophisticated technique was also used, which, thanks to the combination of various mining processes, made it possible to create light and dark tones of the figures.
The total area of the Atacama Desert is just over one hundred thousand square kilometers. And about five hundred different geoglyphs have already been found throughout this territory. Most of them are so large that they are clearly visible only from a bird's eye view. The age of these mysterious drawings has not been precisely established, but scientists believe it is at least 2500 years old.
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Another no less interesting and mysterious drawing of the Atacama Desert is the so-called giant - a large anthropomorphic geoglyph. This prehistoric desert image is 86 meters long. And its age is estimated at 9000 years. He was given a special name - "Tarapaka". It is also, due to its impressive size, it will be good to see it only from an airplane. Below this geoglyph, like most of the others, is only a chaotic pile of stones.
The drawing was discovered relatively recently thanks to the Google Maps mapping service. The geoglyph is a humanoid figure with straight lines extending from the head and hips. The most interesting is the figure's face, which does not resemble either a human face or descriptions of humanoids.
Science also knows nothing about the creators or the purpose of this anthropomorphic geoglyph. Scientists can only assume that, perhaps, the giant Tarapaki, like other geoglyphs located nearby, were a kind of road signs for the Inca caravans. A little above the giant, there are circles and lines surrounded by images of owls, llamas, birds, people, and various abstract pictures.