Nazca Lines
Ancient site
Giant drawings in the desert that you can only see from the air.
In a desert in the south of Peru the ground is covered with lines: straight ones that run for kilometres, and drawings of a monkey, a spider, a hummingbird. Some are as large as a football pitch.
The Nazca people made them about two thousand years ago, by taking away the dark stones on top so that the pale ground underneath showed. It almost never rains or blows hard here, so the lines are still there.
- years old
- 2,000
- the hummingbird is long
- 93 m
- of desert
- 450 km²
- 1
Nobody knows for certain why they were made. They may have been paths to walk during ceremonies, or signs for the gods.
- 2
They were only really noticed when aeroplanes began to fly over.
- 3
New drawings are still being found, lately with the help of computers.
Question 1 of 2
How were the lines made?
- Machu PicchuA city of the Incas, hidden high in the Andes.
- Lake TiticacaA lake as big as a small sea, high in the Andes.
- Salar de UyuniThe largest salt flat in the world, and after rain the largest mirror.
- Atacama DesertThe driest desert in the world outside the poles, between the Andes and the ocean.
It is in Peru.
Read about Peru