Nazca Lines

Estudiantes, Peru, Peru

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The Nazca Lines are a series of giant geoglyphs carved into the arid desert pampa near the town of Nazca in southern Peru, covering about 450–500 square kilometers of the Pampa Colorada plain.

They were made by the Nazca culture between roughly 200 BCE and 600 CE by removing the dark reddish surface stones to reveal the lighter soil underneath, forming straight lines, geometric shapes, and large animal and plant figures such as a hummingbird, spider, monkey, and condor, many of them hundreds of feet long.

The site lies in a dry, windless, and isolated environment, which has helped preserve the designs for more than 2,000 years, and they are now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site called the “Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa.” Their exact purpose remains a mystery, with theories ranging from religious or ceremonial functions to astronomical markers or water‑related rituals, and today they are usually viewed either from small planes or from an observation tower along the nearby highway.