The Nazca Lines
How the Geoglyphs Were Made and What They Were For
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The book explores how researchers discovered new lines using AI in 2024. It examines theories that the lines relate to astronomy or water rituals. Chapters discuss Maria Reiche's decades of work and Paul Kosok's early studies. The text covers modern threats like vehicle damage and environmental changes.
This detailed look at ancient Peru's mysteries will interest anyone curious about how people created large-scale art in the desert.
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The plateau rises high and dry, stretching more than eighty kilometers between the towns of Nazca and Palpa, situated on the Pampas de Jumana about four hundred kilometers south of Lima. The main Panamericana Sur highway runs parallel to it. Most of the geoglyphs are found in a rectangle measuring ten by four kilometers, south of the hamlet of San Miguel de la Pascana, where the most notable designs can be seen.
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The first written record of the Nazca Lines appeared in 1553, when Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León mentioned them in his book, calling them trail markers. Nearly a century later, in 1569, Luis Monzón reported seeing ancient ruins in Peru, including what he referred to as “roads.” It wasn’t until the twentieth century that the lines gained broader attention, after Peruvian pilots flying overhead described what they saw. In 1927, archaeologist Toribio Mejía Xesspe noticed them while hiking through the foothills. He brought the discovery to public notice at a conference in Lima the following year, in 1939.
While working in Peru from 1940 to 1941, studying ancient irrigation systems, American historian Paul Kosok first noticed the Nazca Lines from the air. He saw one figure resembled a bird and made another discovery by accident—how the lines pointed toward the horizon at the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. This led him to explore how the lines were made and what they might mean. He teamed up with archaeologist Richard P. Schaedel from the United States and Maria Reiche, a German mathematician and archaeologist based in Lima. Together, they suggested that the figures functioned as astronomical markers, indicating where the sun and other celestial bodies appeared on important dates. Many scholars from different fields have since tried to uncover the lines’ true purpose.
Scholars have figured out how the Nazca lines were made more easily than they’ve determined why they were built. Some believe the Nazca people used basic tools and surveying methods, and archaeological finds of wooden stakes at the ends of certain lines support that idea. One such stake was carbon-dated to help date the designs. In the early 20th century, Joe Nickell, an American investigator, recreated the figures using only the same tools and technology available to the Nazca. His work disproved Erich von Däniken’s 1969 theory that ancient astronauts built them. Nickell showed a small group could reproduce even the largest geoglyphs in just days, without any aerial help. Scientific American called his efforts “remarkable in its exactness” when compared to the original lines.
The lines were made by scraping away the top layer of reddish-brown, iron oxide-coated stones that blanket the Nazca Desert, exposing the lighter clay below. These trenches, about 10 to 15 centimeters deep, stand out vividly against the desert floor. The clay beneath is rich in lime and becomes firm when touched by morning mist, creating a natural shield against wind erosion. Using this technique, the Nazca people created hundreds of large, curving figures—animals and humans—scattered across nearly 450 square kilometers of desert. Some figures stretch almost 370 meters long. The hummingbird measures 93 meters, the condor 134 meters, the monkey 93 by 58 meters, and the spider 47 meters. The dry, windless climate has kept these geoglyphs intact for millennia.
In early 2011, a Japanese team from Yamagata University announced the discovery of two new small geoglyphs, one resembling a human head and dated to the early Nazca period or earlier, and another, undated, depicting an animal. The team had been working at the site since 2006 and by 2012 had found around 100 new figures. In March 2012, the university said it would open a research center in September 2012 as part of a 15-year study. A June 2019 Smithsonian article described how Japanese researchers identified or re-identified some of the birds in the geoglyphs, noting that birds are most commonly depicted. They speculated that "The reason exotic birds were depicted in the geoglyphs instead of indigenous birds is closely related to the purpose of the etching process."
In 2019, researchers from Yamagata University and IBM Japan announced the discovery of 143 new geoglyphs in the Nazca Pampa and nearby areas. One of these was found using machine learning methods. A cat-shaped figure was discovered on a hill in 2020, on a steep slope vulnerable to erosion, which is why it hadn’t been seen before. Archaeologists had to carefully study the image to spot it. Drones are now helping uncover more sites for future research.
By 2022, researchers had identified 358 geoglyphs within the Nazca Lines, a collection of large-scale designs etched into the desert floor in southern Peru. Today, drone technology is being used to help anthropologists explore the area more thoroughly, and these modern tools are expected to reveal many additional geoglyphs that were previously hidden or too difficult to see from the ground.
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In 2024, archaeologists from the Yamagata University's Nazca Institute, working with IBM Research, used artificial intelligence to find 303 geoglyphs previously unknown near the Nazca Lines in Peru. These newly discovered figures include parrots, cats, monkeys, killer whales, and even severed heads.
Between September 2022 and February 2023, a field survey was carried out on foot across the Nazca Desert under the permission of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. The team spent 1,440 labor hours on the ground, confirming 303 new figurative geoglyphs. Of the 1,309 candidates identified as having high potential, they were sorted into three ranks. A total of 1,200 labor hours went into reviewing AI-generated photos of geoglyph candidates.
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Paul Kosok and Maria Reiche proposed that the Nazca Lines served an astronomical purpose, aligning with the movements of the sun and other celestial objects. They suggested the geoglyphs functioned like a giant observatory, marking where the sun rose or set during solstices on the distant horizon. This idea connects to broader patterns seen in ancient cultures across the Americas and beyond. The Mississippian culture at Cahokia, for example, built earthworks combining astronomy with religious beliefs. Similar alignments appear at Stonehenge in England and Newgrange in Ireland, where tombs are oriented to let light enter during the winter solstice.
Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni, who study ancient cultures and the stars, looked carefully at the Nazca Lines and decided in 1990 that there wasn’t enough proof to say they were meant as an astronomical map. They concluded the evidence was not strong enough to support that idea.
Maria Reiche believed that some or all of the Nazca Lines depicted constellations. By 1998, her protégé Phyllis B. Pitluga, who worked as a senior astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, concluded that the animal figures were not regular constellations but what she called "counter constellations"—the dark patches within the Milky Way. She suggested the giant spider figure was an anamorphic representation of the constellation Orion, and that three straight lines leading to it tracked the changing declinations of Orion’s Belt stars. Aveni later critiqued this view, pointing out that Pitluga had not considered the other twelve lines of the figure and questioning her overall conclusions.
She contended that the Nazca lines aligned with celestial bodies, but I found it hard to support her claims. Pitluga never explained how she picked which lines to study, and she largely ignored the archaeological work done by Clarkson and Silverman. Her argument gave little weight to what was known about the local coastal peoples, except for stretching Urton’s ideas about constellations from the mountains in a way that felt forced. As historian Jacquetta Hawkes might ask: was she simply chasing the sky she wanted to see?
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Some scholars have suggested that shamanistic rituals may have played a role in how the Nazca culture created the geoglyphs found across southern Peru. These ideas attempt to explain the purpose behind the large designs etched into the desert floor, linking them to spiritual practices of the time. While this remains one of several cultural hypotheses about the lines, it highlights the possibility that the geoglyphs were not just random markings, but held deeper meaning within the beliefs and traditions of the people who made them.
Henri Stierlin, a Swiss art historian who studied Egypt and the Middle East, wrote a book in 1983 connecting the Nazca Lines to textiles found wrapped around mummies of the Paracas culture. He suggested that the lines and trapezes may have functioned as giant, early looms for making long strings and wide pieces of cloth typical of the area. Stierlin believed the figurative patterns—smaller and less common—were only for ritual purposes. This idea hasn’t gained wide acceptance, though some scholars have noticed similarities between the textile designs and the geoglyphs. They think those shared patterns come from the same culture rather than direct influence.
Since 1996, Markus Reindel and Johny Cuadrado Isla have led the first systematic field study of the geoglyphs, documenting and excavating more than 650 sites. As archaeologists, they compared the iconography of the lines to ceramics from the cultures that made them. They believe the figurative motifs of the geoglyphs can be dated to between 600 and 200 BC.
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In 1985, archaeologist Johan Reinhard shared findings from archaeological, ethnographic, and historical research that showed how central water was to the Nazca way of life, both in ancient times and more recently. He suggested that the lines and figures were part of religious practices tied to honoring deities linked to water availability, which was key to farming success. According to Reinhard, the straight lines may have been sacred pathways leading to places of worship, while the geoglyphs—like animals or objects—were symbols meant to call on these deities for rain or water. The exact meanings behind many of the individual designs are still a mystery.
Based on geophysical studies and what researchers observed about underground water channels, David Johnson suggested that certain geoglyphs were built along the routes of hidden water sources. These paths led to aqueducts, or what are known as puquios, which collected water for use. He argued the lines weren’t just random markings, but followed the natural flow of groundwater through the landscape.
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Some theories suggest the geometric lines might show water flow or irrigation systems, or even be part of rituals meant to "summon" water, with symbols like spiders, birds, and plants possibly representing fertility. Others have proposed that the lines functioned as an astronomical calendar. In 1977, Alberto Rossel Castro offered a multi-functional view of the geoglyphs, grouping them into three categories: the first he believed were tracks related to irrigation and field division, the second connected to axes linked with mounds and cairns, and the third associated with astronomical interpretations.
Nicola Masini and Giuseppe Orefici studied the area around Pampa de Atarco, about ten kilometers south of Pampa de Nasca, looking into how the geoglyphs connect to the temples at Cahuachi. Using satellite and drone images, they found five groups of geoglyphs, each with a unique design and purpose. One group features winding patterns and seems linked to ceremonies. Another aligns with the winter solstice and equinox sunsets, suggesting it had a calendar function. Like earlier researchers, the two Italians believe these earthworks were tied to agricultural cycles and helped bring together groups of pilgrims who shared religious beliefs and common ancestry.
In 2024, a study used a deep neural network trained on ImageNet and adapted for 'relief-type' geoglyphs to sort the Nazca Lines by whether they lay along trails or roads, and whether they were geometric or figurative. The researchers emphasized figurative geoglyphs, observing that because line-type motifs often featured wild animals, it’s likely ceremonial acts connected to those creatures took place during pilgrimages—meaning the line-types might be seen as planned public architecture. They also discovered that relief-type geoglyphs, typically half the size of line-types, were visible from paths and showed scenes involving humans, livestock, and human sacrifice—suggesting that walking past them repeatedly would have helped spread knowledge about such human activities.
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In 1968, Swiss writer Erich von Däniken published a best-selling book called Chariots of the Gods? and claimed the Nazca lines were landing sites for UFOs. He believed ancient astronauts visited Earth, telling stories like one in Sanskrit literature about beings with "golden, shimmering skins" who landed, mined for metals, and then flew away. According to von Däniken, these visitors returned later to build landing tracks and eventually left forever. The local people, amazed by their arrival, considered Nazca a sacred place and built more figures and runways as invitations for the gods to return—though they never did.
When Erich von Däniken published Chariots of the Gods?, many scientists and archaeologists, including Maria Reiche, dismissed his theories as ridiculous. They showed that the Nazca Lines could have been created using basic tools available to the people who made them. Critics also said von Däniken’s books, like Arrival of the Gods and Chariots of the Gods?, had no real intellectual value or literary worth. Though others had proposed similar ideas about ancient contact with aliens before him, von Däniken failed to give credit to those earlier authors, repeating their claims and using the same evidence. Still, his writings attracted thousands of visitors and believers to the site.
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Conservationists are working to protect the Nazca Lines, but they’re worried about pollution and erosion threatening the site. The geoglyphs are shallow—only ten to thirty centimeters deep—and could easily be washed away. The area around Nazca rarely gets rain, so the lines weren’t built to handle heavy downpours. But with global weather patterns shifting, there’s growing concern that new rainfall could damage them beyond repair.
After flooding and mudslides struck the area in mid-February 2007, Mario Olaechea Aquije, who was then archaeological resident from Peru's National Institute of Culture, led a team of specialists to assess the damage. He said, "The mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nazca Lines." He also pointed out that the nearby Southern Pan-American Highway did suffer damage, and "the damage done to the roads should serve as a reminder to just how fragile these figures are." Then, in 2012, squatters moved into the area, damaging a Nazca-era cemetery and letting their pigs onto some of the land.
In 2013, a limestone quarry using heavy machinery accidentally damaged a small portion of one of the lines, causing harm to the site. Then in December 2014, Greenpeace activists caused further damage when they hung a banner directly on one of the geoglyphs. The organization later issued an apology for the incident. Still, one of the people involved was convicted and fined for their role in damaging the ancient artwork.
In 2012 and 2013, damage to geoglyphs outside the World Heritage area was revealed through satellite images, caused by off-road vehicles from the Dakar Rally. This incident brought attention to broader issues of preservation. Then in January 2018, a truck driver was arrested for damaging three of the geoglyphs, leaving tire marks across an area about forty-six meters by one hundred seven meters. He was later released due to insufficient evidence showing he intended anything more than a simple mistake.
In 2025, the Ministry of Culture made a decision to shrink the protected area around the Nazca lines by about 42%, reducing it from roughly 5,600 square kilometers down to 3,200. They said new archaeological research justified the change. But the move sparked criticism, especially because of growing fears about illegal mining in the region. Shortly after, the ministry reversed its decision.
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In the Palpa province, archaeologists using drones found 25 geoglyphs linked to the Paracas culture in 2018. Some of these geoglyphs are thought to predate the Nazca lines by as much as a thousand years. Their co-discoverer, Peruvian archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, says many of the newly found geoglyphs represent warriors. The Paracas group is also believed to have created the well-known geoglyph called the Paracas Candelabra.
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Overview
The Nazca culture, also known as the Nasca, lived along the dry southern coast of Peru between roughly 100 BC and 800 AD, in areas around the Rio Grande de Nazca and the Ica Valley. They built on the traditions of the Paracas culture, who were famous for their detailed textiles, and the Nazca continued that legacy while creating their own crafts like ceramics and textiles. Among their most impressive achievements are the Nazca lines—massive designs carved into the desert landscape whose meaning remains a mystery—and puquios, which are underground aqueducts still functioning today to bring water for farming and daily life. The region named for them, Nazca Province in the Ica Region, reflects their lasting presence in that area.
Time frame
Nazca society emerged during the Early Intermediate Period, and scholars break it down into distinct phases. The earliest, called Proto Nazca, lasted from 100 BC to 1 AD. After that came the Early Nazca, spanning from 1 to 450 AD and divided into phases two through four. Then came the Middle Nazca, from 450 to 550 AD, followed by the Late Nazca, which covers the period from 550 to 750 AD and includes phases six and seven. Each phase reflects changes in how people lived, worked, and created art in the region.
Decline and fall of the civilization
From 500 AD, the Nazca civilization began to decline, and by 750 AD, it had completely disappeared. This collapse is believed to have been caused by an El Niño event that brought severe flooding. Evidence suggests the Nazca people may have made the situation worse by slowly cutting down Prosopis pallida trees to grow maize and cotton. These trees were vital to the environment, especially in preventing erosion from rivers and wind. Without them, the landscape became more vulnerable to climate changes like El Niño, which led to further erosion and left their irrigation systems unusable.
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Overview
Maria Reiche was a German-born Peruvian mathematician, archaeologist, and technical translator who dedicated her life to studying the Nazca Lines. She first encountered them in 1941 with American historian Paul Kosok and became known as the "Lady of the Lines." Reiche documented and preserved the geoglyphs, living near them to protect their integrity. She received recognition as Doctor Honoris Causa from two Lima universities and helped secure national and international attention for the site. Peru later established protection for the lines, which were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. After her death in 1998, her former home in Nazca became the Museo Maria Reiche. She is honored through the name of an airport, a park, and dozens of schools across Peru. Her 115th birthday was celebrated with a Google Doodle in May 2018.
Early life and education
Maria Reiche was born in Dresden on 15 May 1903 to Felix Reiche Grosse and Ana Elizabeth Neumann. She studied mathematics, astronomy, geography and foreign languages at the Technische Universität Dresden, where she learned to speak five languages. In 1932, as a young woman, she went to Peru to work as a governess and tutor for the children of the German consul in Cusco. In 1934, while still in Cusco, she accidentally stabbed herself with a cactus and lost a finger to gangrene. In 1939, she became a teacher in Lima and also worked on scientific translations. When World War II broke out that year, Reiche stayed in Peru. The next year she met American Paul Kosok, who was researching ancient irrigation systems in the country. She assisted him with making arrangements in the country, including a flight in 1941 by which she first saw the lines and figures of Nazca from the air. They collaborated for years on further studies of these earthworks, trying to determine how they were made and, with more difficulty, for what purpose.
Nazca lines
In 1940, Maria Reiche began working with Paul Kosok on studies of ancient irrigation systems in Peru. When Kosok spotted lines in the desert converging at the winter solstice point in June 1941, he and Reiche started mapping them for possible astronomical links. She later discovered lines aligning with the summer solstice and proposed that the geoglyphs formed a massive celestial calendar. By 1946, she had identified 18 distinct animal and bird figures within the lines. After Kosok left in 1948, Reiche continued her research, using her mathematical training to examine how such precise designs were made. She theorized that the Nazca people used the lines as both a sun calendar and an astronomical observatory. Because the patterns are best seen from above, she arranged for aerial surveys with the Peruvian Air Force. Her findings were published in The Mystery on the Desert in 1949, where she suggested the giant monkey figure represented Ursa Major. Although later scholars doubted the lines' primary astronomical function, her work and Kosok's brought scholarly attention to the site. Reiche used proceeds from her book to protect the area, hiring guards and lobbying officials. She helped convince the government to limit access and built a viewing tower so visitors could observe the lines without causing damage. Her efforts contributed to the Nazca Lines being named a World Heritage site in 1994. In 1977, she joined the founding members of South American Explorers, a nonprofit organization focused on travel, science, and education.
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Overview
Paul August Kosok was an American professor of history and government who became the first serious researcher of the Nazca Lines in Peru. His study began in 1939 while he was researching ancient irrigation systems. By the 1950s, he had mapped more than 300 canals in collaboration with archaeologist Richard P. Schaedel, showing how the culture managed water to support their settlements. Kosok noticed that some of the geoglyphs depicted living creatures and that others appeared connected to astronomical events. His work in archaeo-astronomy helped establish the importance of the lines as an archaeological site, which Peru later protected. The Nazca Lines were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.
Academic career
Paul Kosok began his academic career as an assistant professor of history at Long Island University in Brooklyn, where he taught courses in history and the history of science. His early work, Modern Germany: A Study of Conflicting Loyalties, published in 1933 by the University of Chicago Press, was used by the State Department for foreign service training and reprinted in 1969. Kosok studied and traveled in Europe in 1928 and 1937, and in the 1930s he became interested in ancient irrigation systems, collaborating with archaeologist Richard P. Schaedel to map over 300 canals in prehistoric Peru. He conducted fieldwork in Peru during 1940–1941 and 1948–1949, focusing on how water systems related to settlement patterns. During this time, he also began studying the Nazca Lines, noticing their astronomical connections and realizing they were not part of the irrigation system. He worked with Maria Reiche, a German translator and mathematician from Lima, who continued his research after he left Peru in 1949, eventually mapping 18 more figures. Kosok planned two books on irrigation systems, one general and one technical; the general interest book was published posthumously in 1965. He also composed The Andean Rhapsody, which he conducted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
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