By Alli Sinclair
Alli is entertaining international guests this week so we're running a post from a couple of years ago. Enjoy!
The Cessna putters along the stony runway, strong wind gusts pushing the tail off course. Just when I think the pilot will abandon the take-off, he guns the engine. I suck in my breath and grab the sides of the cracked leather seat I’m sitting on. With eyes squeezed shut, the flying tin can shudders beneath my feet and finally builds to a quaking crescendo. When we’re airborne, I pry one eye open and figure if I’m going to die, then it might as well be with a bird’s eye view of one of the ancient world’s unsolved mysteries-the Nazca Lines in Peru.
Alli is entertaining international guests this week so we're running a post from a couple of years ago. Enjoy!
The Cessna putters along the stony runway, strong wind gusts pushing the tail off course. Just when I think the pilot will abandon the take-off, he guns the engine. I suck in my breath and grab the sides of the cracked leather seat I’m sitting on. With eyes squeezed shut, the flying tin can shudders beneath my feet and finally builds to a quaking crescendo. When we’re airborne, I pry one eye open and figure if I’m going to die, then it might as well be with a bird’s eye view of one of the ancient world’s unsolved mysteries-the Nazca Lines in Peru.
Luckily,
the plane steadied and I made the journey safely, but I’d already
forgotten my fear of dropping out of the sky like bird doo-doo once I
got my first glimpse of the mysterious lines that can only be seen from
the sky. Listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the Nazca lines are
situated on an arid plateau 250 miles (400km) south of Lima and date
back to between 400 and 650 AD. There are hundreds of geometric shapes,
which include drawings of hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks,
and llamas.
No
one knows for sure who made the shallow lines, but scientists agree the
lines were made by removing the red rocks on the surface of the earth
to expose white rocks beneath. From the ground, these lines appear to be
a mish-mash with no apparent rhyme or reason. But from the air, these
odd patterns take on a totally different meaning. The two most
well-known lines are the 295 feet (90m) high monkey an extravagantly
curving tail and a condor with a 426 feet (130m) wingspan.
Discovered
in 1927 by passengers on a commercial flight taking a new route, the
Nazca Lines have baffled anthropologists, archaeologists, and
ethnologists, as well as lay men. Many have tried to discover the who
the creators are for what reason the lines exist, but to date, but to
date, no one has any concrete answers. Here are just a few of the
theories that have been put forward:
Maria
Reiche, a German mathematician, spent her life studying the lines and
claimed the indigenous people of Nazca created them as a way of
communicating with their gods in the sky and also as an astronomical
calendar for agriculture.
In
the 1970’s, American Jim Woodman tested out his theory that the
creators of the lines used balloons made of fine Peruvian cotton and
reed baskets. He asked the Aymara Indians to make a hot air balloon that
could have been used by the Nazca people from that time period. From
the sky, he could see the lines clearly but without using technology, he
couldn’t signal those on the ground as to where to move the rocks. His
theory literally blew sky high when the balloon caught fire and the two
pilots made a narrow escape.
Swiss
author Erich von Däniken held a theory that a long time ago, aliens
visited earth. After the aliens disappeared the Nazca people made the
lines in the hope they would get the message and return. Many people
like to poo-poo this theory, but those who believe it will very quickly
point out the spaceman figure on a hill near the main lines.
Anthropologist
William H. Isbell believes the kings of Nazca ordered the people to
make these lines because if the commoners were working, then they
couldn’t procreate. And if they couldn’t procreate then their inadequate
stores of food would become strong enough to sustain a limited
population.
Anthropologists
Markus Reindel and David Johnson believe the lines are markers for
subterranean water. The figures show the water stream, and zigzag lines
show where they end. American Professor of Anthropology, Anthony Aveni
has a similar belief but adds that the lines are connected with
calendar, water, and mountain deities. It’s with this belief, he feels
the Nazca people celebrated a water cult and used the figures and lines
for ceremonial dances.
John
D. Miller analyzes ancient buildings worldwide and has discovered they
often hold a value of 177 feet. He bases his theories on several holy
numbers and units of measurement and believes the Nazca Lines fit within
the 177 feet model.
The
Code of Carl Munck believes ancient sites around the world are precise
positions on a global, coordinated system in relation to the position of
the Great Pyramid of Giza. An ancient system called Gematria or
Gematrian numbers are found in ancient myths and religions, including
the Bible, and according to Gematria experts, the Nazca Lines fall
neatly into this patterning.
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