The lecture 'The geoglyphs of Nazca'

So, Nazca. It is believed that the lines appeared here around 2000 years ago. At a time it was the Nazca culture that existed in the region. Attached is a brief sketch. The area marked with purple is a site that was explored most of all and which contains the largest amount of lines.
In fact, this notion represents one of the most unresolvable problems for the official history. Only archaeological research is undertaken in the area – excavations take place, the culture studies are ongoing. The scientists try to bind these discoveries to the lines. In my turn, I’d like to focus on the issues which are industriously avoided.

The lines are the structures made on the ground, i.e. the ground surface is simply cleared away of the stones. However, the lines also occur at other surfaces – different from the Nazca desert ones. Similar lines exist in gravel, are drawn through the layers of stones, buried in the mountains or laid out with stones in deserts where the stones were initially not available. For example, to the South there is an area to which the stones were carried from somewhere else. People were carrying all these stones with them just to construct these lines.

What’s impressive is the straightness of lines. But what’s more impressive is that it’s really difficult to find a line on the ground. Before going to any of these sites we were processing the maps – we downloaded a map into a navigator and only then it was possible to find a requested line in the desert.
At the site the lines usually appear as simply paps and stacks of stones scattered along a cross-county terrain. Just to make one step aside and a line becomes visible in all of its beauty.

It’s unclear what was the purpose of constructing the lines of such an immense size. I’ll talk later about this. However, as of today there are no clear or accountable explanations in this regards. It is also totally incomprehensible what kind of activity can be related to such lines.

An interesting observation: there’s an impression that every line was made specifically for one event. In other words it feels like a line was made, some procedure took place and then the line has been forsaken. Then another line could be constructed on top of it. It often happens that lines are multiply piled up one on top of the other in several layers. However, there’s always a clear and distinct approach to their construction.

To be more specific let’s have a look at this case. A large amount of soil has been removed and spread out at this site which resulted in having a wide platform with a long central line sprouting far out of it (it can be seen in Google Earth) precisely through the centre of this wide large trapezoid.

This photo is taken from the tower. If we stand on the ground, we can see nothing of this. It can only be visible from the height of around 20 meters. The greatest puzzle lies in the fact that all of this wonder is absolutely invisible from the ground. The whole picture can only be seen from the great height; even 200-300 meters will not provide a perfect outlook, while at the distance of 1 km it will be a gorgeous view. The total length of the structure is 5 km. It means that it was not sketched and done all of a sudden in one sitting – it was a well planned, properly designed, in-detail sketched and implemented construction.

Here’s the marvellous line. You can see almost until the horizon. It is yet not clear why it is visible. The width of the line along the whole length is basically the same – around 15 sm. The line is kind of shining all along – right now we can see it for as far as 3 km. It is not clear what the cause of this glow is.

Here’s a good shot. When looking down upon the line, it looks like almost an impeccable straight line. Although the line at the end runs through the loftiness and props almost to the very end of the plateau. This is how the majority of these lines and constructions are done.

There is a certain rule in construction of these lines. Trapezoid appears to be a in fact a big line that when looking down upon it has a shape of an extremely elongated trapezium or a narrow triangle with a cut top. Very often these trapezoids possess another structure located at their foundation, as well as two dots – two constructions in their narrow part.

There is a very clear rule – if there is a zigzag sprouting out of a trapezoid at the same very angle, then no other constructions are available.
We’ve been searching for a deviation from this rule for more than a year. But such deviations do not exist.
We call these structures “furled” or “folded” ones. Their angles may be different, as well as their shapes. Very often a line gradually transforms into a drawing, e.g. a spiral. But they never have similar dots or constructions. Often there occur the multiplying foundations which are made of the several rows of stones or formation.

“Unfold” combinations also exist – please see below. It is exactly the same trapezoid in the core – as a main element – but there is a line which stretches out of it for up to 2 or 3 km. There exist lines which spread for as much as 9 km – very far – and they are straight. Most likely, these structures also have some stacks or piles of stones on them, as well as various reference pegs – one just needs to collect enough samples to provide the statistics. I will show these too. We made good pictures of them.

At the same time, there exists another notion – the groups which are composed of the chains of trapezoids in which the central element is shifted to the side. It does not resemble to any of the ritual purposes – it resembles more to a technology – a technology of something ultimately different and unknown. And this is related to trapezoids of different size.

There occur other interesting and mysterious combinations of lines. They may be intricate and complex. Here is a large line. It is very easy to distinguish between the track of a vehicle which drove carefully through the terrain, bypassing and detouring obstacles, and between the line: the lines are as precise as possible and run perfectly straight. The length is about 600 m. It’s a folded combination. A big zigzag expands from it. I’ve highlighted it here and it can be seen well. It’s an ultimately complex combination – the zigzag even has a rupture and afterwards the line moves to the side; in the narrow part of the trapezoid there’s another mini-trapezoid – it’s like a small combination or a microcircuit which is attached here.

Combinations cover not merely some local sites, but may extend for huge areas and square kilometres. Here are the three lines. They comprise three folded combinations and they are united into a single finished figure. Here it is evident that all of the borders are connected. The enlarged photo shows that these elements are emphasized; they are done on top of the already existing combinations so that to unite the borders of these three gigantic drawings into one holistic unit.

A 9-km combination: 2 trapezoids are connected with a line. All of it is seen well through Google – everything can be processed and screened, all of the elements, even the stack-type of constructions.

Here is another tremendous creation which includes a great number of lines. It covers and connects 1/3 of the plateau. From the centre there diverge the lines which run over some trapezoids and connect with other trapezoids.

In other words, what I’m trying to say is that despite the great scope of work there must have been a plan, a strategic basis underneath it. It was not done out of the blue sky – like someone came, performed some ritual and left – no, this can’t be constructed in a day, nor in a week; all of these things are located far in the desert – around 8 km. In the area of Ici the lines are situated 20 km into the desert from the valley and even at such distance combinations occur. Simply to reach the place, one would have to spend 1 day walking on foot. And it’s not just a mere stroll – it’s an unbearable heat there and the desert is like a frying pan.

A Google snapshot. Ica, around 100 km from Nazca. It is a considered that there are no lines here at all. This is a free access zone. SUV driving is allowed. And people do drive – all across these lines – because the ocean is near, promising the recreation, rest and wonderful surroundings. There is a road crossing these lines. No one really pays attention or notices them. These lines were discovered only in 2010 when they were first seen via Goggle Earth.

Here is a trapezoid. Seen distinctly; made of stone stacks, a double element is present. Let me remind once again that this is not Nazca. This is 100 km away from Nazca – this place is believed to be calm and quiet. When we drove there, we did not know if we would find the lines or not. You see what the landscape is here – it’s an absolute desert. It is very much different from that at the Nazca plateau. At Nazca the stones were sorted out, while here there are no stones – it’s a sand desert with occasional pebbles and typical sand dunes. It may as well be that the migrating sand dunes have concealed a lot of the lines.

You can see how the surface is structured – very similar to that at Nazca. The top layer is either sand or gravel, or pebbles. Underneath it there’s a crust – you can knock on it, you can break it. Yet underneath, there is fine white sand, gleaming like a gypsum dust. Most likely these lines were made in view of their further glowing.

Here the pebbles define the line which diverges from a narrow part of a trapezoid. It was a joy to see that this line is distinctly visible. It stretches for over 1,5 km, runs over a trapezoid and terminates into another trapezoid, making this way a large unfold combination. Here the car tracks are seen and next to them there’s another line. The line is very similar to the Nazca type – with a deepening of about 40 sm which is seen along the whole length. The line is marked with stones. Stones were brought from the neighbouring bald peaks and hills. The specific place where the stones were brought from is unknown, since the surrounding mountains have no big stones – i.e. the stones were brought from somewhere. The scope of work didn’t matter – those constructors could clean enormous territories and bring all the necessary stones to places where they were absent and lay down the lines.

Now we see that all of the lines contained typical elements on them: two piles of stones that I’ve already mentioned before. We will also later also see a dot – a singular element – defined by a stone. The trapezoid that we are looking at appears to us like a small ground because of its getting wider towards the horizon. To an observer it looks like a rectangle. I noticed that this approach is tried to be preserved everywhere.

Nearby there’s an odd construction – upright stones. There’s a hypothesis that all these lines were imposed by one and the same method, then other constructors would come and remake them, adding some elements. I don’t know for sure, and the likelihood of such statements is only relative, but for me personally after the recent trips it became very clear, that everything was done simultaneously. It is impossible to find all the lines after they have been constructed, and to walk along them again constructing all these elements; they were definitely included into the line construction process from start. For me it is out of question.

By the way, this one is a very unusual trapezoid. While all trapezoids and lines at Nazca and its region are somewhat deepened, this one, on the contrary, is elevated. I don’t know how this could happen. One can see that on both sides of it there run the dried river beds – they bypass our trapezoid. Only one river bed slightly crosses a corner of the trapezoid and then goes down. In other words, this place is slightly uplifted. What kind of process should happen to make part of a desert raise up? Not clear. According to a preliminary estimation the age of these riverbeds is around 1,5 thousand years. It is believed that the culture of Nazca ceased its existence in 600 BC when an unprecedented El Nino swept through the area. This is a proved fact: there took place intense hurricanes and rains and a climate change occur – in some places the droughts commenced, while in others everything became flooded – in any case it became impossible to continue living there.

This element is very odd. There’s and impression that it is swilled with something, with some liquid. The material is very solid. I’m not sure, since I’m not a geologist, but this reminds of granite. Here is the crust that I’ve mentioned before.

The two lines are seen very well. They are often present in trapezoids and they might have had the function of sketching or draughtsmanship lines: at first, the territory was sketched with these lines, and afterwards trapezoids were constructed.
We input this dot into a navigator – the distance to the object is 43 meters.
Here is the central element. From this central element there starts another line, laid out with pebbles. It stretches for about 2 km until another trapezoid. There the amazing constructions are also in place. We stand at the basement of a trapezoid. The basement is done in a peculiar way. While the folded combinations usually have multiplying foundations, this one has 2 lines connected to each other – one of them is made of the stone stacks, while another is compiled of separate stones. This also occurs from time to time. This foundation played some specific role, had a particular function in a trapezoid.

The next place is close to Ingenio. This place is not considered to be a reserved area, hence, driving a car was allowed. This place is interesting due to the following. It’s a small plateau. The lines here have a very unsightly appearance from the ground. Looks like the stones were dragged or some kind of levelling drag was used. But here is the situation – it’s not sand, it’s not a desert, it’s not a surface of stones or pebbles, but it’s an immense layer of gravel – of sharp stones of different size. The lines here were made not simply in sand, but in gravel. Sand is also available, but the gravel layer goes deep into the ground. What I want to say is that the lines were in any case traced through gravel. And here is a modern bulldozer – its track was yet seen at the 2008 maps. So… this really reminds me of the method with which the lines were constructed – i.e. something was dragged through the territory and the space was cleared out at the same time.

Pay attention that very often there occur large stones at these lines. That means, that people cleaned the territory, dragged the line, but for some reason they were leaving the big stones (or the latter appeared here later). The lines are sort of littered with the big stones. If wind was its cause, it would only deal with sand or gravel. While here the impression is that when some lines were in progress, the stones were bouncing aside from them, and when these lines got ready, the stones from other lines in progress were bouncing back onto the ready ones.

Maybe it’s huaqeros – or the black archaeologists – who were digging here. The formation can be seen well here. One can see that the layer of gravel goes far down. Even for metal-fork shovels it would be hard to rake this formation. My sneakers got totally torn apart – so sharp were the stones. The construction principle of these lines remained completely unclear.

On the other hand, there also occurs such thing as big zigzags. Here is the place. It is intensely drawn all over with lines and it is not included into any of the reserved areas, which is why it is permitted to walk and drive here without any limitation. In our last trip we did not have a car and we were taking taxi to get there. We could basically reach the place by taxi because there’s a road crossing the area.

This place is interesting due to the fact that the lines here are almost invisible from the ground – they can only be seen from great height. I consider this to be one of the most interesting facts, because this is a huge combination – an 800 meters trapezoid, which is connected with a big zigzag. This is an impeccably made rounding – this line is several meters wide – the total length of the combination is more than 6 km. We flew over this place; the pilots did not know that such a thing existed in this area and were very much surprised to come to know that such a wonder was right next to their airport.

One can see the narrow part of the trapezoid; the main point is bypassed by the zigzag. One can imagine the amount of work. Formation here is different – it differs from those that we saw in Ingenio and in Nazca. Here it is sand – a running ground with crust and teeny-tiny gravel. The lines here were made by a special method. If to peer, one can see the 3-4 layers of lines. Impressive is the amount and area of work. Here they did not throw the stones aside, neither did they pile them into stacks – they simply dumped the soil. One can see very well that in places the lines have a deepening. This compaction – as if something has driven through the place – is observed at many of them.

One can also notice that the zigzag bypasses the topographic inequalities.
This is a view from the ground. From the ground it does not look as impressive. This is a bulk. Strong wind was a constant thing here and most likely this bulk has been much bigger before. Now its size is around 40-50 sm – rather large – and 3-4 meters wide; very even, as if it was shoveled and pulled aside with something. There are no big stones here. All of the lines are made in the same way. It is well visible that another line crosses it – this time the bulk is located exactly on the line, as if something drove over it, as if something pushed the formation at sides.

This is a reference peg, a hill. At such trapezoids such pegs are sometimes placed near them – it’s another characteristic feature. In unfold trapezoids it is usually placed inside them, while here it is located at the outside and the zigzag is kind of going round it

An interesting detail – a strip. There’s such an impression that something drove by, dragged the soil and piled it at the end of a trapezoid. It’s a unique element which is not observed anywhere else.

During my last trip I tracked through this place – it’s a rather immense, gigantic earth fill in the middle of the desert which has the shape of a ramp; it’s kind of a small uplift with even borders, very well defined, piled like a hill at a trapezoid. One can see the size of this huge trapezoid – here goes one border, rather unnoticeably, and here goes another, which runs far away almost into the horizon.

I went through the roundings which can be seen distinctly from Google or from the plane. As for the lines, it is very complicated to show anything from the ground – no one would see anything under usual circumstances – however, both of the borders are there – this is the edge, the corner of the zigzag which goes round the uplift. I want to say that these wonderful roundings are made at the rough irregular topography. Nevertheless, they are very orderly; these are not mere hemispheres, these are the so-called Bezier curves – I will tell about them later, when we go through the drawings. So, these are not the hemispheres – these are very proper mathematical curves. It is very hard to produce similar curves or any other figure in general, and especially at such an irregular terrain.

Let me tell you this: last time that we were in Sacsayhuaman, me, being a big expert on geoglyphs, thumped the chest and volunteered to draw a big square on the ground. Here is the so-called Cocha – arena, where the cross-sections for georadar works had to be done. So I needed simply to draw a square on the ground – approximately 45 to 45 meters – with having only a common little tape measure of 50 meters long as an instrument. It appeared to be very complicated. If there occur even the lightest wind or the tiniest uplift or relief irregularity, this leads to a fault which needs to be fixed then with specific geodesy tools. Hence, at the end I was 3 meters wrong. In other words, I would definitely not dare or undertake drawing even the most primitive figure on such an irregular surface. Professional geodesists would most likely be able to do this, but definitely not with the help of a stick and laces. In addition, in this case there are two completely identical lines that are done very precisely and with the mathematical calibration. And these two lines are goofing at us by running over such an even terrain.

An amazing place is located at the North of the plateau. From top the combination looks like this. At the maps of 2010 this place for some reason is hidden behind the clouds. Actually, many things in Nazca are hidden with the clouds these days. One of the most interesting sites with the geometric patterns is also hidden for some reason.
This place is interesting due to the fact that there are two or even more folded combinations which are rather large-scale for Nazca. Here there are also present all types of ground constructions.
Here we see trapezoids and zigzags which are included into folded combinations. There also exist the rectangular lines – another frequently found element that is considered to be the largest in size, though it is usually done with low quality.

Here is this place in Google – one can see trapezoids with the multiplying foundations. Also huge triangles intersecting them. The length of big trapezoids and rectangles is 300 tо 600 meters. The total length of these combinations is equal to several kilometers.
This place is of interest because it is seen well and in detail – here is the valley, and here starts the Nazca plateau totally criss-crossed like a blackboard with chalks.
The lines exist here, in the valley of the river too. It is all full of zigzags, lines, trapezoids constructed with the same methods – with the help of dots, sketching, etc. – not all of them are actually drawn. Unfortunately though, people start sowing activities here, they drive, construct transmission lines, etс. ...

The drawings are diverse and manifold – from 40 to 400 meters. Their pertaining to the culture of Nazca is undoubtful to me. Similar plots and even the same details are found at the Nazca ceramics and textile. The most interesting observation is that all of these drawings that we see in the Nazcan culture are primitive. They are not endowed with proportions or balance, or completeness embodied in the geoglyphs of the plateau. And this creates the major perplexity and confusion. Maria Reiche, who studied the geoglyphs for about 50 years, highlighted this. She wrote that shifting a line for just a few inches will lead to an immediate failure of balance. I did not perceive her words seriously at first. However, it was exactly like that. Once I decided to outline these drawings. I was particularly interested in their plots – what was in the minds of the ancient artists, what they had as a sketch prior to replicating their drawings to the ground.

As I said before, scaling and replication of drawings requires specific instruments. Let me draw an example. In my article I mentioned some Joe Nickell, an American, a member of the Skeptics Society. Assisted by his colleagues he tried to reproduce one of the drawings with the help of the sticks. This allows us to see the difference between his result and the initial drawing. The balance and the orderliness of the authentic drawing can’t be achieved with the help of primitive tools.

On the contrary, here we see a very detailed outline. And the drawing does not contain circles. There is a big difference between a circle and a curve. A question is: what is the difference between the circles in the fields and the drawings of Nazca? To draw a circle is one thing – once can simply take its radii, use a stick with a string and drag a circle; to draw a curve – a proper mathematical curve – is a different story. While processing these drawings it appeared that their curves can be easily done in the graphics editor with the help of Bezier curves. The fewer data points we use, the better result we get and the more similarity with the authentic copy is achieved. Accuracy is the most impressive thing in mathematics.

In addition, these drawings are not simply regular and proper, but the ancient artists added volume and perspective to them. One can see the way the spider is made – there are two superimposed planes… The lecture unfortunately does not provide enough time to explain it all, but in nay case it is very much evident visually; if to unfold any of the drawings, they will become a common flat figure.  
While in their natural position, the drawings possess some volume, perspective, or what we call 3D nowadays.

I consider this drawing to be the main evidence. It’s a tree – it is not a big one in Nazca terms – around 50-60 m.
Now imagine a common sheet of paper, imagine that we cut out a tree out of it and then we folded every branch. If we unfold a branch, we will receive a flat piece with straight lines. In the folded state every branch contains 5 bends. And this was done on purpose. Everything was calculated – the tree is a part of a bigger combination of 3 drawings and an immense trapezoid with a zigzag, which are all performed with one line. And it is not easy to make an image of such size with one line, preserving all these peculiarities. It’s like we are purposefully been given a hint – they clearly demonstrated to us that these are the 3D objects. Nothing similar is observed in ceramics or in textile, or in the iconography and the culture of Nazca in general. At the same time, the plots do repeat – a fish, a humming bird etc.

There’s another good example. Everyone has probably seen it. It’s one of the drawings from the same combination. I’ve made a 3D model of it. Of course, this all may be disputable – it might have had more paws or tails, or something else. However, it’s evident, that the artists are kind of imposing the idea that this is a 3D object. At paw N1 there are 5 fingers, at paw N2 there are 4 – this makes the volume apprehensible. The volume also reveals itself in the dynamics and the shape of the body. In the European civilization perspective commenced to be used in the early Medieval Age, when a certain level of art, science, social development was already achieved and the script was already in place. In Nazca there existed no script or state; the culture of Nazca was represented by separate tribes headed by the shaman chiefs. However, something unconceivable reveals itself through these drawings.

I demonstrated this at a workshop in Cairo. It was first demonstrated in the documentary of the National Geographic – there they used an unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV) to fly around the area close to Palpa (which is now been hidden in clouds when you look at it via Google). I noticed that there occured some stone constructions in the area. At the drawing to the right one can see the squares and circles. This scheme caught my attention. In 2011 we flew over the place and made around 5-6 circles there; we made good quality videos and photos. All of these appeared to look this way on a sketch. It can easily be superimposed onto the coordinate grid; the size of the drawing is more than 200 meters; it is made on an irregular topography. The corners, for example, which are clearly seen from the top, in fact slide down into the ravines or hollows. If we look at this corner from the ground, we will not see it – it can only be visible from the top. Everything is laid out with stones – they used the stones of different size to mark the important points, etc. This picture was made as a holistic complex above the lines. The purpose is not clear. It is not visible in Google, nor from the plane. We could detect it only because we used advanced optics.
This topic caught my attention. By the way, next to it there’s even a more impressive drawing which consists almost solely of circles – few dozens of circles – I will outline and demonstrate it in summer.

There’s another neighbouring drawing.
It’s a so-called “estrella” – this is where our research of the geometrical figures has started. It is seen very well. Let’ start with it.
Let’s walk up a little hill and this is what it looks like from there – it’s a very uneven surface and the drawing is kind of slipped over the rugged topography. My only assumption as to how to replicate such drawings on the uneven surface is to use a projector – to place it on a certain highland so that it projects an image onto the ground and from there to lay down the image with stones. For me it remains uncomprehensible how is it possible to make such tremendous drawings help of only the primitive tools, without calculations or any geodesical devices so accurately that they would look impeccably from the top with the? Here is a corner and one can see well that it slides down into a ravine. However, from the top it looks absolutely straight and proper.

One can notice the white spots there – it’s a different technology of lines production, different from the standard lines of Nazca. Here people walked and pushed or dragged the stones manually, afterwards placing them into the junction points – several stones together or single large stones. I have no doubts that all of it is very ancient. Evidently, these things were made after the lines, which means that these layers are from the later times. However, I believe that their age is the same as of the lines.

This is “estrella 1” – a view from the ground. Nothing special – one can see the pebbles brought with the wind; this is the central zone; this is a ravine to the left; a corner also slides down there. Pay attention that there is a stick almost in the middle of it – I thought that it was somebody’s hooliganism, but similar sticks are observed there in large quantites. And they seemed to be very old too. This is the very center of estrella – here the same sticks are also present.  One can see that people walked here, did something – maybe measuring something, etc… It seems like these sticks were applied in some way during utilization of this image.

Why? Here is “estrella 2”. The lines are seen very faintly in reality. What you see outlined here, is what I could see via Google. The drawing itself is though much more complex. It is located 4 km from the border – no one ever walked there, it’s an absolutely virgin land. I was glad to find a place like that. A little hill – diamonds drawn on its slopes. Let me try to zoom in. You can see that the diamonds are made in the center of this highland. The diamonds reach the edge of the ravine, while the whole drawing looks like a dress tossed on the rough ground surface. Here we see the similar sticks. It is generally made exactly with the same technology as “estrella 1”; its elements look very straight in Google, though they run across a slope and part of the drawing shifts down in fact – here are some corners. You can distinctly see that part of the drawing is located much lower than the rest of it. Unfortunately, I did not succeed in restoring what the plot behind the drawing was. I already demonstrated the central part of the drawing to you, but there must have been external parts as well and in plenty. It is a rather big image - around 150 m. In general, it has the same structure and scheme as “estrella 1”. The most interesting thing is that it was not done to be viewed from the top – it’s impossible to see the whole picture from the plane, not even from the height of 50 meters. However, for some mysterious purposes it was replicated on the irregular ground surface very precisely from the geodesic point of view.

Here’s the biggest drawing – the great pelican, around 400 m. For comparison, there’s a Boeing-747 in the corner. It is well visible via Google. In the desert on the ground the drawing looks exactly the same as on the sketch. This is what was replicated and what the constructors intented to deliver. All of it is very queer – it has open-ended lines, stretched details, the 3D effect. You can see that its crest is slightly tilted and this immeadiately brings volume to the whole picture. It is evident that the drawing is done in a similar way – it is replicated on the rough topography with dry river beds. For me, this is the most vivid evidence that the ancient people were using the Bezier lines when imposing these regular proper curves. This curve, which is the largest at the plateau, is impossible for replication without application of calculations and draughtsmanship. Otherwise it will loose the gradient and smooth outline. It is evident that it was intended to be curved and to be weaved into the drawing like this. By the way, almost all of the largest images contain the Bezier lines.

I find it hard to say anything here – all this completely makes no sense in relation to the Nazca culture or what we know about it. What we know about this culture is that they lived in tribes, they could build wells, could construct ritual objects, they had one common culture, and at the same time they fought with each other and cut their heads off. There do exist certain uncertainties about them, but it seems rather evident that it was a primitive society and it’s really strange to make a connection between such society and the notion of geometry and Bezier forms. On the other hand, when we look at these drawings from the ground, they seem to be done with a primitive method – just like all other lines – with loose and irregular boundaries... From the ground it may sometimes be impossible to even figure out if there is a line at all or no. So, what is the purpose?

I certainly wanted to show you this. Another amazing object. I recorded it from the plane during my last trip. The size of the image is around 50 meters. In terms of proportions, balance, details it is much more superior to everything that we see on the ceramics or textile of Nazca – the media that were widely in use and circulation in Nazca times. You can witness that all details are very well and precisely honed here. The construction method is obvious – they were raking the piles and lines of stones, and they did all this manually. I don’t understand – this is located in the center of Nazca desert. But how? By the way, no more similar well-balanced drawings were found anywhere else. The rest of the things were primitive, like those replicated at the slopes of the hills.

This is very representative – top row – these are the petroglyphs of the most ancient cultures that lived here thousands of years ago. The middle part is comprised of the primitive geoglyphs, which are found at the slopes of the hills. In the bottom these are the most typical iconography patterns – what we observe at ceramics and textile; this is exactly the style of Nazca pictural art. And it has nothing similar to our seemingly primitive drawings. At the same time, all the parameters that are typical for the Nazcan iconography are also present in this drawing – the tails and the snakes, the cut away head that he holds in his hands. So, it is obviously some typical characteristic image, but the mystery is that it looks even more typical and right than those at the ceramics or other smaller surfaces. In theory, it should be vice versa – an image which is replicated to the ground’s surface (a larger one) is likely to be transferred with faults and deviations. Here, on the contrary, we see that at large areas they could achieve higher quality. There’s a feeling that whoever was guiding and supervising this process, it was of a somewhat different size. And the rest of the pictural art has further developed from this.

The images to the right are the drawings in the desert; the colourful row – these are the drawings on ceramics. Hence, the plot coincides 100%, even in details.
There’s an interesting logic – as if we are demonstrated that all of the images are drawn with one line. Almost all of the images have an entrance and an exit (or the start and the end). Like these quizzes for kids – try to go through this quest with one line. The rest of the usual common images at ceramics, textile and other surfaces are produced in a different way. They are drawn in sequence – one part at a time, then check, then another part, depending on the space left, etc. In our case the artists had the whole picture of the drawing in their mind before they started replicating it. We were demonstrated that the drawing was already conceived and could be replicated with one line.

Let’s look at the spider – in my opinion, this is a genius creation. It’s not very large – just 45 m. Nevertheless, even with such size, when one stands on the drawing, it is completely not clear that this is a spider – they look simply as lines. It is absolutely required to get-up onto some elevation. Maria Reiche was carrying a step-ladder with her. How did they achieve this fluidity, this quality of curves and the 3D effect? No idea. I have already told that I have hired some artists to draw this manually and manually it does not work – only in a grapic program.
I find it difficult to come up with any suggestions on what this may be, because here we witness something outstanding, something that goes beyond any speculations.

Here is Nickell’s attempt to draw this and he was not using Bezier, but with the help of circles. There is only one photo though (no view from the top), so we can’t evaluate it really well. It was yet Maria Reiche who attempted to find the mathematical laws applied in these curves. It is still an open topic and not a solved issue. There are some ideas as to how to prove it from the mathematical point of view. I believe that in the nearest future, maybe in summer, a new step forward will be done in this direction and some new results may be unveiled.

Could you tell, please, if there is a full catalogue of the graphic sketches of all the images?

No, there is no such catalogue. I began doing this because such sketches were not available. The only available materials of this type were prepared by Maria Reiche which she did based on her photos, which were of low quality at a time. In my turn, I used to collect several photos of each drawing – there’s enough of the photos available at present – and based on that I was doing what I thought should be the quality outlines of how the initital sketches must have looked like. And this is not exactly how they look like at the plateau. Some parts of the drawings are well visible – this is when the drawings were renovated or parts of them were added, e.g. an extra paw or a hollow, or a slit. This becomes very striking for perception after one spends a lot of time working with it. I introduced no amendments or changes into the proportions, into the general outlook and the curves. I tell about this in my article at the web-site, where all of my outlines are also available. This will be part of the video too, because it is really an amazing and intersting piece of graphics.

Let’s take a dog. I enjoy bringing up this topic. A question. What does it do?...
That’s right – maybe it poos, maybe peeing. Now tell me please, what kind of civilization draws such things for the ritual purposes? There’s a certain sense of humor in it, there is balance – we witness something that is so light and simple, and at the same time so impossible.

Pay attention that its fingers are made in a queer way – at some paws there are 3 fingers, at some there are 4. Usually all primitive drawings focus on details. The eyes, the paws, different specific features can be outlined very industriously and perfectly while the picture itself may end up been unbalanced. In our case the artists delivered a different message – they are kind of demonstrating to us that they acted differently. There are several Bezier lines: a dog is obviously a she-dog, it pees and it is done in the way teenagers do graffiti. The author did not bother about the details – the author cared in first place about the form. Pay attention: a finger on the front leg sticks out in the same way as it does on the back leg. This is an evidence that an artist cared about preserving the form and not the details. Everything is made with one distinct line. All these features contradict to primitive graphics.

The same story is with the monkey. What does it do? Probably the same. This is considered to be a genital organ. There were also talks about the drawing of a spider also possessing the ritual genitals. Then it appeared to be not a spider in fact – such animals do not exist in nature. It’s a spider-ant. Spiders have 8 legs, ants have 6. In our case it is namely a spider-ant, since spiders have a different body structure – a cephalothorax – that is a belly and a head represent a single holistic unit. In our case, it is an 8-legged ant. The artists were just having fun, I guess. And we are now trying to adjust it to ritual theories.

This is probably an attempt to draw a manioc – they liked to eat it and to grow it. This is the triad that I mentionned. The details are well observed and outlined here, for example, the lizard’s legs.
One might think that this is some modern graphics. However, these are the real outlines of the drawings. This is how they look like in the desert, on the photos and from plane – they are perfectly even, straight, balanced, including all the details and despite the size.

And one more favourite topic.
The great pelican drawing. It covers around 10 hectars. A monstrouos Bezier construction.  God knows how they did it. None of the architects, none of the landscape designers would be able to explain how to create this.
Why did they construct such a long beak, if it’s not visible? I would understand if they made it smaller and neater – just like a bird to the right. But no – everything is strewn across the territory. One can feel an interference here, interference of something else, some other type of thinking.

When looking at the primitive graphics, primitive geoglyphs and primitive iconography, one can feel that it all pertains to human; it’s clear that it was done by a man or rather by an adult child – there’s nothing outstanding or from the beyond in this. Even though the topics of these drawings may sometimes refer to various spirits, gods and aliens, it is still a human vision and approach. On the contrary, application of the Bezier curves signifies of a totally different level, as well as the approach to form in this other type of graphics.

Look at this one – it’s impossible to embrace this drawing all together. We can only cast separate glances at an eye, at a trident, at a beak, at a rounding. We can only understand that this is a pelican, when we put it all together in our mind. If we don’t pusposefully assemble it into a single image, we won’t see it as a holistic drawing – we will only see the separate details.
Why? Because everything is very much strewn across the territory. This is not the way people draw things. A normal artist would not draw this way, because no one would understand what is portrayed. One would be able to perceive this pelican as a pelican only from a significant distance. Only then we’d able to understand – wow, a birdy! But from this large distance all of the details would be lost.

In other words, there is some different logic, different approach to formation of the drawings. The proper, precise, perfect proportions are preserved, while the drawings are made with one line. Feel free to make your own conclusions and come up with your own theories. From the ground it all looks primitive, loose, runs through the cross-county terrain and no holistic picture can be grasped. This birdy can only be seen at the distance of 1 km.

Almost all pictures have the 3D effect – this is rather evident. If an ordinary human would uptake drawing something gigantic, he or she would probably be not an idiot to draw it differently every time – he or she would probably just copy it, because it is easier. In addition, a human would never in his life be able to see this whole picture. These are all fairy-tales that there existed hills in the area from which the drawings could be observed. It’s a desert there – many kilometres of desert; we can only see these drawings from Google – even from the plane it does not have this impressive or clear view. Only from the height of 1 km and above. Even aerostats can not reach this height. On the other hand, from the space it has a wonderful view, subject to having a good eye-sight which is specifically focused on this very pelican.

In all of the drawings there can be perceived a 3D effect: e.g. the dog is slightly turned with its back to us, one of the wings of the humming-bird is slightly bigger than the other – it, hence, gives us an impression that it flies above us.

Did you use any equipment to lift up the camera?

There is a chance that certain circumstances would come around and would allow us to organise a full-scale expedition for a month or more. I mean, then we will take a good camera, lift it on a hexacopter, etc., so that to film these sites from the top. Then we would film not only Nazca, but the whole seashore where these images are present. It’s a huge topic. There exist lines in Casma, there are lines next to Lima – it is 400 km from Nazca – there are lines in Trujillo which is 800 km from Nazca. It may be that there is a certain connection or relation between all these constructions. Of course, a great share of it is primitive – it was probably made with the help of the primitve people. But there’s something behind it – something that looks at it from the outer space and draws the Bezier curves, the well-balanced drawings at large territories. There’s even something more, but it’s currently being researched and digged out.

I believe that we’ll be able to make the audience happy with new materials and maybe even a new hypothesis. In fact, it’s not exactly proper to apply the word hypothesis in relation to the geoglyphs of Nazca, since everything here is at the stage of collecting the materials. The official science refuses to look at this notion. No other versions were developed, but for the ones related to rituals or astronomic calendar where the lines were used as guides to the sources of water. And it’s totally understandable – people need to stay within the paradigm, they have nowhere to move forward. For example, how to interpret the fact that the lines are compacted while no one walked on them. It is seen clearly that no one walked on them. I’ve already mentioned that it is difficult to find a line in the desert if it is located far away and if it is not visible from the ground. I haven’t yet demonstrated one more site which is located at the South of the plateau. In that area there exist trails which were actually used for walking, but those trails run crosswise, not noticing the geoglyphs. People always walked there, drove there, rode donkeys and mules at a time – they trampled many roads in the region and caused enough troubles to the lines, but no one noticed the lines before 1929 when the planes started to fly there. It was even a site for manouvers and exercises – the plateau was used as a training ground. After Danicken developed this topic, the fever on the issue started and it also added to the destruction of lines. It’s a huge topic to talk about.

Did you see any influence of conquistadors there?
No, these drawings are from the earlier times. Cieza de Leon mentioned in his work that in the area of Nazca there existed the guiding lines for the travellers, but he clearly stressed that those were the roads of the Incas. Their roads contained straight sections as well. However, Cieza de Leon also mentioned that those roads possessed the landmarks with which Incas were always marking their roads. In other words, he wrote solely about the roads which are related to Incas.
When Spaniards arrived there, these lines have already long been forgotten. The culture of Nazca has disappeared, just like other Mexican civilizations. What remained after them was the ritual center Kahuachim which was buried several times, suffered a number of fires – a cryptic story. They have preserved it for some reason and disappeared, having left to us all these criss-crossed chalkboard. Nazca was a rather primitive culture – not even the level of Mochika or Chan Chan, not to mention the Incas. Their population was numerous, yes – the bones are scattered all over the whole plateau. But the culture was primitive. We have even found a mummy. It seemed to have remained unaffected – the ground simply sank down exposing the head in the wraps. We were on our way to the plateau and decided not to interfere and not to disturb the dead.
But huaqeros – the black diggers – are very active in the region, because during the ancient funerals the people, who were buried, were accompanied with a piece of gold and jewelry in their graves. That means that the ancient people were familiar with metals, but they utilized those for jewelry, pins, brooches, etc. The tools that they used were the most primitive ones – the typical tools of the primitive cultures.

Thank you.

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