Journey To One Of The World’s Greatest Mysteries: Lima-Paracas-Nasca

The word “luxury” is often applied to buses in the same way as the word “boutique” is applied to hotels: at best meaningless and at worst downright untrue. Not so with the bus company Cruz del Sur whose genuinely luxurious seats and smooth ride bring us in real comfort from Lima to the small coastal town of Paracas, over three hours south and only for a modest fare.

Paracas is a quirky little town, a weekend getaway for city dwellers and a stopping point for tour operators, meaning that for a small place it has a disproportionate number of seafront restaurants which are either rammed full or begging for business depending on the time of day. On this sunny Sunday it’s like a mini version of a cruise port with buses instead of ships. It’s hard to keep in mind that this happy little town is a coastal oasis penned in by hundreds of miles of arid desert. Whilst being a fun little place in its own right, its popularity is largely down to it being the gateway to Islas Ballestas, a group of islands commonly known as “Peru’s Galapagos” or, less complimentary, the “poor man’s Galapagos”.

Galapagos is a bit of stretch of the imagination but nevertheless the islands are home to an impressive bird population, including Humboldt Penguins, giant gulls and pelicans amongst many other species. Sea lions chill out on an offshore buoy, huge colourful crabs scramble on the rocks, fluffy fledglings call from the island for their next fishy mouthful. One penguin, disturbed by the presence of our boat, hops and waddles up the rock as fast as he can – in other words, not very. There’s something about watching penguins: you just can’t do it without smiling.

Across the bay on the hillside of the promontory lies the intriguing Paracas Candelabra, a giant geoglyph of mostly unknown origin, though pottery in the vicinity has been carbon dated to 200BC. It isn’t entirely clear what the carving represents, but it certainly isn’t a candelabra, merely similar in shape. What it really represents, and who created it, remains an enigma, though multiple theories abound, ranging from the “tree of life” to the Holy Trinity, homage to the God of Lightning, a navigation aid for sailors and even an indicator of imminent earthquake. Looks like a cactus to us.

The Candelabra is an impressive sight though, whatever it represents, measuring 160m x 70m and being visible from 12 miles out at sea. The carving itself is cut around 2ft deep into the rock. As we gaze at it from our little boat, we can only wonder how its creators were able to form such perfectly straight lines and such accurate perspective. These are questions and themes which will be magnified at our next, astonishing destination.

So a little under 48 hours after our arrival we’re moving on from Paracas, on another luxurious Cruz del Sur bus heading southwards into the dramatic scenery of the Ica Desert where gigantic desert mountains dominate the landscape. For a long stretch though, the highway follows the base of the valley where oasis greens form a colourful counterpoint to the stark mountains beyond. Either side of the town of Ica, most of the green fields turn out to be vineyards: counter intuitively there’s a thriving wine industry here, right in the heart of the arid desert.

Eventually we scale then descend the giant mountains, to reach a huge, flat plain stretching for miles on either side of the highway. We trudge from bus station to digs, it’s dusty and 29 degrees under the desert sun. We’ve arrived in the town of Nasca, home to what is seriously one of the World’s Greatest Mysteries.

Back in the 1970s as an impressionable teenager, I read and was taken in by the books of Erich von Däniken, whose theories about extra terrestrials visiting Earth and leaving their mark in ancient times have now been universally debunked. Von Däniken presented many examples of “proof” that we had been visited long ago by beings from other planets; one such place where they had supposedly left traces was the mysterious Nasca Lines. I was captivated by it all back then, never dreaming that some fifty years later I’d be seeing this amazing unexplained phenomenon with my own eyes…

Because the best way to see the Nasca Lines is from the air, a thriving mini industry of short flights on light aircraft has grown up within the town itself. Taking to the air just after breakfast, the whole incredible vista of these mysterious lines and drawings opens out on the vast plain below as we bank and curve above the scene. The images are clear: trees and flowers, a spider, a dog, a hummingbird, a condor, straight parallel lines and curling spirals. And, as clear as anything, the humanoid form which gave credence to von Däniken’s theories, looking uncannily like an astronaut in full space suit.

Some of the statistics surrounding the lines and geoglyphs take some comprehending: the total area containing the works is over 19 square miles, the number of different symbols so far discovered is more than 700, the longest individual straight line is 10km long, the total length of all lines added together is an astonishing 810 miles. Despite decades of archeological excavation of the whole area, the remains of not one tool used in creation of the Lines has ever been discovered. Maybe the aliens took them away when they finished the job.

Still completely entranced by what we are seeing, the following morning we hire a local guy, Carlos, to drive us to viewpoints – two recently constructed lookouts and one natural vantage point – to just look, listen and learn. Carlos takes us too to the Maria Reiche Museum in her former home. Reiche worked tirelessly for over twenty years studying the lines and geoglyphs, often unfunded and in spartan living conditions, to bring to the notice of the World what lay on this barren ground. She is pretty much revered here, credited with significantly contributing to putting southern Peru on the tourist map.

The Nasca (often spelt Nazca) Lines were drawn, or rather constructed, between 500BC and 500AD by people simply known now as the Nasca people, with adjoining lines at Palpa being attributed to the Paracas people. It’s simply incredible that the lines and drawings, formed only by scraping away the surface of the land, are still visible 2,000 years later – in fact, a major factor in this amazing preservation is the constant year round climate of Nasca which brings rarely changing weather ordinarily free of both rain and wind. Carlos tells us that only in “El Niño years” (once every 12-15 years) is there any significant shift in weather patterns – this year so far there has been three hours’ rain.

So unchanging is the year round climate that Nasca is nicknamed the “town of endless summer”. But there’s a flipside: the word “Nasca” in the language of indigenous people means “place of suffering” or “place of sorrow”, reflecting life in such dry, arid conditions where water is a scarcity.

Like the Candelabra, the purpose of the Nasca Lines remains shrouded in mystery. Aliens visiting Earth to leave messages, as per von Däniken? Evidence of early understanding of cosmology and astronomy, as at Stonehenge? Representations of constellations, or even the dark spaces in the Milky Way?

Were they homage to Gods, indicators of water supplies, irrigation channels, or a combination of all of these and maybe more? As we fly over, observe and absorb what we’re seeing, what really intrigues us is that these geoglyphs can only be truly seen from above – in fact, the advent of drone cameras has discovered potentially hundreds more geoglyphs beneath the surface dust just recently. So, how did those people know to construct something that can only be properly seen from above? Who were they constructed for? Who was the airborne audience who were intended to view the creations?

The logical explanation is that they were facing the heavens in order to be observed by the Gods. The intriguing explanation is that ancient people knew more than we do now about visits to Earth by alien species, and that old Erich wasn’t so far from the truth after all. 

One thing is for certain. The true reason for the construction of the Nasca Lines is a mystery which will never be solved. They are, truly, one of the Greatest Mysteries of the World.