The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru.

The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana about 400 km south of Lima

A geoglyph is a large design or motif (generally longer than 4 metres) produced on the ground and typically formed by clastic rocks or similarly durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, live trees, gravel, or earth

Nazca lines were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

The popular belief is that the lines and figures can only be seen with the aid of flight

I was lucky  to have the back seats for myself so I could take pictures through the left and right windows

Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD.

The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys,fish,sharks,orcaz and lizards

The designs are shallow lines made in the ground by removing the reddish pebbles and uncovering the whitish/grayish ground beneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes; more than seventy are zoomorphic designs of animals such as birds, fish, llamas, jaguar, monkey, or human figures.

The largest figures are over 200 metres (660 ft) across

Other designs include phytomorphic shapes such as trees and flowers

Contrary to the popular belief that the lines and figures can only be seen with the aid of flight, they are visible from atop the surrounding foothills and..mirador

 

all pictures taken by me and properties of ani krisnamurti

text taken from wikipedia