The Nazca Lines
Scratched across the Peruvian desert are giant figures, a hummingbird, a monkey, a spider, best seen from the sky.
What was reported
In the desert of southern Peru are hundreds of huge lines, shapes and figures drawn on the ground, including a hummingbird, a monkey and a spider, some longer than a football field. Many are best seen from the air, and they became widely known after pilots flew over them in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1968, the writer Erich von Däniken suggested they were runways or signals for visitors from space, an idea that made them world-famous.
Explanations offered
Archaeologists say they were made by the Nazca people, roughly 2,000 years ago, by removing the dark surface stones to reveal lighter ground. The dry, windless climate preserved them. They were probably used for ritual walks and linked to water and fertility. Nazca people could have laid them out with simple tools like stakes and cords.
- When
- Made about 2,000 years ago
- Where
- Nazca Desert, southern Peru
- Witnesses
- Pilots, archaeologists and visitors
- Status
- Mostly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.