George & Eve DeLange

The Nazca Lines are truely one of the world's unresolved mysteries. And a flight over the Nazca lines is a fascinating experience. The Nazca Lines were scratched on the surface of the ground between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500 and they were declared an "Archaeological World Heritage Site" by UNESCO in 1994. While several of the designs represent a variety of giant animals such as a 180m-long lizard, a 90m-long monkey with an extravagantly curled tail or a condor with a 130m wingspan. Most of the lines are simple but perfect triangles, rectangles or straight lines running for several kilometers across the desert, to be best observed by plane. The lines, thousands of them in all, were made by the Nazca and Paracas cultures by clearing darker rocks on the desert surface to expose lighter soil underneath. Scientists still debate why the lines were built. Some of their theories are that they may have served as a calendar, a map of underground water supplies or even as landing strips for alien spaceships. The Nazca Lines are located on the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the pampa (a large flat area of southern Peru). This desolate plain located on the Peruvian coast is made up of the Pampas of San Jose (Jumana), Socos, El Ingenio and a few others in the province of Nasca about 249 miles south of Lima, and 90 miles south of Ica, in the department of Ica, covering an area of approximately 174 square miles. The Pan American Highway runs through part of the Nazca Lines Area. This is made up of sandy desert as well as some of the slopes of the Andes. They total about 300 figures looking like animals, straight lines, and geometric shapes. The markings upon the Nazca Plain are preserved due to it's dry climate, and flat stony ground without sand; which minimizes the effect of the wind at ground level. Thus, with no dust or sand to cover the plain, and little rain or wind to erode it, lines drawn here tend to stay drawn. The small stones which cover the surface of the Nazca Plain contain ferrous oxide. The weather exposure of centuries has given the stones on the surface of the plain, a dark patina. When the small stones are moved or removed, they contrast with the color underneath. In this way the lines show as furrows of a lighter color in contrast to the dark patina of the surrounding stones. The flight over the Nazca lines is highly dependable upon the weather conditions. The flights usely begin early in the morning when the weather is nice. Cloudy or bad weather can result in a couple of hours delay. One it clears again the flights resume. Nazca is a relatively small town of about 30,000 people. One of the best known researchers of the Nazca Lines was Maria Reiche; a German mathematician and archaeologist. She believed the lines were an Astronomical Calendar indicating the direction of stars, planets, and solar solstices. Reiche led a determined effort to discredit theories of extraterrestrial visitors. She argued that the Nazca Indians constructed the Lines some time between 300 BC and AD 800. In support of this possibility, some scientists have put forward ingenious ideas on how the geoglyphs could theoretically have been designed from the ground. One is that they were supervised by observers in hot air ballons Maria Reiche died in 1998 at the age of 95. She is now buried in the arid valley which she loved so much. On the pampa, south of the Nazca Lines, archaeologists have now discovered the lost city of the line-builders, the Cahuachi. It was built nearly two thousand years ago and was mysteriously abandoned 500 years later. In 1975 Aero Condor Peru began flights over the Nazca lines. They used a three-seat Cessna 172, and quickly became the pioneers of this service. Now they use a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B, with a 12-seat capacity. They have more than 30 years of experience and thousands of passengers They do fly overs from 07:00 to 16:30 hours (subject to weather conditions). We were transported from the HOTEL LAS DUNAS to AERÓDROMO and back to HOTEL LAS DUNAS. Our flights over the Nazca and Palpa Lines took approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. The photos on this page have almost all been reworked to emphasise the figures on the Nasca Plains. However, the lines have not been redrawn or changed. This is necessary due to items such as yellow tinted windows in the aircraft that make photography very difficult. Every attempt has been made to make the figures look true to color. We visited the Nazca Lines on April 11, 2006 at about 11:20 AM and again on April 12, 2006 at about 11:20 AM. Our photos on this page are a combination of our best photos taken during each of those days. We were only able to photograph the best known lines and figures; so that is all that we can show on our page. We also will include a photo of the Candelabra of Paracas; which is nearby, but not included in tours of the Nazca Lines. This page is for information purposes only and while we have made every effort to be accurate, it is the travelers responsibility to make the appropriate choice as to which hotels to use in Peru. We found that when touring Peru, Magical Cusco Tours gave us the best service of all. They even arranged very personal tours based upon our ages and experience. They were there for us whenever we needed them. Click on any of their links on our pages and they will give you a 4% discount for taking their package tours. Mention delange.org. Merchant Code Inka2010 for your discount! We suggest letting Ana Maria handle your tour. Note: The 4% discount applies to package tours only! Discount does not apply to hotel bookings, domestic or international tickets, meals or any other service booked as a single activity. Magical Cusco Tours also has a culinary tour that you may enjoy.Click Here For: Taste Of Peru.com their culinary tour page. The Nazca Lines are just one of the interesting archaeological sites to visit in this area. You could actually spend several days in this area and not see them all! We also have links to Priceline.Com on our pages, in case you may prefer to use their services.