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It almost looks like the giant cat is ready to jump. It glows in the grayish brown sand and in the heat of southern Peru, on the side of a desert hill. It is not real, just a scratch, which could have been made between 200 and 100 BC, as the British “Guardian” reports.
The Nazca geoglyphs are among the most impressive legacies ever created by a civilization. More than 1,500 scratches are carved in the desert soil of southern Peru in an area of 500 square kilometers, assigned to the Paracas and Nazca cultures. Some of the lines are up to 20 kilometers long. Geographical shapes such as triangles can be recognized from the air or from some hills in the region, but also images of people and animals.
As the “Guardian” reports, investigators discovered the cat-shaped figure with its head pointing forward while working on the hill. “The figure was barely visible and was about to disappear because it is on a fairly steep slope that is prone to the effects of natural erosion,” the Guardian quoted from a statement from the Peruvian culture minister. The figure is 37 meters long and has clearly defined lines between 30 and 40 centimeters wide.
Just two years ago, researchers using drone and satellite technology had documented around 50 new formations very close to Nazca. The researchers were able to assign some of the lines to the Nazca culture; But most of the lines found appeared to be older. The researchers assigned them to the first cultures of Paracas and Topará between 500 BC. C. and 200 d. C. La Topará is considered a transitional culture between Paracas and Nazca. The researchers wrote at the time that the people of the region had already experimented with the production of massive geoglyphs centuries before the formation of the Nazca Lines.
The Nazca images were created by removing the upper layers of rock, revealing the lighter layer of sediment underneath. They were discovered in the 1920s when commercial flights regularly crossed the Nazca desert. The purpose for which the lines were created has not yet been fully clarified, but many researchers assume that the symbols are in the context of fertility rituals. Furthermore, numerous remains of settlements with well-preserved burials and mummies were found in the region.
