[Music]
So today, let's fly to the Pacific coastal
South America. Obviously while sitting in
your room. Well, this is the main purpose of
us, right? Hello guys, welcome to our channel
where we talk about some weird and
beautiful places and stuffs on earth. In
this video, we will discuss about some
paintings, some big paintings, well,
some hUGE PAINTINGS, that convey the
message of human habit of leaving the
sign of existence. So, let's begin the
journey.
[Music]
Sandwiched between Andes mountain range
and Pacific Ocean the basin of Rio de
nasca spread across 75,000 hectors is
left alone by nature to be one of the
driest places on earth with one inch of
rain per year, lower than Gobi Desert
even Death Valley. This place, ignored by
nature but adorned by Nazca people with
the geoglyphs with an extension of
almost 300 meter on average, on the
canvas of Earth - announced as a World
Heritage Site in 1994 by UNESCO.
Geoglyphs are the 2d structures arranged
on soil with the help of the stones
gravel or earth - these are basically
called 'Positive Geoglyphs', whereas the
Nazca lines were drawn by removing the
deep colored surface with rich iron
oxide and exposing light-colored
internal soil - this is called the
'Negative Geoglyphs'. These are so big that
you need to raise yourself high to
observe any one of the structures at
once and appreciate these works 
fully.
[Music]
It's believed that the lines were made
between 400 to 650 CE(AD/Common Era)
in the latter part of the early
intermediate period of Nazca
civilization.
In 1553, this great art was mentioned in
a published book by Pedro de león. It was
1927, when a Peruvian archaeologist
Mej'a Xesspe officially discovered the
patterns, consequently the huge
structures during hill excursion. After
commercial airlines began to fly over
this, it gained its popularity. From 1940
Maria Riche, who spent almost 40 years
of her life for these lines and lived just
beside it, got the government
recognition for preserving the area.
She is known as 'Lady of the Lines'.
The Nazca culture was rich in artistic
work, as many textiles, potteries were
found in that region. But these lines are
the ultimate proof of their scientific and
artistic skills. As mentioned, the lines
were made by removing the upper surface
of the red iron oxide layer by 12 to
15 inches, exposing the light colored
interior. Though this remarkable work
didn't require complex technology but
required excellent coordination among
people. In the book 'Chariots of God', Erich
Von Daniken wrote that the designs are
so big and so complex that these cannot
be made without the use of a flying
machine,
hence put forward the controversial
alien theory. Though Joe Nickell, the
researcher at the University of Kentucky,
used the same tools available for Nazca
people like simple sticks and knotted
chords to recreate the geoglyphs to
refute the 'alien theory'. If we leave the
controversial theory, this depict
extraordinary skills of Nazca people
that amaze us now and will do the same
in the future.
[Music]
According to HISTORY, there are three
types of Nazca lines - straight lines,
geometric shapes and pictorial
representations.
There are almost over 800 straight lines
and over 300 geometric shapes, besides
there are spirals arrows, zig-zag
shapes, wavy lines and for pictorial
representations there are a spider,
hummingbird, monkey, whale, duck, stylized tree,
cactus, dog, etc. Even there is a humanoid
structure called 'The Astronaut'. In 2011, a
Japanese team discovered a scene of
decapitation but it's relatively small
with respect to other geoglyphs. In 2018,
almost 50 such structures were found at
once. The Nazca lines are best known for
pictorial representations of at least 70
animals.
US historian Paul Kosok watched
these lines and observed the relative
position of the lines to the Sun around
the winter solstice. After this, German
scientists Maria Riche, our 'Lady of the
Lines' studied these lines for so long
time. They both came to the same
conclusion that the lines are the
world's largest Astronomical books.
On the other hand, David Johnson along
with Mabee, hydrologist of the
University of Massachusetts saw a huge
trapezoid almost 30 yeards wide and
hundreds of feet long, spread across the
valley-floor up to the peak of Andes
mountain the observes two perfectly
straight lines of stones shoot southward
towards dark clefts in the faraway peak
extending from the trapezoid, Johnson
indicates the clefts as a geological
faults that collect water from the
mountain and feed the dry valley
underneath and the underlying water way.
Mabee said that the old people made the
trapezoid to map and point their water
source, it makes sense as the most required
thing for them in the dry place is water.
Anthony Aveny, a professor of astronomy
and anthropology New York claimed that David
Johnson just wanted to turn the Nazca
people into ancient geologists or
something. Instead, the lines are just
pathways. Some assembling of people at
the center of the trapezoid is involved
due to some unknown reasons. He believed
that these are not just doodles on the
earth but something that tells what
Nazca people were once.
The gift of nazca's extensive hydraulic
engineering, they made some spiral-shaped
well-like holes to distribute subsurface
water throughout the desert, they also
connected it to the source often miles
away from where it was needed. At first,
it was thought that these Puquios was
simple
well-like structure that gave the access
of underground water to the people but
after the study of Rosa Lasaponara and her
team in 2006, it was clear that it was
way more than that. And surprisingly, thirty
six Puquios are still functioning at
the present day in the three valleys of
Nazca area.
Another strange thing is that there are
some mounts of rocks at the end of the
trapezoid within which there are
crayfish, oyster shells, crab
skeletons - these all sea creatures that
also almost 4,000 feet above the sea
level.
National Geographic Society explorer
John Reinhard claimed that they offered
those sea creatures to worship the God
of water,
basically, they drew those huge lines and
shapes so that only God can see those
from the top. And these are the most
recent accepted theory and interest to
the scholars.
Now last but not the least as I told
before,
Edich Von Daniken indicated these designs
are so big the so complex and might be
made with the direction of some
extraterrestrial intelligence. This
theory supported by some notable
discoveries of some distinct and
unnatural elongation of skulls and a
mysterious three fingered mummy which
made an excitement among the researchers
that this latest body cannot be human
at all. Though the last theory is most
controversial of all and still lacks
enough scientific evidences.
Due to very low amount of rain,
weathering these well-spread lines are
almost safe from nature's destruction as
well as human intervention. Though
scientists said that these lines became
popular to the tourists much rapidly
before the detailed research by
scientists. In 2009, the rain heavily
damaged some of the lines. Then the
hummingbird area was damaged by an
environmental group. The Peru government
must have taken the required steps to
keep more attention to the security of the world
heritage site.
In fact, the group named 'Greenpeace'
apologized for the damage. So guys this
is it for today. please SUBSCRIBE to our
Channel and don't forget to like and
share. Let's meet in the next video with
another exciting topic. Until then, keep
knowing keep informing and most
importantly stay home stay safe. Good Bye....
[Music]
