As we continue our journey through Peru, we do not miss out on a world-famous phenomenon. In Nasca, there are vast areas in the barren landscape that have been transformed into a unique landscape by the special Nasca lines. Prehistoric cultures carved figures and geometric shapes into the ground around Nazca. To this day, there is only speculation as to why and, above all, how these gigantic figures were carved into the ground.
We start tentatively and finally immerse ourselves fully in the Nazca experience.

Viewing platforms, the better view of the Nazca Lines

The Panamericana Highway runs right through the Nazca Lines. It is therefore easy for us to stop at specially constructed viewing platforms to view the pictures from an elevation. The lines themselves were constructed very simply: The entire plain is strewn with fist-sized, dark rocks. Wherever the dark stones have been cleared away, light lines are created by the underlying light-colored rock. This is how prehistoric cultures created unique works of art. The lines are only 5-10 cm deep, but the color change caused by the missing capstones makes them visible from afar. Various images such as an iguana, a cat or a mythical creature consisting of different types of fish were engraved into the landscape in this way.
So that the images can be seen in their original clarity, many images have been restored to their original forms. Well, the views are exciting – but the really big pictures cannot be seen from the ground. So on to the next stop at Nazca airport.

Sightseeing flight over the Nazca Lines

Actually, we just want to ask how much a sightseeing flight costs and whether there are still seats available on a plane the next day to see the Nazca lines even better. We haven’t even got out of the car yet when we are intercepted by an airline employee who tells us that there are still seats available today and that the weather is better in the afternoon than the next morning and that the price is attractive and we should get on the plane straight away.
We were a bit taken by surprise. But we are here for the sightseeing flight after all. So, we get our passports out, book and less than half an hour later we are sitting in an 8-seater propeller plane with a Peruvian couple, gliding in tight curves over the various Nazca lines.
The curves have a purpose, of course: the pilot shows us the different images on each side of the plane with the wing, while his co-pilot next to him explains the different figures. But the flight is at least as exciting for Paddy as the lines on the ground.
We see so many other figures that we would not have seen so easily from the ground because they are simply too big and too flat. An astronaut, a spider, a condor, a hummingbird, geometric figures pointing towards Cusco and around 17 other images are shown to us on the sightseeing flight from a height of around 300m. We can also view the largest images, such as a pelican measuring around 285 meters in length. For a price of less than a hundred Swiss francs per person, this 40-minute sightseeing flight was really worth it.

Little is known about why the lines were created. There are various theories circulating, the most plausible of which is that the cultures that created these Nazca figures held ceremonies. And a corresponding picture was made for each ceremony. However, whether this was really the case and not something completely different was also left open during the official tour. Perhaps the astronaut is also a reference to extra-planetary relationships – the decision for one theory or the other is left to the viewer.