The Llama, the Incas, Perú and the Andes
by Charles Young and Karl Klooster

The Inca Empire
continued)

Among all these magnificent accomplishments is one so puzzling that it defies explanation. So awe-inspiring that it conjures up visions of otherworldly powers at work, so mysterious that its origins remain unknown. It is not a road, a building, or a city. It is called "The Nazca Lines".

The desert around the town of Nazca, on the south coast of Perú, is marked with hundreds of lines that stretch over a distance of more than 20 miles. The "lines" take many forms - some of them several hundred yards across - from very realistic renditions of animals - a spider monkey, frigate bird, whale, spider - to abstract designs - spirals, zigzags, spokes radiating from a hub. But, the majority of them are straight, running for miles across the barren countryside, sometimes crisscrossing one another in bewildering, web-like patterns.

Most mysterious of all is the fact that from the ground it is not possible for an observer to determine the shapes they form. Although clearly centuries old, they were only "discovered" when planes began flying over them in the early 20th century. Their meaning and their maker remain in the realm of total speculation.

There are certain observers, however, who offer an explanation. For them, it is so absolutely inconceivable that any humans living hundreds of years ago could possibly have created such complex markings, they consider this as incontestable proof that aliens have visited earth. They are convinced that the Nazca Lines were the work of an extraterrestrial presence on our planet.

The Inca Empire is a true phenomenon among civilizations. Reality challenges legend and lore. Truth is sometimes stranger, more astounding than fiction. The border between hard fact and pure conjecture blurs into an intriguing whole bound to keep the fascination of viewer, reader, participant, and customer.

In short, though far less well known that the Romans or the Greeks, the Chinese or the Egyptians, the Incas at their height were the most worthy New World counterpart to those more famous ancient civilizations.