The Nazca Lines and Other Ancient Enigmas
The Mysteries, Purposes and Hidden Messages of Earth's Most Puzzling Creations
From Nazca’s giant desert figures to geoglyphs and monumental landscapes around the world, investigate why ancient people wrote on the Earth itself.
About this book
Across the deserts of Peru, enormous lines, trapezoids and animal figures stretch across the landscape. They are easy to see from above—and have inspired everything from astronomical theories to claims of ancient runways.
The Nazca Lines and Other Ancient Enigmas explores how the geoglyphs were made, what archaeology suggests about their purpose, the role of Cahuachi, water and ritual, and how AI-assisted research has expanded the known catalog. The journey then widens to Palpa, the Atacama Giant, Sajama, the Blythe Intaglios, Amazon geoglyphs, Turgai, desert kites, Chaco roads, Monte Sierpe and other monumental landscapes.
A global investigation of humanity’s impulse to reshape the ground itself—and of the myths that arise when a landscape outlives the culture that created it.