![]() ![]() In this area, the most notable geoglyphs are visible. The main concentration of designs is in a 10 by 4 km (6 by 2 mi) rectangle, south of the hamlet of San Miguel de la Pascana. The main PE-1S Panamericana Sur runs parallel to it. The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 km (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana, approximately 400 km (250 mi) south of Lima. They were designated in 1994 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general, they ascribe religious significance to them. Hundreds are simple lines and geometric shapes more than 70 are zoomorphic designs, including a hummingbird, spider, fish, condor, heron, monkey, lizard, dog, cat, and a human. As of 2012, the lines are said to have been deteriorating because of an influx of squatters inhabiting the lands. Extremely rare changes in weather may temporarily alter the general designs. Because of its isolation and the dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau, the lines have mostly been preserved naturally. The largest ones are about 370 m (400 yd) long. The shapes are usually made from one continuous line. Some of the Nazca lines form shapes that are best seen from the air (at around 500 m ), although they are also visible from the surrounding foothills and other high places. In some places they may be only 30 cm (12 in) wide, and in others reach 1.8 m (6 ft) wide. The width of the lines varies considerably, but more than half are slightly more than 33 cm (13 in) wide. They were made by removing the top layer of reddish-brown iron-oxide-coated pebbles to reveal a yellow-grey subsoil. The lines are typically 10 to 15 cm (4–6 in) deep. The combined length of all the lines is more than 1,300 km (800 mi), and the group covers an area of about 50 km 2 (19 sq mi). ![]() Most lines run straight across the landscape, but there are also figurative designs of animals and plants. In the years leading up to 2020, between 80 and 100 new figures had been found with the use of drones, and archaeologists believe that there are more to be found. There are two major phases of the Nazca lines, Paracas phase, from 400 to 200 BC, and Nazca phase, from 200 BC to 500 AD. They were created between 500 BC and 500 AD by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and leaving different-colored dirt exposed. Using inscriptions on the very objects that Champollion and other scholars studied, this immersive exhibition helped visitors to unlock one of the world’s oldest civilisations.The Nazca Lines ( / ˈ n ɑː z k ə/, /- k ɑː/ ) are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. The results of the 1822 breakthrough proved staggering. The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, with its decree written in hieroglyphs, demotic and the known language of ancient Greek, provided the key to decoding the ancient signs. The show charted the race to decipherment, from initial efforts by medieval Arab travellers and Renaissance scholars to more focussed progress by French scholar Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832) and England’s Thomas Young (1773–1829). As well as an unshakeable belief in the power of the pharaohs and the promise of the afterlife, ancient Egyptians enjoyed good food, writing letters and making jokes. From romantic poetry and international treaties, to shopping lists and tax returns, the hieroglyphic inscriptions and ancient handwriting in this exhibition revealed stories that are fantastically varied. Hieroglyphs were not just beautiful symbols, they represented a living, spoken language. Marking 200 years since the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, this major exhibition took visitors through the trials and hard work that preceded, and the revelations that followed, this ground-breaking moment. The breakthrough expanded our understanding of human history by some 3,000 years. We could only glimpse into this hidden world, until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone provided the key to decoding hieroglyphs, allowing us to read this ancient script. ![]()
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