Puzzling Palpa Lines In Peru Made By The Paracas Culture Are Even Older Than The Nazca Lines

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPage.com - The enigmatic Palpa lines in Peru are not as famous as the Nazca Lines, but these puzzling lines and geoglyphs that can only be properly viewed from the air are equally interesting.

Archaeological examinations reveal the Palpa lines are older than the Nazca lines and were most likely created by the Paracas culture, an Andean society that existed about 800 BCE and 100 BCE, in what today is the Ica Region of Peru.

The Palpa lines are located in between the towns of Sacramento, Pinchango, and Llipata. The purpose of the lines and geoglyphs is unknown. There are as many as 600 geoglyphs of giant size and they represent a series of human and animal zoomorphic figures, including the Familia Real (Royal Family), a group of eight figures on a hillside.

Credit: Great Nazca Tours

Just like the Nazca lines, these ancient carvings are regarded as one of archaeology's greatest enigmas because of their quantity, nature, size, and continuity. Scientists suggest the geoglyphs had ritual astronomical functions.

Over The Palpa Lines: The Sun Star - Credit: gloetzner.net

These giant geoglyphs and lines must have been of great importance to our ancestors and they were undoubtedly not easy to create. Many consider the figures to be an extraordinary example of the traditional and millenary magical-religious world of the ancient Pre-Hispanic societies which flourished in Peru.

The Familia Real (Royal Family) -  Credit and copyright Brian J. McMorrow

The mysterious Candelabrum located about 130 miles from the Nazca Plain is one of the most enigmatic ancient giant ground drawings in the world.

The Candelabra is 595 feet long and resembles a candlestick. It can be seen from as far as 12 miles out to sea. Who made it and why? This is a question no one has been able to answer so far. Obviously, its creators believed it was important that the ground drawing must be clearly visible from the air.

It’s important to note that similar geoglyphs have been found in North America as well.  As we here at Ancient Pages wrote earlier, in the American Southwest and adjacent Mexico there are over 300 remarkable intaglios.

The most famous of those are the Blythe Intaglios, located west of the Colorado River about 15 miles north of Blythe, California.

Mastamho, the Creator of Earth and all Life.

Here we come across gigantic human and animal figures carved on the ground. Just like Peru’s wonderful and intriguing Nazca lines, these figures can only be seen properly from the air, which is the reason they weren’t discovered by white men until the 20th century.

According to the stories told by modern-day Mohave and Quechan Indians the human figures represent Mastamho, the Creator of Earth and all Life, while the animal figures represent Hatakulya, one of two mountain lions who helped in the Creation.

The orca geoglyph in southern Peru. GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

The geoglyphs are giant in size, but this doesn’t prevent them from being undetected for a year. Just recently, researchers found a new giant geoglyph of orca with mysterious symbols and a ‘trophy head’ in the Nazca Desert. The figures are difficult to discover because they can only be seen properly from the air. We can only wonder how many more giant geoglyphs are still hiding just in front of our eyes.

Written by  Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com

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