AA peculiar art gallery on the Nazca desert plateau in Peru is one of the most startling sights on our planet. Interest to these huge ground drawings arose in Russia soon after the demonstration of the movie shot by Erik von Denicken "Recollections of the future". A giant spider, a monkey surrounded with multiple zigzag-shaped lines, pass by before our eyes in the final scenes. An unusual harmony of the spider's outline and remarkable technicism of the oscillating lines surrounded a monkey struck my imagination and served a sort of starting impulse for my long-standing research work /1/.

To create the famous figures of the Nazca desert, the brown stones (the volcanic pebble fragments) had to be removed from the light-colored subsoil. The desert soil surface is covered all over with a network of peculiar gravings in the form of figures which are shallow but large in size. These figures cannot be viewed either from the ground or from the surrounding low hills. They number nearly 13,000 lines, 100 spirals, more than 700 geometric areas (in the form of triangles and trapezium), as well as about thirty meaningful drawings, i.e. drawings of animals, mainly birds.

The official science /2, 3, 4,/ attributes all these figures to the Indian culture "nazca" of the preInk period. Its golden age fell on the years 300-900 (A. D.) According to the historians, the Indians had removed the stones from the soil by hand and arranged them along the sides, thus forming slightly elevated edges, while using sticks, poles, and ropes to trace the lines. The drawings have been considered to be totem objects or ceremonial signs, sort of the Gods' messages. As to the lines, a hypothesis was suggested that they were used as an astronomic calendar /5/ for economic purposes.

To my opinion, the things are far more complex. The meaningful drawings undoubtedly possess a great informative potential, though they are quite lost among thousands of lines, triangles and zigzags. To interpret the phenomenon only through considering its one insignificant part (since the drawings make only .2% of the total number of figures), is not at least correct. The hypothesis of the agricultural calendar was refuted by the English astronomer G. Hawkins /6/. Moreover, thousands of lines would hardly have been required for just agricultural needs. Besides, the desert of Nazca is only one element of the phenomenon. Ground drawings similar in style are encountered in the middle part of the Andes all along the Pacific Ocean coast in South America. Thus they should in no way be attributed to one local Indian culture such as the Nazca culture.

Back in 1947 the first investigator of the desert of Nazca, the American historian Paul Kosok published an article "The Mysterious Markings of Nazca" /7/, illustrated with a number of aerial photographs of the ground drawings. In the preface the author pointed out that his article was an attempt to "challenge" the historians and archaeologists. However, the article has received no adequate response yet. One can suggest that the author did not name these bands and triangles "markings" just by chance... Why did he choose this very word: was it a simple pictorial comparison or mere guess-work? To my mind, it was rather a natural attempt to comprehend "something" which exells - in its implementation technique - the technological level of the modern civilization.

Fascinating impression is left by the lines and bands which are rectilinear like rays (irrespective of the relief and nature of the soil), either intercrossing or parallel to each other, and sometimes outcoming from one point named by P. Kosok /5/ "a center". There are triangles running in a chain over the hill peaks. A giant piece of work indeed though fulfilled with an exceptional easiness!

According to my estimates, made on the basis of the measures obtained by G. Hawkins's expedition /6/, more than 100, 000 man-years would have been required to construct by hand the figures on the desert of Nazca even if the Indians had had to work during 12 hours a day. The drawings and lines are usually well preserved on the surface owing to the extremely arid local climate. The irrigated agriculture here is conditionned by the same cause, and people of this region can live only in the river valleys. One valley is capable of providing for several thousands of people. How many people, I wonder, may have had to be engaged not in making their daily bread but rather in removing the stones with no tangible results of their labor? And how long would it have taken them to fulfill the task? 100 people - 1, 000 years, 1, 000 people - 100 years, 50 people - 2, 000 years? Any set of data would contradict to the nature of the soil since human or horse footprints or tracks of tyres are well preserved here for ades. How could such labor-consuming activities have remained without leaving a trace? On the aerial photographs the traces indicative of human activities in the form of broad and irregular sports, are visible only along the highway and soil road crossing the desert. On the other hand, there exist no evidences or recollections testifying to the creative work on these figures either in the Spanish cronicles or among the local inhabitants who sometimes plough up the figures or build pens on this territory not even suspecting whatsoever.

The scope of work on the whole plus a vast variety of purely geometric figures on the Nazca plateau, its weathered slopes, the nearby plateaus and hill peaks - all this permits us to assume that the Peruvian ground figures are true markings or, to be more precise, traces left by some unknown Wisdom. Somewhere they might seem to be left accidentally, and in some cases - quite intentionally.

Any creation by unknown Wisdom comprises certain intellectual capabilities indicating the level of its development and technological means available. What remarkable implementation techniques could one decipher in the Nazca ground figures?

To come to know the particulars of the problem, I studied the materials accumulated by a known desert investigator Maria Reiche /8/. Let us consider what these geometrical figures are in their essence, bearing in mind that their number is much greater than that of the drawings. The lines 15-20 cm wide (with the stones removed) run rectilinearly for the distance of up to 10 km. The lines over 60 cm in width are called "roads", and the triangles, rectangles, and, more often, trapezoidal outlines with rectilinear stone-formed edges - "delineated surfaces". The height of the edges negligible in case of the lines, reaches 10-12 cm in case of the roads, and 60 cm - for the delineated surfaces. The depth of even the largest figures does not exceed 30 cm. The width of the geometric figures is not more than 80 m, while the length of the largest rectangle is 780 m. Innumerable zigzags and sinusoids forming the so-called "decoration", can be encountered among these figures.

The striking rectilinearity of the lines and edges of the delineated surfaces (i. e. angular deflection less than 9 minutes) was mentioned by various investigators. The lines are made with a much greater precision than it can be verified with the help of modern aerial photography facilities.

The sight of the delineated surface might be associated with rays since they are very elongated triangles and trapezium with apex angles less than 17 degrees. There are triangles with a changeable angle of divergence which bears a strong resemblance to the changes characteristic of a beam cone depending on the changes of the aperture of a light source.

Superimposed roads look like a paper strip folded at an angle: the law of reflection is thus demonstrated in the ray optics. The way the lines and delineated surfaces are located, as a matter of fact, has a great resemblance to the paths of rays in optical diagrams. Moreover, the roads' contours remain visible even if there are four or five layers superimposed, though their creation is impossible to attribute to a certain period of time since they are all intimately interlaced.

It is not clear yet why the figures on the photographs have a different tint: is it conditioned by the size of pebbles on their surface or by their different density or by color intensity of their upper layer? At last, there is one more significant detail. Some roads are encountered which cross the rock endcrops, still no noticeable change in the nature of the soil is shown on the photos taken from the air.

Now let us consider the drawings. They are mainly concentrated on a narrow terrain belt 4-5 km wide, along the slope to the valley of Ingenio. First of all, it should be noted that these are contour drawings of animals. They appear to be made with one continuous line which never returns to its start point or crosses itself. The size of the drawings varies from 30 to 300 meters with the width of outline varying from 15 cm to 3 m. The entrance and exit of the outline seem to look like as two parallel lines. The harmony of the drawings might be explained by the fact discovered by Maria Reiche: all the curves are ideally conjugate both with each other and straight lines, that is they are subject to the strict mathematical laws. At the same time the drawings are characterized by a distinctive feature such as asymmetry. Even the giant figure of the spider though tremendous in its perfection, is a little elongated diagonally. The plane of the condor's wings is at an angle to the figure's axis. The elements of the drawing of the lizard are also elongated in one direction. All the drawings are interrelated with the areas or broad roads: a contour line begins and ends at one area, but its raised edge does not remain intact. This testifies to the fact that the drawings were made later than the geometric figures to which they are in some form "connected". There is an illustration in point as far as the way of constructing a drawing is concerned: the line runs from the vertex of a small triangle, encircles it, then makes a few zigzags with an amplitude of over 500 m (while gradually getting thinner), form a figure of a "tree" and, at last, reaches a large rectangle. Its total length is five kilometers.

The zigzag-shaped and sinusoidal lines forming a single complex with the drawing of the monkey, covers the area of 20, 000 square meters. One more interesting element is worth noting: the monkey's forelegs have a different number of fingers: the right one - five, while the left one - only four. The same feature is characteristic of another figure which received an adequate name: "Figure with nine fingers". Such insistent repetition could not be just a sort of coincidence.

Yes, I agree that it is quite possible to create such a complex by hand provided that each figure be considered separately, not as part of whole picture. The figures' peculiarities and dynamism, the so-called "mechanistic" approach to their implementation, as well as the drawings' general similarity to computer graphics permit us to put forward a hypothesis on their construction. To my opinion, they may have been built under the action of a flow of directed energy unknown nature from the air. The peculiar characteristics of the figures might help us to identify certain parameters of the hypothetic energy source such as a flat controlled front and changeable flow aperture. The energy flow may probably have exerted mechanical action on the dense soil conglomerate (volcanic pebbles) by pushing them apart or scattering around, thus changing the chemical composition of the surface layer. Such action seem to have much in common with the characteristics of the so-called "anomal light" from UFOs. The other features of the figures on the Nazca desert are also consonant with the UFO problem. For example, plenty of zigzags and spirals formed by adding oscillating or rotary motion and translational motion, seem to resemble typical maneuvers of UFOs: abrupt sideways jumps and top-like spinning.

One can see on the aerial photographs that the figures' outlines made on the relief terrain, have a regular configuration indicative of the fact that the photos may have been taken from the point of their previous projection. The drawings' asymmetry bears a strong resemblance to distortions obtained when projecting at an angle to the surface.

If we have good reason to assume the possibility of certain activities on the part of some unknown Wisdom, the following question immediately arises: Hasn`t some coded information been left on Nazca desert? Judging by the meaningful drawings available and a very high technical level of their construction, the answer is quite obvious. The drawings are concentrated in a sufficiently limited region thus quite naturally attracting our attention first of all to this very section of the figures' layout. Here we can distinguish several parallel lines as if marked with broadenings, and we can notice a certain harmony in their disposition. On correlating the measured distances between these lines (let us call them "coordinates"), to my great surprise I found out that they make a strict arithmetical proportion - 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 ! This led to the possibility to number the centers located on the coordinate lines. The fact that the fifth coordinate line (if the starting point is taken to be zero) seems to be made a little unparallel to the others, and that within the third coordinate line the center is located not far from the figure of "the man-owl", may be of remarkable significance. The latter center has a key position: it is located in the focus of whole layout. The interconnected rectangle and hexagon surrounding it are formed be pairs of parallel lines linking the other centers. One can attempt to identify the third center with our planet, the Earth, and the coordinates system - with the Solar system. In this case the other centers on the coordinate lines should be associated with Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, while the center on the fifth coordinate located somewhat aside, - with Phaeton. The Earth seems to connect the two worlds - the Solar system and some other system yet unknown.

What is this layout supposed to tell us? Or is it a sort of warning? What is the symbolic meaning of union of five- and four-fingered hands? We have not deciphered yet either the author or the addresses of this piece of work. However, the rigid mathematical logic of the information enclosed in the figures layout, the high technological level of their construction, and explicit purposefulness of activities - all this raises hopes in our breast that a Different Wisdom " is communicating" with Mankind.

1. "Flying Pelican". The path of the bird's wings cutting through the raised edge of the broad road, puts the stones aside. This is a distinctive feature of the drawings.

2. "Hands with Nine Fingers" and the monkey

3. Drawings of a "Tree" with a zigzag of smoothly narrowing lines. The total length of the lines is 5 km.

4. The lines layout on the plateau border. The co-ordinate system is made contrast. The centers located on the relevant co-ordinate lines, are numbered respectively.

5. The general layout of the main lines on the Nazca plateau. The centers are numbered in accordance with the order of co-ordinate lines (see Fig.4). The rectangle and hexagon around the center which may be associated with the Earth, are also made contrast. All the centers of the layout are interrelated.

Literature:

1. А. Белоконь. Фигуры пустыни Наска как археоастрономический феномен. - Латинская Америка, № 7, 1997, с. 64-72.
2. P. Kosok, M. Reiche. Ancient Drawings on Desert of Peru. - Archaeology, 1949, v.2, N 1, p. 206-215.
3. L. McItyre. Mystery of the Ancient Nazca Lines - National Geographic, May, v.147, N 5, 1975, p. 716-728.
4. H. Isbell. The Prehistoric Ground Drawings of Peru. - Scientific American, October, v.239, N 4, 1978, p.114-122.
5. P. Kosok. Life, Land and Water in Ancient Peru. N.Y., 1965.
6. G. Hawkins. Beyond Stonehenge, N.Y., 1973.
7. P. Kosok. The Mysterious Markings of Nazca. - Natural History, 1947, v. 56, N 5, p. 200-207, 237, 238.
8. M. Reiche. Mystery on Desert. Lima, 1949.
9. A. Belokon. Whose "traces" were left on the plain of Nazca? - "Ancient Skies", v. 25, N 1, march-april, 1998. P.3.