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The Nazca Lines.

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Cryptic messages from a lost civilization.

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Today, newly discovered symbols may finally unlock one of the world's greatest mysteries.

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Whoa!

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The sun was setting in the middle of the line.

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It has to have a meaning.

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That is so cool. New Nazca Lines.

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Yes, this is what I wanted to show you.

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Incredible. It's huge!

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When you think of Peru, what comes to mind?

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The soaring Andes Mountains?

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Maybe the lush jungles of the Amazon?

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Well, if you head a bit further south,

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you'll find yourself in one of the driest and most desolate environments on Earth.

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2,000 years ago, a mysterious civilization thrived here.

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Little was known about them until the 1920s, when commercial flights spotted their giant glyphs.

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Symbols inscribed in the sand that became known as the Nazca Lines.

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They depict huge animals,

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strange figures,

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and complex geometric shapes.

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For nearly a century, people have been fiercely debating the Nazca Lines.

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But several months ago, a sandstorm in the desert revealed something incredible.

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Never before seen symbols that may be the key to solving the entire puzzle.

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Scientists have also uncovered clues that may reveal how the lines were made with such mathematical precision.

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And more importantly, why?

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Were they used to pray to the gods or for drug-induced rituals?

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Were they a giant astronomical calendar?

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Or, as some wild theories suggest, a way to communicate with UFOs?

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Well, thanks to the new discoveries, we may finally know the answer.

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My mission?

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Get to Peru and immerse myself in the world of the Nazca.

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I'll examine the new evidence in the case,

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and then look for definitive answers to one of the strangest mysteries in the world.

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My name is Josh Gates.

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With a degree in archaeology and a passion for exploration,

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I have a tendency to end up in some very strange situations.

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There has got to be a better way to make a living.

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My travels have taken me to the ends of the earth as I investigate the greatest legends in history.

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We're good to fly, let's go.

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This is Expedition Unknown.

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After an eight-hour flight, I touch down in Peru's capital city of Lima.

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In order to get to the Nazca lines, we have to get to Nazca.

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In order to do that, we have to head a few hundred miles south.

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Everybody in Peru honks all the time.

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They honk when they're happy, they honk when they'd like to get by you,

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they honk when they're angry.

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Just any time you...

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Here's a kid crossing the road.

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I'll beep at him.

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They love it.

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Having honked my way out of Lima, I'm embarking on a 300-mile trek down the coast

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to the desert town of Nazca and the never-before-seen Nazca lines

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revealed by a recent sandstorm.

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The fastest and, well, only way to get there is on the infamous Pan-American Highway.

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This is the world's longest road,

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30,000 miles of lonely pavement that links almost every country in the Americas.

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On one side, steep cliffs drop down to the top of the road,

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on the other, endless desert.

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This region gets less than an inch of rain a year,

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but amidst the barren dunes, there is something unlikely.

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Life.

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Water in the middle of the desert.

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Amazing.

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This is Huacachina, home to about 100 people.

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It is the only true desert oasis in the Americas.

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A small pond of water that somehow defies the dried-up landscape all around it.

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Basically, there's this natural oasis here.

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People just flock to it, and they created a community around the water.

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This thirst-quenching oasis wasn't around during the time of the Nazca,

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but the desert was,

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and I'm here to get a first-hand look at the landscape the Nazca people somehow conquered.

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To do that, I need to go off-road.

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Once you leave the highways in southern Peru, this is what's left.

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Nothing this.

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It's one of the harshest landscapes in the world.

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This is Elmer, a local driver who's agreed to show me around.

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He's not much for conversation, but he knows these dunes like the back of his hand.

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It's my kind of driving.

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Peru's deserts are about the size of New York State,

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but if I didn't know better, I'd think I was on Mars.

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This is crazy.

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Elmer, you're crazy!

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You're crazy!

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I'm not sure what direction we're going, or whether Elmer here has a license,

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but I'm quickly learning that out here in the middle of nowhere, there's definitely no speed limit.

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Holy s***!

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2,000 years ago, the Nazca people walked this scorching desert on foot.

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Luckily, modern humans have come up with a much more fun and dangerous way to traverse these dunes.

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I got this!

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I got this!

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I got this!

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Nailed it!

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You know, I didn't break my legs.

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With the sun setting and a lot of sand in my boxers,

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we make our way back to the paved road with a new appreciation for how vast and dry the world of the Nazca really was.

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By the light of a new day, I continue rumbling down the Pan-American Highway.

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After a few more hours on the monotonous road, the dusty outline of buildings appears in the distance.

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Welcome to Nazca, the city of eternal summer.

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This area has been occupied by humans since time immemorial.

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Once home to the ancient Nazca people, it was later a Spanish settlement, a wine region,

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and today a quiet town and an outpost for archaeologists and adventurous travelers.

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Everywhere you look, there are representations of the Nazca lines.

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But I'm here to see the real thing.

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Just outside of town, I pull over to get my first look at these mysterious glyphs.

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We have arrived at the Nazca lines.

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Can you see them?

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Me neither.

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The problem is that they're so huge and it's so flat here that without any elevation,

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they kind of disappear into the desert, which has raised a lot of questions about how they were made

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and why were they made if you can't really see them from down here.

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In order to get a good view of them, we're going to have to go up.

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The Nazca lines were first recorded in 1553 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Ciesadillón,

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but he mistook them for primitive roads.

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If only this rickety tower had been built hundreds of years ago,

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then perhaps he could have seen the true nature of the lines, which only reveals itself from above.

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Wow.

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Look at this.

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Coming up.

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Hey, Dutch.

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No, we see it.

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That's a crowd.

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New Nazca lines.

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What does it mean?

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That's a crowd.

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New Nazca lines.

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What does it mean?

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I've crossed the deserts of Peru and I'm climbing this lonely observation tower

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for my first look at one of the world's greatest enigmas.

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Wow.

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Look at this.

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Those are the Nazca lines.

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These lines are a mystery on a massive scale.

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There are nearly 100 gigantic figures, as well as strange geometric symbols

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and thousands of straight lines that cover an area twice the size of Washington, D.C.

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The most famous designs are the huge animals,

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the hummingbird,

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the condor,

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the spider,

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and the monkey.

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Shapes drawn with a single line that never crosses itself.

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It's still only a very small piece of the Nazca lines.

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This extends for miles and miles in every direction, but at least we've got a first glimpse.

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The big questions are, how were these lines made and what were they for?

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There's been a stunning new development.

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Previously buried Nazca lines were just revealed by a sandstorm

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and some scientists believe they could help solve the mystery.

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But before seeking them out, I need to know more about the Nazca people.

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I swang into the nearby Museo Antonini, which is filled with relics from the Nazca world,

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as well as some grim remains of the Nazca themselves.

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This is really one of the most striking and in some ways disturbing part of the Nazca culture.

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You see these incredibly well preserved heads,

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and they have a whole drill for it.

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And they've come to be known as trophy heads.

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Some archaeologists have painted the Nazca as peaceful and the skulls as objects that they revered,

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while others believe the Nazca were aggressive headhunters, but nobody knows for sure.

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In terms of trying to understand more about the Nazca people, you have to look at their pottery.

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You know, this is really what they left behind,

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and all of these broken pieces are actually the remains of the Nazca people.

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You know, this is really what they left behind, and all of these broken pieces are actually clues in a puzzle.

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There are several competing theories about the function of the Nazca lines,

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and I'm hoping to hone in on the right answer.

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Theory one. The lines were used as a sort of massive astronomical calendar,

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evidenced by their position beneath the heavens,

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and symbols for stars painted on the sides of various ceramics.

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Theory two. Since it's hard to see the lines from the ground,

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and since so many of them look like landing runways,

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many fringe theorists insist that they were built with the help of aliens.

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Theory three. The lines were used in drug-fueled rituals,

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where wild ceremonies took place to pray for resources from the gods.

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Some of these deities were represented by animals, like the monkey or the killer whale.

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Pottery depicting psychedelic cactuses and dancing shamans seemed to support this idea.

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So which theory is right? I plan to test them out.

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First, I want to see if the lines could really be a massive astronomical calendar.

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The late German mathematician Maria Reiche was the loudest proponent of this theory,

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and she's just about single-handedly responsible for preserving the lines as a World Heritage Site.

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Her image is everywhere in Nazca, and her home is now a museum.

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To better understand the so-called Lady of the Lines and her theory,

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I'm meeting with the head of her foundation, Anna Maria Cagorno.

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How did she first come to see the lines?

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She was very involved with many scientists in the Museum of Lima.

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She met there Dr. Paul Kossack from the University of Long Island, New York.

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So they flew, and when they were flying, they saw so many different roads.

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They didn't know what they were.

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Then they decided to come in the car, and Maria was very curious.

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Suddenly, Maria saw that the sun was setting exactly in the middle of the line.

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So then she was shocked. It had to have a meaning.

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And do you believe that the lines and the glyphs align to celestial bodies?

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Well, some of them, yes.

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Reiche spent over half a century fighting to prove the astronomical purpose of the lines,

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but her work is still hotly debated.

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At the Museum's nearby planetarium, I'm meeting Eduardo Azabache from the Peruvian Astronomical Institute.

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Hola. Hola.

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He's giving me a first-hand look at Maria's theory by showing me how the lines relate to the sky above.

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Maria, as she worked on the desert for 40 years, she discovered groups of lines pointed to the rising or setting of the brightest stars, the sun and the moon.

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For example, the hummingbird, and she noticed at the longest line point the rising of the sun at summer solstice day.

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It does. It goes straight to where the sun came up during the solstice. That's very compelling.

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It appears that the hummingbird is in perfect alignment with important astronomical events, and so are other shapes.

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This is the corner of the line crossing the bird figure, which was oriented to the setting of the sun at winter solstice day.

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And the third figure was the eran. Well, Maria also, noticed that the long beak used to point to the rising of the sun at winter solstice day.

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As soon as the sun set or rose on these particular lines, the Nazca would have known it was the first day of winter or the first day of summer, their rainy season.

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This calendar could have been a vital agricultural tool for growing crops or collecting water.

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But there are hundreds of other lines and animal shapes that don't match up to the sun or stars.

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So Maria's work offers only a partial explanation. Time to move on to the next theory.

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The next morning I motor out to a blank section of desert to tackle the wildest theory about the lines.

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People, and I mean a lot of people, have been insisting for years that since the Nazca couldn't really see their handiwork from the ground,

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and since the lines are massive, they must have been made with the help of aliens.

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One of the Nazca lines is even referred to as the astronaut, and it does bear a striking resemblance to a notable extraterrestrial.

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But I'm not sure I'm buying this as just a giant desert airport for E.T. and his buddies.

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So in terms of how the Nazca lines were made, what's the simplest explanation?

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Well, maybe the Nazca people just came out here into the desert and they just drew these shapes freestyle.

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So that's what I'm going to try to do. This is the spider, one of the most famous of the Nazca lines, and I'm going to attempt to recreate it using this simple piece of bamboo.

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J.J., what's your confidence level here on a scale of 1 to 10 as to how good a job I'm going to do?

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Two, you do know that 10 is the best that I could possibly do. One is the worst, and he's down to a 1.

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Boy, this is not as easy as it looks.

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Move away the dark iron-rich sand on top and you reveal lighter-colored sand below.

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But since every single footprint and scrape here is permanent, there's little room for error.

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The replica I'm attempting is large, but the real Nazca lines are downright huge.

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I usually feel tall at 6'2", but next to the larger shape, the 935-foot heron, I'd be the size of an ant.

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That is wrong, that's wrong.

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You really can't make a mistake because once you kick more sand over it, it just makes more white spots.

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This needs to be a mistake-free endeavor.

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Kind of looking like a spider, or a menorah.

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Here's why this doesn't work. It doesn't work because I'm terrible at it, but it also doesn't work because if you look at the drawing,

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you see that it's for the most part very symmetrical, very even-spinning, and it's not as sharp as it looks.

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You see that it's for the most part very symmetrical, very even-spacing in between the legs.

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These glyphs are hundreds of feet long.

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There's no way, freehand, they could possibly make it this exact and have it turn out well.

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00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:27,000
I kind of don't get it. I don't know how they're doing it.

229
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,000
There has to be something else in play here.

230
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:42,000
I'm in the Peruvian Desert chasing answers to the mystery of the world-famous Nazca lines.

231
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:48,000
After trying my hand at drawing my own version, it's obvious I need some professional help.

232
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:55,000
I'm enlisting one of the world's foremost experts on the lines, Mario Oleacea, the head archaeologist at the Ministry of Nazca,

233
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,000
and his researcher, Alejandra.

234
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:04,000
Our plan is to recreate the famous hummingbird glyph, though I have no idea how.

235
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:11,000
So we have a paddle of some kind, a stick, and it looks like some string and some stakes.

236
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,000
Okay, show me the way. Let's do it.

237
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:21,000
I'm not sure if we're going to build a sandcastle, fly a kite, or stake a desert vampire, but at this point, I'll try anything.

238
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,000
Keep walking straight until he tells you to stop.

239
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:29,000
In the past, archaeologists theorized that the Nazca must have built platforms to oversee their work.

240
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:33,000
One historian even built a hot-air balloon out of ancient materials to pull it off.

241
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:40,000
However, the only physical evidence are small wooden stakes discovered in the sand, which might just lead us to the answer.

242
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:45,000
The tail has to be a little bit more to the left.

243
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:49,000
Despite the flat desert, there are actually lots of hills on the edges.

244
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:54,000
The Nazca could have used a foreman on high ground who relayed instructions to workers below.

245
00:18:54,000 --> 00:19:02,000
Mario believes the Nazca staked out the ends of the shapes, and then, using string, scaled up smaller drawings using mathematical precision.

246
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:04,000
Go ahead.

247
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:06,000
Hold on, hold on.

248
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,000
To draw a line, we use wide paddles and start to connect the dots.

249
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:26,000
Finally, we connect the last line in our shape.

250
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,000
Perfecto, no, no, no, perfecto, está bien ahí.

251
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:32,000
From this view, it's perfect.

252
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:33,000
Perfect.

253
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:34,000
Yes.

254
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:35,000
Great.

255
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:36,000
Awesome.

256
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:37,000
Great work.

257
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:38,000
Yeah, Mario, you're brilliant.

258
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:39,000
Great work, buddy.

259
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:40,000
We made a Nazca line.

260
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:48,000
I'm astonished to see that our hummingbird is actually really accurate, and we managed to make it with a diagram and a compass.

261
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,000
We made it with a diagram and just a few simple tools.

262
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:52,000
Take that, UFOs.

263
00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:05,000
Okay, we've debunked the theory that the lines were made by aliens or with the use of complex tools, and the astronomical theory only works on a small portion of the lines.

264
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:12,000
So I'm driving on to explore the third option, that these lines were purely religious, made for worshiping the gods.

265
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:18,000
These roads, if you can call them that, are a crisscrossed maze of trails.

266
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,000
But finally, I arrive at what seems like just another set of dunes.

267
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:25,000
But beneath the sand, there are secrets.

268
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:37,000
This is Cahuachi, the heart of the Nazca civilization and the only architectural remains of their empire.

269
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:44,000
Founded around 100 BC, its mud structures are buried under mounds of windblown sand.

270
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:57,000
Hear that?

271
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,000
That is the sound of absolutely nothing.

272
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,000
It's completely still out here.

273
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,000
Nearby is a sprawling Nazca cemetery.

274
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,000
And it's not for the faint of heart.

275
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:13,000
Archaeologists have excavated bodies wrapped in embroidered cotton and painted with resin.

276
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:19,000
The mummification process and dry climate have kept the remains eerily intact.

277
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:23,000
The burials are very ceremonial.

278
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:31,000
You know, you have these very fine textiles and bits of pottery, and you see that the pots are filled with things like corn, and we have shells, and we have offerings,

279
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:35,000
and so much of it is about food and sustenance in the earth.

280
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,000
Definitely a culture that was religious.

281
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:45,000
I'm meeting historian David Rivas to unlock more mysteries here.

282
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:46,000
What a spot!

283
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:51,000
If you had blindfolded me and brought me here, I would say that I was in like ancient Sumeria or Egypt.

284
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:57,000
It's just 4% of the 24 square kilometers they still have to dig. This is just the beginning.

285
00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:58,000
This is the 4%?

286
00:21:58,000 --> 00:21:59,000
Yes.

287
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,000
96% of it is unexcavated.

288
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:06,000
It will go all the way down there, and you see those hills over there?

289
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:07,000
Yeah.

290
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:09,000
It probably will go over there.

291
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:16,000
Archaeological evidence now suggests that Kowachi was a sacred pilgrimage site used for religious ceremonies and offerings.

292
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:22,000
It overlooks many of the lines, strengthening the theory that the shapes in the sand were highly ceremonial.

293
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,000
And while the Nazca who built this site are long gone, their rituals have endured.

294
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:39,000
This shaman traces his heritage back to the Nazca people, and I'm being invited to participate in an age-old ceremony in the heart of this ruined temple.

295
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,000
It's an honor. Thank you very much.

296
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:55,000
Nazca are depicted on pottery in a drug-induced trance, which was likely the result of ingesting the local San Pedro cactus.

297
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:06,000
2000 years ago, our ancestors used all these hallucinogens in order to be in touch with the spirits, in order to find how the future is going to become for them.

298
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:13,000
Since I have to work in the morning, I'm drinking a less potent brew, hoping to avoid a psychedelic journey to the Nazca spirit world.

299
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:21,000
This is it. This is it. And now you can share with the world.

300
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:29,000
The ritual is a window to the past, and a clear indication that the Nazca did use hallucinogenic plants to induce visions.

301
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:45,000
Between the highly ceremonial burials and this spiritual temple, it overlooks the lines.

302
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:51,000
There's no question in my mind that the Nazca built their symbols in the sand, in part, to reach out to the gods.

303
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,000
But the question is, what were the lines trying to say?

304
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:03,000
The answers may be found in never-before-seen lines that were spotted recently by a pilot after a sandstorm.

305
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:08,000
Can these new shapes help decode the puzzle of the Nazca lines, once and for all?

306
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,000
Hey guys, how are ya?

307
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:21,000
At dawn, I head over to Nazca's tiny airport to meet with historian Antonio San Cristobal and get a bird's eye view of ancient history.

308
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,000
Okay, let's do it.

309
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:33,000
As our plane soars over the arid desert, the sand seems to stretch out like a blank canvas.

310
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,000
But then, rising from the dunes, shapes appear.

311
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,000
Everyone.

312
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:57,000
We soar over several of the massive animal glyphs, including the spider and the condor.

313
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:02,000
I also have a newfound respect for the soaring hummingbird we attempted to copy.

314
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,000
But I'm also here to see something else.

315
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:14,000
A few months ago, a pilot spotted previously unknown shapes revealed by the shifting sands.

316
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:21,000
We bank the plane toward the coordinates for one of the first looks at these mysterious lines.

317
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:29,000
I'm in southern Peru, circling massive, 1500-year-old drawings in the desert known as the Nazca lines.

318
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:36,000
We're also hoping to get a look at a set of never-before-seen lines that have just been revealed by a recent sandstorm.

319
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:37,000
I see it!

320
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,000
I can't see it!

321
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:39,000
Look!

322
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:40,000
I see it!

323
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:41,000
I see it!

324
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:42,000
I see it!

325
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:43,000
I see it!

326
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,000
I see it!

327
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,000
I see it!

328
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:46,000
I see it!

329
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:47,000
I see it!

330
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:48,000
I see it!

331
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:49,000
I see it!

332
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:50,000
I see it!

333
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:51,000
Look at that!

334
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,000
That is so cool!

335
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,000
Amazing!

336
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,000
New Nazca lines!

337
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:05,000
The lines appear to show a 200-foot snake, a bird, and strange zigzag lines.

338
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:23,000
The Paracas were the tribe who ruled the desert before the Nazca, and archaeologists believe these lines may be some of the oldest ever discovered.

339
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:36,000
What does it mean?

340
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,000
What does it mean, Antonio?

341
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,000
That's a real question.

342
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000
Question 5, Nasi Niko.

343
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:51,000
Back on the ground, and I'm back in my 4x4 on the trail of answers.

344
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:56,000
So to understand the Nazca people, we have to understand the Paracas people.

345
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,000
To do that, we're going to head to the city of Paracas, which is about four hours north.

346
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:06,000
From Nazca, it's a few hundred miles through the desert to the small port town of Paracas.

347
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:11,000
Situated in a wide bay on the Pacific, this town has been inhabited for thousands of years.

348
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:19,000
The prehistoric tribe that once ruled here has made quite an impression on the current population, though they aren't very talkative.

349
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,000
Sir, I'm going to bother you.

350
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,000
I'm just hoping to learn the secrets of the Nazca people.

351
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,000
Very grumpy.

352
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:32,000
A few blocks down the street is the Paracas History Museum.

353
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,000
As I browse the collection, the story of the Paracas comes into view.

354
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:45,000
They lived in these deserts at least a thousand years prior to the Nazca, who invaded them from the north.

355
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:55,000
After the Nazca conquered the Paracas, they absorbed their culture and continued the animal glyphs and lines that began centuries earlier.

356
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:02,000
But what really jumps out at me is their shared fascination with heads.

357
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:15,000
This is incredible. The Paracas people engaged in this really strange ritual of binding and elongating their skulls.

358
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:24,000
No, these are not alien artifacts. The elongation was accomplished by tying rocks and rope to infants and deforming the skulls while they're still soft.

359
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:30,000
Why the Paracas did this, we don't fully know, but it is believed to have been something reserved for nobility.

360
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,000
Why the long face?

361
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,000
Come on. Too soon? Two thousand years ago.

362
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:50,000
Since the newly discovered lines were made by the Paracas people, it stands to reason that the Nazca lines were inspired by this older culture.

363
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:55,000
In fact, the oldest and strangest of the Paracas lines can only be seen from the ocean.

364
00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:01,000
I'm hitching a ride with local archaeologist Rolando Aibar to see where the lines began.

365
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,000
This is our boat. This is it? Yes.

366
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:11,000
Our vessel has seen better days, but I'm sure she's seaworthy. The engine is new. The engine's new. That's all that matters.

367
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,000
The term new is being thrown around pretty loosely here.

368
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,000
We got it. Here we go.

369
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:32,000
Despite the lethally dry desert inland, offshore feels like a Peruvian Galapagos.

370
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:45,000
Humboldt penguins, sea lions, and flocks of beautiful Peruvian boobies. Those are birds, by the way. The sea here is utterly alive.

371
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,000
Dolphins. Yes. Beautiful.

372
00:29:50,000 --> 00:30:07,000
The Paracas and the Nazca were desert cultures, but the links to the sea are hard to ignore.

373
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:17,000
The marine wildlife is mirrored in the desert with glyphs like the killer whale and even the famed astronaut, which archaeologists now believe could represent a fisherman.

374
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:27,000
Down in Nazca, I kept thinking, how could the ancient people survive here, but now that I see this, I realize how dependent they must have been on the sea.

375
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:35,000
Yes, because those people that came to live here or to stay here, they mainly were fishermen.

376
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:43,000
The Paracas and the Nazca are starting to come into focus for me. Their lines are deeply tied to their environment and their dependence on water.

377
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:51,000
Then, as our boat rounds the peninsula, I see something that leaves me speechless.

378
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,000
Judge, this is what I wanted to show you. Look at that sign.

379
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:01,000
Oh my God, that is incredible. It's huge.

380
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:18,000
I'm in Peru trying to understand the purpose behind the Nazca lines, and my guide has just shown me a big piece of the puzzle.

381
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,000
Judge, this is what I wanted to show you. Look at that sign.

382
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:28,000
Oh my God, that is incredible. It's huge.

383
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,000
This is why we call it the Candelabra.

384
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:43,000
The Candelabra glyph can be seen from 12 miles out to sea. It was made by the Paracas people.

385
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:46,000
How old is it?

386
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:52,000
It's about 2200 years old. The Paracas did not come from Candelabras. It was born by the Spanish.

387
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,000
But this could be a cactus.

388
00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:04,000
The big branch, the big column in the middle, if you elongate that column, it is linked to the hummingbird of Nazca lines.

389
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:06,000
Really?

390
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,000
That one represents the beginning of the rainy season there in Nazca.

391
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:11,000
They point to the same direction?

392
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:13,000
Exactly.

393
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,000
Wow, that's incredible. It all comes down to water.

394
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:17,000
Yes, exactly.

395
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:23,000
Hearing that the Paracas Candelabra is aligned to the Nazca hummingbird bolsters the theory that the shapes are tied to water.

396
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:29,000
One historian who believes he can prove that has a bold new theory about the lines.

397
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:40,000
Back on shore and a few miles inland, I'm meeting with the director of the Paracas History Museum, Brian Forrester.

398
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,000
Brian, I hear you're the man to talk to about the Paracas people.

399
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Well, I guess I'm one of them, but sure, I'll take the job.

400
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,000
Quickly learning that to understand the Nazca, you've got to understand the Paracas.

401
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,000
It's essential.

402
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:53,000
So, how do I do that?

403
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,000
Well, I've got a couple of special places I want to show you.

404
00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:58,000
All right. 4x4?

405
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:00,000
No.

406
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:02,000
Why not?

407
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:03,000
Sand.

408
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:05,000
More sand.

409
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:06,000
Yeah.

410
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:17,000
Brian is taking me deep into Paracas territory, where exactly I'm not sure, but I'm anxious to see what he has in store.

411
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:23,000
The Paracas thrived in one of the most inhospitable deserts on Earth, and ultimately, they died here too.

412
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:25,000
Is that bone?

413
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:26,000
Yeah.

414
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:35,000
This is a recently dug-up grave of someone at least 500, maybe a thousand, maybe even 2,000 years old.

415
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:43,000
Brian has led me to a massive Paracas cemetery, a necropolis that's a mile wide and five miles long.

416
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,000
Rough estimate, how many people do you think are buried here?

417
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,000
I would say at minimum 10,000.

418
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:50,000
Unbelievable.

419
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:55,000
But this site is completely unattended, and at the mercy of any looter with enough gas to get out here.

420
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:57,000
Many of the graves have been totally destroyed.

421
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,000
These trenches that I see along the way here, those are looted graves?

422
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:02,000
Yes.

423
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,000
And underneath here, still preserved burials as well, I assume.

424
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:06,000
Oh, many, many more.

425
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,000
This is someone's skull.

426
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,000
Unbelievable.

427
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,000
That is incredible.

428
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:22,000
I'm looking face to face at a... a... a parakeet, probably.

429
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,000
Yeah.

430
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:32,000
I've never had the experience before of stopping in a place and picking up a human skull out of the ground.

431
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:38,000
We carefully return the skull to the ground and recover it with sand.

432
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:44,000
After hundreds of years of being in peace, put them back in a state of peace like that.

433
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,000
Back on the ATVs, we head deeper into the desert.

434
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:58,000
Brian has researched the glyphs and lines in the area and calculated that a number of the lines intersect at a location several miles to the east.

435
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,000
I'm anxious to find out why.

436
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,000
As we round the bend, a buried Caracas temple looms before us.

437
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:10,000
Wow.

438
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:20,000
Much like the Nazca temple of Cahuaqi, this Parakean pyramid was a gathering place for religious ceremonies.

439
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:21,000
That's incredible.

440
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:22,000
Yeah.

441
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,000
Just unexcavated.

442
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:25,000
Yeah.

443
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:26,000
Trapped in the dunes.

444
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:27,000
Yeah.

445
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:28,000
A pyramid.

446
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,000
How many of these do you think there are here?

447
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,000
In this area, there are hundreds.

448
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:37,000
The foundation of it at least would be 2,000 plus years old.

449
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,000
The Paracas were the first established culture of this area.

450
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:49,000
So the Paracas were responsible for at least 50% of the geoglyphs and lines, and then the Nazca, the second 50%.

451
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:56,000
When you look at the Nazca lines, when you look at the glyphs and the geometric shapes and the Paracas shapes, what do you think they're for?

452
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,000
There's no real cohesion or basic pattern.

453
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:03,000
I think some of them are for solar and lunar alignment.

454
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,000
Some of them are ceremonial pathways.

455
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:09,000
Some of them are for tracking underground water systems.

456
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,000
This is a bombshell.

457
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:25,000
Brian believes that not only were the lines used for ceremonial purposes to pray for water, but that many of them may actually lead to water, a sort of physical map over laying underground rivers and pointing to natural wells.

458
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,000
You think there's ancient water sources here?

459
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:36,000
It's possible that slightly under the ground of that area, we can find water today.

460
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,000
Looking for water in the desert?

461
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:39,000
Yep.

462
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:41,000
Sounds like a challenge.

463
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:54,000
The lines that led us to this pyramid likely guided the Paracas on ceremonial processions, but might also have functioned as directions to water.

464
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,000
What do we think these depressions are?

465
00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:00,000
It could actually be accesses like little wells for water.

466
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,000
Really?

467
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:02,000
Yeah.

468
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:04,000
So you're saying that there may be water under this?

469
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,000
Well, I'm saying it's possible, yeah.

470
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,000
Well, let's give it a whirl. Let's see if there's anything here.

471
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:11,000
Okay.

472
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:23,000
Brian's theory strikes me as impossible, mostly because this is an absolutely lifeless desert, but he's convinced, so I've got little choice but to start digging.

473
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,000
This is a ridiculous way to spend an afternoon.

474
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,000
Update, I'm parched, I'm sweating, and it's 8,000 degrees out.

475
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:37,000
The more we dig, the more I feel like the only thing I'm going to find beneath the sand is sand.

476
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,000
How far down do you think it really is?

477
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,000
I wouldn't think even 10 feet below, really?

478
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,000
Yeah, well, we're hitting a lot of roots.

479
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:44,000
Yeah, that's a good sign.

480
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:49,000
These roots are dead, and if Brian and I don't get back to the road before dark, we might be too.

481
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:54,000
But if there is an underground stream here, we might also answer the riddle of the Nazca lines.

482
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:02,000
I can't help but notice that I'm down in the pit shoveling and you're supervising.

483
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:04,000
Well, I'm a local.

484
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:05,000
Right.

485
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,000
It's your right as a visitor to Explorer.

486
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,000
I appreciate you letting me do that.

487
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:11,000
My honor.

488
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,000
The soil's getting harder.

489
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:17,000
Yeah.

490
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:21,000
Whoa.

491
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,000
Oh, wait, wait.

492
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:34,000
I've come to Peru to investigate the mystery of the Nazca lines.

493
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:39,000
After following these symbols deep into the desert, we're digging to see if they were used to locate water.

494
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:40,000
Whoa.

495
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:42,000
Oh, wait, wait.

496
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:44,000
Look at that.

497
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,000
Wet soil.

498
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:47,000
Yep, you've hit the water table.

499
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,000
Water.

500
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:56,000
There is water down here in the desert.

501
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:57,000
Yeah.

502
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:06,000
This discovery at the convergence of these lines is compelling evidence that the prehistoric tribes of Peru might have carved their massive symbols to track water.

503
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,000
That is so cool.

504
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:09,000
Amazing.

505
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:10,000
You know what?

506
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,000
I don't want to say that I doubted you, but I really doubted you.

507
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,000
Thanks for the hard work.

508
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:16,000
This is incredible.

509
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:20,000
It really may be that the shapes in the Nazca lines do point to water.

510
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,000
Some of them at least, yeah.

511
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,000
Yeah, that's incredible.

512
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:24,000
It's hard to argue with that.

513
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,000
Wet soil right here.

514
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:35,000
As we leave the sand-choked ruins of the Paracas civilization and head back to Nazca, there are other clues that may back this theory up.

515
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:39,000
With just an inch of rain a year, the Nazca became masters of water management.

516
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:44,000
Some of the lines, including the newly discovered lines, depict strange spiral shapes.

517
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:50,000
And on the edge of town, there are similarly shaped holes that actually serve a very real purpose.

518
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,000
So these are called ojos.

519
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:59,000
It's basically a very elaborate looking manhole.

520
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,000
It's a check well that goes down to an underground aqueduct system.

521
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:07,000
This is the very bottom of the system.

522
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:10,000
And what's so cool about this is there's no cement lining this.

523
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,000
There's no concrete here.

524
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:20,000
There's just naturally piled rocks, and they're using the natural sediment of the floor here to allow this water to just pass through.

525
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,000
It doesn't absorb, it just passes like an underground river.

526
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:28,000
These wells led to tiny underground streams that flow down from the Andes.

527
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:34,000
2,000 years ago, the Nazca figured out how to tap into them, and it's so well built that it still works.

528
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,000
It's so cold.

529
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,000
You can see that down here.

530
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:48,000
This system is working exactly as it did 1,500 years ago, providing clean, drinkable water to the Nazca people.

531
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,000
But in the past, terrible droughts created constant need for other water sources.

532
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:59,000
And I now believe we have the answer to the riddle of the lines.

533
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,000
The lines don't have one purpose.

534
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,000
That's why there's so little order to their layout.

535
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:13,000
They serve several functions, all related to the most precious resource in a desolate world.

536
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,000
Water.

537
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:24,000
We've seen that some of the lines were astronomical, a way to track the very brief rainy season and plan for crops.

538
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:30,000
We've also seen that the lines are clearly ceremonial, massive glyphs used to pray for water.

539
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,000
The thirsty hummingbird.

540
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:34,000
The resilient cactus.

541
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:35,000
The fisherman.

542
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,000
All symbols tied to water.

543
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:44,000
The newly discovered lines show a snake and wavy lines, both ancient symbols for water.

544
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:50,000
And finally, it seems that some of the lines may actually point to or overlay subterranean water sources,

545
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:54,000
a dusty map that evolves over generations.

546
00:41:55,000 --> 00:42:01,000
In time, the Nazca culture was absorbed by other tribes, just as they absorbed the paracas.

547
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:03,000
Their legacy is beneath our feet.

548
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:10,000
There are still thousands of structures trapped in the dunes, and there's no doubt that more symbols are destined for discovery.

549
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:14,000
The Nazca were masters of conservation in a punishing world.

550
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:18,000
We now know that their lines were a complex system for survival.

551
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:25,000
But with so much of their culture still unexplored, who knows what new mysteries will emerge from beneath the sands.