South American trip (9) – Nazca and Caral

Nazca was really another highlight of the South American trip. It was impressive and nothing short of the expectations I had built up over time, from reading books about the mysteries of the world as a child to documentaries on Netflix.

It’s wow. But for some the flight can be bad, being a small plane. But I really liked it. Pilots tilt the plane far enough, and often enough, that every part of the plane can look at every important drawing. There are a lot of gigantic drawings. The lines are said to have been created by the Nazca culture between 100 BC-700 AD. The specialists used satellite images, but also on-site research, walking these lines. In total, these lines are 4.4 km long.

These drawings are not only visible from the plane, but also from the surrounding hills.

Some of the drawings feature images of animals such as birds, llamas, monkeys, human forms, fish or jaguars. Some images are simple geometric shapes and lines, while others feature more complex symbols such as trees and flowers. The shapes were first drawn by removing the reddish stone above to expose the earth below. While the exact purpose of the shapes is unknown, most scholars agree that they carry some religious significance.

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Egypt – pyramids, Nile, Arabs and corals

 

The organized tourist trip I went on between 2088 and 2009 was my first somewhat more exotic trip outside of continental Europe.

It was a classic tour, with plane, coach, service providers, hotel, guides and more. Then I realized that this type of trips are not for me, preferring the ones on my own.

However, the trip opened my eyes to travel, to how large the resolution of the planet really is, how different the worlds people live in on this earth can be. But also about what ancient Egypt meant and the grand scale of one of the first known ancient civilizations.

Ancient Egypt is even more fascinating than it appeared on Discovery or BBC Earth. And this was an unexpected thing for me at that time..

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