Flex Mentallo

Around 1946 Reiche began to map the figures represented by the Nazca Lines and found 18 different kinds of animals and birds.

“I know two lines that are 9 kilometers in length and absolutely straight. This fact of straightness may be explained by the extraordinary eyesight of the ancient people of Peru. There are only two places in the world where we have this kind of telescopic eyesight, where people can see small things at immense distances, the one is in Mongolia in the Gobi Desert, and the other is here among these people.”

Later Reiche found lines converging at the summer solstice.

Maria Reiche was born May 15, 1903 in Dresden. She studied mathematics, astronomy, geography and foreign languages at the Dresden Technical University. In 1932 she began work as a nanny and teacher for the children of a German consul in Cuzco, Peru. In 1934 she lost one of her fingers to gangrene. The same year she became a teacher in Lima and made scientific translations, as she spoke five languages. When World War II broke out, German citizens were detained in Peru. In 1940 Reiche became an assistant to the American Paul Kosok, an historian from Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York. Making field studies from 1939–1941 and 1948–49, he is credited as the first Westerner of European descent to seriously investigate the Nazca Lines. He originally studied them in connection with field work on ancient irrigation systems, but quickly concluded they had another purpose. He noticed lines that converged at the point of the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere in June 1941. Together they began to map and assess the lines for their relation to astronomical events.

"It was a kind of destiny. When I first came to Peru by sea the ship went passing through the center of four consecutive rainbows, four arcs, one inside the other. It was a marvelous spectacle! It must have been some kind of prediction or something. Imagine a boat, a boat driving through the open sea, passing through arching rainbows that touched the waves".

In 1992, the Government of Peru granted her Peruvian nationality in recognition of her work carried out through 50 years. In 1993 she was honored by the Government with the Medal of Merit, "Orden del Sol" in the degree of Great Cross by the Peruvian Prime Minister. She was buried in Nazca with Honors of State.

During her life she received numerous honors and acknowledgement, especially from the town of Nazca that named her "Nazca's Favorite Daughter".

Reiche, “the lady of the desert”, was to make the study of the Nazca lines her life’s work until her death in 1998.

He was joined by Maria Reiche, a German mathematician and archaeologist to help figure out the purpose of the Nazca Lines.

Paul Kosok, a historian from Long Island University, is credited as the first scholar to seriously study the Nazca Lines. In 1940 he flew over the lines and realized that one was in the shape of a humming bird.

Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general they ascribe religious significance to them.

The Nazca "drew" several hundred simple but huge curvilinear animal and human figures by this technique. The area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometres

When the reddish-brown iron oxide-coated pebbles that cover the surface are removed the light-colored clay earth which is exposed in the bottom of the trench produces lines which contrast sharply in color and tone with the surrounding land surface. This sublayer contains high amounts of lime which, with the morning mist, hardens to form a protective layer that shields the lines from winds, thereby preventing erosion.

The scholar Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky has reproduced the figures by using tools and technology available to the Nazca people. The National Geographic called his work "remarkable in its exactness" when compared to the actual lines. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of people could recreate even the largest figures within days, without any aerial assistance.

One such stake was carbon-dated and was the basis for establishing the age of the design complex.

The Nazca people used simple tools and surveying equipment to construct the lines. Wooden stakes have been found still in the ground at the end of some lines, which support the theory.

Most of the complex has been perfectly preserved. The largest figures are over 200 metres (660 ft) across.

The Nazca Lines are thought to have been created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD.

The lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered and visible to the present day.

The Nazca desert is one of the driest on Earth and maintains a temperature around 25 °C (77 °F) all year round.

En route to Lima over the Nazca desert in Southern Peru, passengers reported seeing strange images – gigantic geoglyphs - on the high plateau that stretches more than 80 kilometres between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana about 400 km south of Lima.

The Americas route took in all of the major cities.

Panam was the first airline to carry passengers to the Caribbean and South America using the giant flying clippers.

In the 1930's international air travel literally took off.

NAZCA