Nazca Lines

Nazca lines (geoglyphs) is one of the most unusual places in the world. They were  first seen by the passengers of the regular flight Lima - Arequipa in 1920s. It is not surprising that they have not been found before as some of the figures have length of more then 200 meters.

BBC documentary about the Nazca lines

Scientists still do not know who made them, when and why. We only know that they were created before the Incas, probably even BC. At the moment, the research of the lines is not conducted, but they are guarded very carefully.

Panamericana highway is passed across the Nazca plateau. There is small tower on it which offers a view of some figures.


But the real extreme is a flight over the lines on the plane. Thousands of tourists come to Nazca with this purpose. It is better to fly early in the morning, so you need to spend the night in Nazca. We stayed at the guesthouse B&B El Jardin (booking.com). Just keep in mind that it can only be found by the coordinates (S 014° 49.416, W 74° 55.897).


Upon arrival to the city buy tickets for the flight at the center, there are many agencies there. The price includes delivery from the hotel to the airport and back. We bought tickets in the airport for $70 per person without delivery, as we had our car. Usual ticket costs $80-85 + $8 airport tax.

Before going to Nazca, you need to know two important things.

Prepare to real sickness in the plane. At the beginning, it will be normal, but by the end of the flight, you will forget about the figures and will only think of the toilet :) We did not eat in the morning and took pills.


The second important point is safety. The airplane on which we flew, fell down in the next flight! This is not a joke. Fortunately, nobody died as the plane fell from 5 meters after take-off, here's a video of the crashed airplane. However, in the previous years, there were several fatal falls. The plane owners were obliged to carefully check the planes, but, as we see, it does not help.

So, take in to the account these two facts.

In general, here they are - the Nazca lines:


















Getting there: the location of Nazca is very inconvenient. There are frequent minibuses from Ica (2-3 hours, $4). A few night buses from Cuzco (14 hours) and Arequipa (9 hours), prices from $20 to $55, and a lot of buses from Lima (6-8 hours). Find here timetable of the buses to/from Nazca. The newest option is Peru Hop, the tourist buses that stop in many places, and you can use any of them. Check their website for information: http://www.peruhop.com.