Flying over Southern Peru, you may look down to see a flat red land covered in white sketches of hummingbirds, fish, monkeys, dogs, and plants. They're simple line drawings, but they're huge. Some of the biggest are nearly 270 meters! Who made them? Why?
Experts believe the huge pictures, called Nazca Lines, were built by the Nazca people of ancient Peru. They aren't certain when the lines were made but they estimate between 200 BC and AD 600. The drawings are so huge and beautiful that some people believe that the ancient Nazca people couldn't have made them. They believe the Nazca Lines are clear signs that aliens or people from more advanced civilizations visited the Nazca people and helped them. There is no
other evidence for this theory. Many other experts and scientists have experimented using the tools of the Nazca people, and they've shown that the Nazca really could have made the lines themselves.
The lines and drawings must have been hard to organize but relatively easy to make. The basic process was to clear away the red stones that covered the desert to show the white earth below. That's why, from far away, the lines look lighter than the land. This brings us to another question: why would the Nazca people build huge figures that could only be seen from the sky? Perhaps the drawings were for their gods, looking down from the sky. Other theories say that the lines pointed to stars and planets, or to sources of water. However, there is no complete agreement on the purpose of the lines.
As with many ancient monuments, we may never be able to say how or why, but we can still appreciate their beauty and marvel at the accomplishments of our ancestors.
飛越秘魯南方時，你往下看或許會看到一片平坦的紅色土地，地上覆蓋著蜂鳥、魚、猴子、狗及植物的白色圖畫。這些只是簡單的線條畫，但圖案巨大，其中最大的有近270公尺長！它們是誰畫的？又為何而畫？
專家相信這些稱為「納斯卡線」的巨大圖畫是由古秘魯的納斯卡人所畫的，他們不確定這些線條是在何時畫成的，但他們估計是在西元前200年至西元600年間。這些圖畫巨大而美麗，有些人認為古納斯卡人不可能畫得出來。他們相信，是外星人或來自其他先進文明的人類，曾造訪納斯卡人，並幫助他們，納斯卡線顯然證明了這點，但沒有其他證據能證實這項理論。其他許多專家及科學家，曾利用納斯卡人的工具來實驗，證明了納斯卡人的確有可能自行做出這些線條畫。
這些線條和圖在布局安排上很困難，但要做起來相對容易。基本過程是將覆蓋沙漠的紅色岩石移開，使下方的白色地表顯露出來，這也就是為什麼從遠方看時線條比土地更明亮的原因。這使我們想起另一個問題：納斯卡人為何要打造從空中才看得到的巨大圖案？或許這是讓他們的神能俯瞰這些圖案。有些理論則主張這些線條指著星星及行星或水源。然而，人們對建造這些線條的目的，無法取得完全的共識。
就像許多古蹟一般，我們或許永遠無法找出其建造的方式或原因，但我們仍能欣賞它們的美，並驚歎我們祖先的成就。
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