9/9: Nasca lines

[Joe]

Those would make really poor landing strips, they are too long,too thin and too rough. Any craft slow enough to tolerate the rough surface wouldn't need all those miles of length, any craft fast enough to need the length wouldn't be able to take landing on dirt and rocks. And they cut across the drainages, meaning they're going to be really uneven.

I bet they're some kind of primitive highway system put in place to make walking efficient across such a harsh desert. Notice how they seem to go to obvious passes before the farm country. People would leave that area carrying water, and want the absolute best route to get across the desert.

You can walk a really straight line by fixing some kind of marker to your head (hang it off your sombrero?), and lining it up on a distant target. As your marker doesn't move on your head, and the target doesn't move, and you keep them lined up, you'll walk a straight line.