June 23rd, 2016: Nazca Peru

[xoxoxoBruce]

A lot of Peru is pretty dry, a lot of desert where the rain that does fall sinks in too fast for surface plants to thrive.
The city of Nazca in the desert between the mountains and the coast is probably most famous for the Nazca Lines.

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The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru.
They were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The high, arid plateau stretches more than 50 mi
between cities and are more than 2000 years old. Many of the figures can only be seen from high altitude in an
airplane, and the hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders,
monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas, llamas, and lizards. To make the designs, top layer of reddish stones where removed
to display the white desert floor beneath it. The true significance of the Nazca lines is still unknown today, however
several theories about its existence have sparked the interest of travelers.

This means people lived there, and people need water to survive.

Dotting the landscape across the dry valleys of southern Peru, near the city of Nazca, an area famous for the
mysterious Nazca lines, are large spiraling, rock-lined holes that lead to an underground network of ancient aqueducts.
These aqueducts form part of a sophisticated hydraulic system containing trenches, tunnels and wells —known
collectively as puquios— that bring water from underground aquifers up to the surface for domestic and agricultural use.

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The most visible part of the system are the spiraling, funnel-shaped holes called ojos. On the surface of the ground,
the opening of the conical ojos can be as wide as 15 meters. At the bottom they are about a meter or two across.
Aside from providing access to the water in the tunnels, they also served as entrances to the tunnels for cleaning and
maintenance, a task that continues up to the present day. The wells also let wind into the canals and force the water
through the system.

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The existence and purpose of these aqueducts have been known to archeologists for a long time, but their age has
been a mystery. Because these wells were made from the same materials as the surrounding terrain, it is impossible
to carbon date them.

There were some pretty smart people to figure this system out, and a lot of work to construct it.
I wonder if they had slaves... or maybe everyone was a slave.

link and link

[Snakeadelic]

The only slavery in the Andean highlands is the fact that the human body is forced to adapt to the environment rather than the other way around. From what I've read and watched, these folks do not leave home in part because lower altitudes and the thicker, wetter air down here make them pretty ill--reverse altitude sickness is just as bad as the kind lowlanders climbing Everest must avoid.

With no technological distractions in much of the altiplano and similar areas, building a well access like that is the kind of thing a whole village would get together on; I can't imagine it taking them long to finish once everyone had their job to do--dig, collect rocks, shore up with rocks, etc. These are people who STILL gather salt by wading into water caustic enough to eat their clothing and shoveling the crystallized excess up into heaps to dry. Or by just sawing through a six-inch-deep salt crust and cutting it into blocks, which are transported by llama.

I watch too many documentaries, don't I?

[xoxoxoBruce]

You have to take a break from the porn once in a while, and documentaries are a good distraction.

[Gravdigr]

Take a break from porn?

What is this madness of which you speak?

[xoxoxoBruce]

7 Days makes a hole week.