Day 169 - Nazca, Peru

CHAUCHILLA CEMETERY AND THE NAZCA LINES (19/06/09)

Close to the town of Nazca is the ancient cemetary of Chauchilla. Many graves have been excavated but many more are thought to exist.

The main occupant of each grave is always surrounded by the bones of sacrificial victims.

The buried people were all carefully embalmed. When the graves were originally excavated in the early 1990s the mummies were well preserved but unexpected rainfall later in the decade caused them to get wet and rot away. Remnants of skin and hair can clearly be seen on this skeleton.

The mummies were fully dressed and had many useful items and food buried along with them. They were not believed to be dead and so needed various things to continue their existence.

A selection of the vast variety of objects buried with any one mummy.

In a tiny building next to the open graves are two temperature and humidity controlled cases containing mummies in their original condition. Above is the embalmed body of an infant.

This fully grown adult male is an example of what all the mummies looked like before the disaster that caused their preserved skin to rot away.

After the cemetary we went straight to Nazca´s small airport to catch our tiny aeroplane for a flight over the world famous Nazca lines.

Excitment at the prospect of the flight to come and also because she had two seats to herself.

The other four in the plane also really excited (well maybe not the pilot).

The mysterious Nazca lines were created by removing dark coloured rocks from the surface of the desert to reveal the lighter ones beneath. What makes them so strange is that the people who made them would never have actually seen them since they are only visible from the air. Above is the outline of a condor.

Known simply as "hands".

"Astronaut", this human figure is markedly different in style from the other lines.

"Tree".

"Monkey".

"Spider".

"Hummingbird".

An unnamed spiral.

"Dog". Seeing the Nazca lines was a great experience although the pilots keenness to make sure nobody missed anything meant that we climbed out of the plane feeling decidedly queasy.