All language subtitles for Truthseekers.S01E04.Nazca.Lines.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

[narrator] A team of
truthseekers is on a mission.

Scientists. Historians. Archaeologists.

All on the trail
of history's enigmas.

Searching for the truth

behind the greatest mysteries

known to humanity.

Carved into
the Peruvian landscape.

Something unnatural.

Something otherworldly.

Monumental geoglyphs painted
across the dark desert floor.

We know them today

as the Nazca Lines.

But how were such monumental
images created?

Who was responsible?

And most importantly of all,
why did they do it?

In London, our team assemble.

Our four truthseekers combine

decades of experience
in different fields.

But they all have one goal.

To apply their knowledge,
and reveal the truth.

There are mysteries,
and then there are mysteries.

I have always loved uncovering
the secrets of the past.

We need to go back and unpick
the untruths from the truths.

Age-old problems that we've
been asking ourselves

for over 100 years, really,
can now be solved.

[narrator] They'll follow
the clues left behind.

Unravel the secrets
of the past.

Separate fact from fiction.

And together,
they'll uncover the truth

behind the greatest
mysteries ever.

[epic music playing]

[dramatic music
playing softly]

[dramatic music builds]

[narrator] It was 1927.

An archaeologist
was conducting a dig

at a burial site
in Southern Peru.

One day, he took a walk
among the hills

that surrounded his excavation.

As he climbed to the top
of a high dune,

the windless rocky desert
spread out before him.

Looking down
over the arid landscape,

the archaeologist spotted
something strange.

As he looked closer,
he saw lines.

Some straight,

but others curled
through the desert

with geometric precision.

Put together, they almost
looked like a picture.

[epic music playing]

That day was the beginning
of a mystery

that has intrigued and baffled
scientists for generations.

[epic music continues]

Later flights
over the Peruvian desert

revealed hundreds
of ancient geoglyphs,

pictures carved into the earth.

[epic music continues]

[Fern] What I find
so fascinating

about the Nazca Lines,
it's not just

how they were created,

but all the mistakes
that we have made

as modern-day experts

in trying to explain them.

[epic music continues]

[narrator] Why scratch these
vast images into the earth

when they could only be seen
properly from the sky?

[epic music crescendos,
then fades]

[contemplative music playing]

[no audible dialog]

[Karen] As an anthropologist,
one of the things

that most intrigues me
about the Nazca Lines

is that they're actually
not a unique phenomenon,

this idea of artwork created
on the Earth's surface itself.

We see them across cultures
and through time.

But I always want to know why
an individual culture did it.

Why did the Nazca
create these lines?

It's not just one monument,

but it's actually
hundreds of monuments

that are built on
massive scale.

And they stand out even
on satellite imagery.

You can see it,
you can effectively see

these lines from space.

We're going
to naturally wonder,

what is this? What are they?

Why are they--
where were they built?

And who built them?

[Tony] These strange lines
clearly tell some kind of story

with all those
fascinating images,

but it's something we're
still trying to decipher.

There are many theories
about what these people

were actually trying
to say or convey

in these very kind of
alien images.

[narrator] Tony McMahon has
been taking a closer look

at the site
and its earliest explorers.

[pan flute music playing]

[engines rumbling]

[light, rhythmic percussion
music playing]

The Nazca Lines are located
in southern Peru,

about 400 kilometers south
of the capital Lima.

They're located
on a high-level desert plateau

between two rivers.

[light, rhythmic percussion
music continues playing]

[narrator] Many of the lines
are simple narrow paths

that radiate outwards
for kilometers,

like spokes on a wheel,

connecting with each other
in a giant web.

Elsewhere are vast
geometric shapes,

triangles and trapezoids

hundreds of meters across.

But Nazca is most famous

for its smaller
and more complex figures.

Animals, birds, and insects,

creatures both real

and imagined.

[Tony] The Geoglyphs
include a hummingbird,

a spider, a monkey

with a very large,
spiraling tail,

some of these creatures
native to the area,

and some of them
from much further away.

[narrator] Animals
like the monkey are found

in rainforests far from Nazca.

How and why their pictures

came to be scraped
into the desert floor

is a mystery.

Who were the travelers
that brought knowledge

of these creatures?

Who were these geoglyphs
actually for?

[Tony] None of the lines
were hidden,

and there's
the perfect conditions

for their preservation.

There's little rainfall,

it's dry,

40 kilometers from the coast.

So, the lines were there
waiting to be discovered

when the Spanish conquistadors
arrived in the 16th century.

[wind gusting]

[foreboding music playing]

[narrator] These European
soldier-explorers

crossed the Atlantic
to expand the Spanish Empire

into the Americas.

But for the indigenous people,
it quickly became a nightmare.

The conquistadors destroyed
the Aztecs in Mexico

and the Inca further south.

[tense music playing]

- [cannons booming]
- [shouting]

Among their
newly-conquered lands

were the high plains
in Southern Peru

where they found a desert
marked with strange lines.

[Tony] In the accounts
by the conquistadors,

they describe the Nazca Lines

as trail markers or roads.

Now, sadly,
the invading Spanish

didn't just bring war
and a new religion

and new technologies
to this part of the world,

they also brought disease

with catastrophic effects.

[mournful flute music
playing]

The indigenous population
had no immunity

to illnesses like smallpox
and typhus.

Devastating epidemics

ripped through
the ancient communities.

Within a generation of the fall
of the Inca Empire in 1572,

the Nazca valley
was almost empty.

This human suffering

essentially wiped out
the local people,

wiped out their culture,

their monuments,
which were torn down,

and that knowledge
of what these lines were about,

that was completely
wiped out.

[narrator]
It seemed that the Nazca

and the riddle of
the lines in the desert

were doomed to be forgotten.

But then, in the 19th century,

an unseen style of pottery
from South America

began to appear
in European museums.

Where exactly they came from
was a mystery,

but their complex motifs
and startling, vivid colors

captured the imagination
of scholars

working in a new field
of science.

Archaeology.

Archaeology was still
in its infancy

when, in the early 1900s,
the German scholar Max Ula

came to the area
investigating pots.

And he found them
in the south of Peru.

[narrator]
More archaeologists followed.

They began to piece together
evidence of an ancient culture

that lived between
the Andes Mountain range

and the Pacific Ocean.

They named them the Nazca.

It wasn't until the 1920s

that the Peruvian archaeologist
Toribio Mejia Xesspe

worked out what the lines were.

Initially, they just seemed
to be paths to nowhere.

But it was while
hiking in the hills

that he realized what
the Nazca Lines actually were.

[anticipatory music builds]

[narrator] The true scale
of the pictures

could only be seen
from above.

Soon, planes were chartered

to fly over the desert
with photographers on board.

Their pictures

and the mysterious carvings
they revealed

became global news.

[Tony] The photographs showed a
kind of confusing entanglement

of lines stretching
in different directions

for many kilometers.

And in between
and over those lines

were these strange geoglyphs
of animals and birds.

[narrator] More archaeologists
were soon journeying to Peru

to try to unravel
the mystery of the lines.

They concluded that
the people who once lived here

appeared to possess only
rudimentary technology

and no written language.

How did they manage to construct
such precise drawings?

[Tony] What the archaeologists
began to figure out

was that these ancient Nazca
had scraped away

the reddish-brown pebbles
at ground level,

revealing the kind of
yellowy undersurface.

And this was
a painstaking process.

The creation
of these long lines

over such huge distances

really wasn't that complex
for an ancient civilization.

Essentially, you
place two sticks in the ground

and somebody stands there
and guides another person

on where to put
the third stake.

And so it keeps going
on and on.

There's even evidence of this
been found at Nazca

with the remnants of stakes

at the ends of some
of these lines.

[narrator] A modern experiment
proved even complex shapes

could be made
with such techniques.

A group of archaeologists
in the 1980s

decided to test
their own theory

about how these people
could have created

these geoglyphs.

And they, within a period

of about an hour and a half,

managed to create
a 35-meter spiral.

So, if you want,
something similar

to the tail of that monkey.

[narrator] The experiment
showed that the Nazca

didn't need to have great
geometry or engineering skills

to create the lines
in the desert.

[narrator] There are
over 1,300 kilometers of lines

etched into the earth over an
area of 50 square kilometers.

They are usually
only a few centimeters deep,

and no more than
half a meter wide.

They differ in placement
and style,

with only 70 of the iconic
zoomorphic designs

and hundreds more geometric.

It's clear that these weren't
the focus of a given period

or a whim
of a single ruling elite.

These geoglyphs
were carved into the earth

over a period of 1,000 years

and held a key place in Nazca

and wider Andean Culture.

But there was no obvious answer

to the greatest
question of all.

Why the lines had been made.

[Tony] The most curious aspect
of the Nazca Lines

is that you have these lines

which are straight
and intersect each other,

and then you have these
geoglyphs overlaying them.

Now, does this all
have one purpose,

or was there one reason
for the straight lines

and another for the images
of animals and birds?

[narrator] In the decades

since the first lines
were rediscovered,

archaeologists have found
hundreds of carvings

among the rocks and hills
at Nazca.

In recent years,
modern technology

such as drones
and 3D scanning

have identified yet more,

some of them barely visible
to the naked eye.

With each new discovery,

the mystery
of the Nazca Lines deepens.

There's still
a huge amount to be found.

After all, we have
these enormous drawings

made by these ancient people
over a vast period of time,

and we still don't understand,

why did they do it?

[narrator] The Nazca Lines
have been measured

and cataloged
with scientific precision.

We now know for sure
how they were made.

But the bigger mystery,

what we don't know yet,

is why,

and who,

or what for?

[contemplative music playing]

[narrator] In South Peru,

between the Andes mountains

and the Pacific Ocean,

there once lived a people

we now know as the Nazca.

For centuries,
they carved images and shapes

onto the parched hillsides
and deserts of their homeland.

But by the modern age,

the Nazca civilization

had long since fallen.

Their secrets had been lost

and their great works of art forgotten.

In London, the team of
archaeologists and historians

are gathering evidence

and examining the
different theories

that might explain why
this ancient people

built the Nazca Lines.

[no audible dialog]

Dr. Mark Altaweel is
an expert in data analysis,

using the latest tools and
technology to examine the past.

[Mark] What I find interesting
about the Nazca Lines

is the fact that they can
create such scale.

That they had
such wonderful symbolism.

It's not just simple creatures,
but they're,

in some ways, mythological.

[music continues]

So, it makes me
really fascinated

in seeing such a diverse
range of geoglyphs,

built at such large scale.

[narrator] Ever since
the rediscovery

of the lines in the 1920s,

mapping and categorizing
them has been the mission

of many archaeologists
in the region.

One of the first major studies
began in the early 1940s.

It was led by
an American Professor

from Long Island University

named Paul Kosok.

He's a historian by background,

but he trains himself
to be an archaeologist,

and one of the things
he's really fascinated

is trying to bring
new technologies,

new techniques to understand
archaeological problems.

And at this time,
aerial archaeology,

what we would call today
"remote sensing,"

was just beginning.

And he wanted to have airplanes

help solve some of
these mysteries.

[narrator] In June 1941,
Kosok was in Peru

researching the irrigation
systems of ancient cultures,

when he heard about
the strange lines

carved into the desert
further south.

He decided to
investigate further.

[pensive music playing]

His first theory,
really, was that

Nazca Lines somehow
were ditches

that were used as a way
to irrigate the landscape.

This is a very dry part
of South America.

Irrigation would have been
a key technology

that would be used
for agriculture.

[narrator] With only
four millimeters

of rainfall per year,
the Nazca Valley

is one of the most arid
regions on the planet,

with average temperatures in
the high 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

With very little cloud cover,
access to fresh water

would be critical to maintaining
a healthy population

and avoiding annual drought,
malnutrition, and starvation.

But this remote
and seemingly hostile region

also had some
natural advantages.

Caught between the cold Pacific
Ocean and the high Andes,

any mountain rainfall would need
to pass through this valley

on its journey to the sea.

Perhaps the water channels

would have taken water from
the mountaintops, for instance,

down into the valley.

But, once you come close
to these lines, practically,

you don't really see how they
could have been water channels.

They're quite shallow,
they're not very deep.

They're not really dug
that deep, really,

into the landscape.

[music builds, then fades]

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] Professor Kosok
soon developed

another theory, however.

He happened to be on the site
of the winter solstice,

the shortest day of the year.

That was when
he noticed something.

He was standing by
the hummingbird drawing.

He saw that as the sun dipped
towards the horizon,

it aligned directly with
the beak of the hummingbird.

It gave him an idea.

[Mark] And he looked at the
beak area, and he noticed

that this line was
quite straight.

That, potentially, it may
actually align with the stars,

that there may be
some kind of relationship,

not necessarily what's going on
with irrigation on Earth,

but rather the night sky
and the stars themselves

and other, sort of, astronomical

kinds of features
or observations.

After some time,
he put this idea together

that perhaps not just
the hummingbird,

but rather all geoglyphs,

were basically trying
to tell a story

of when to harvest,
when to plant.

That they were effectively
an instruction manual

communicating with the stars.

[narrator] Professor Kosok
began mapping the Nazca Lines.

But when he left Peru after
his final expedition in 1948,

his work was unfinished.

It was taken up
by his assistant,

an adventurous woman
from Germany

called Maria Reiche.

[Mark] She had come to Peru
to be a tutor

for the children
of diplomats from

the German Embassy,
at the time.

She was highly educated.

Gifted in understanding

astronomy, mathematics,

and a number
of different languages.

And because of World War II,

she had to, effectively,
stay in Peru.

But there, she fell in love
with the landscape,

and she also had a chance
to meet with Paul Kusak.

She got to know the Nazca Lines

and the archaeology
of the region,

and, eventually,
she took over.

And then she carries on
his legacy and his work.

[narrator] Maria Reiche
continued her studies at Nazca

for the next 40 years,

measuring and documenting every
geoglyph she could find.

She lived alone in a tiny
house out in the desert.

She took flights over the lines
by plane and helicopter.

If they weren't available,

she would just climb a ladder.

Anything for a better view.

[Mark] Maria Reich
becomes really obsessed

with the Nazca Lines.

Now, Maria Reich
was, of course,

a gifted archaeologist.

But she was also able to bring
her skills and training

that she had learned
as a young woman,

which were mathematics
and astronomy.

So she brings
all these skills together,

and after some time, she
develops Paul Kosak's theory,

which is that, not only
are these geoglyphs

really part of a vast
astronomical book,

but rather,
the geoglyphs are representing

entire constellations.

That they're basically
groups of stars.

[narrator] She may have led
a hermit's existence,

but Maria Reiche
had an instinct for publicity.

Her story of a charismatic
and eccentric loner

dedicating her life to these
mysterious lines in the desert

captured the imagination
of the public.

She wrote a book about
her work called,

The Mystery on the Desert.

[no audible dialog]

The profits from the book

were put to good use.

Reiche hired security guards

to protect the Nazca Lines

and lobbied
the Peruvian government

to ensure their preservation.

It was greatly through her work

that the Nazca Lines
were recognized

as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
in 1994.

Reiche's efforts catapulted
her theories to global fame.

But there were those
who had their doubts.

Were the Nazca Lines really
a map of the stars?

In the 1960s,

Reiche's theories were
put to the test.

The American astronomer
Gerald Hawkins

analyzed the Nazca Lines

using what was then
ground-breaking technology.

A computer.

His software included
star positions

dating back thousands of years.

He was able to compare this data
with the Nazca Lines.

According to Reiche's theories,

Hawkins should have
found a match.

He determined that the stars
had, obviously,

had moved significantly from
where they are today,

but that the alignment
with the Nazca Lines

doesn't really work out
very well.

In fact, it's quite random.

Some lines sort of
match the stars.

Other lines clearly do not.

So this representation
the Nazca Lines gave

that they were
aligned with the stars

doesn't really work out,

and it's just a kind of

random mix, really.

[dramatic violin music playing]

[music fades]

[pensive music playing]

[narrator] In 1996,
Donald Proulx,

a Professor of Anthropology

from the University
of Massachusetts,

traveled to South America.

He came to Nazca to conduct
preliminary research

for an archaeological survey.

There, he met another American,

a man named David Johnson.

He was a teacher from New York.

He was in Peru
helping local communities

find water in the dry desert.

[Mark] In fact, the villagers
in Peru had asked him

to come help them find water
in their villages.

So, Proulx gets quite excited
when he meets him

because he begins to talk about
the importance of water,

and perhaps that
these geoglyphs

were associated with water
in some way.

There seems to be a kind
of correlation between

certain ancient water features
with geoglyphs.

[narrator]
Professor Proulx agreed

to help Johnson investigate.

Their work led to a new theory
to explain the Nazca Lines.

One different
to any suggested before.

[Mark] They become fascinated
with these features

called "puquios,"
basically these kind of

spiraling-looking features
on the landscape,

which are basically
underground water channels

that were built
by ancient people,

Nazca people and others,

to channel water
across the landscape.

Now, there's an association
of subterranean water

as well as the puquios,
with geological fault lines.

So the idea is that
the geoglyphs may have

actually acted as
a kind of marker

or a feature in the landscape

that would indicate where

subterranean water
could be found.

A kind of map, if you will,
of where one should look.

[narrator] Johnson suggested
that the large trapezoids

indicated channels
under the earth

where groundwater
could be found.

Zigzag patterns
showed the boundaries

of the water flow.

And triangular geoglyphs

pointed to the sources
of the water themselves.

[Mark] The idea that
there's a kind of geological

or even physical map

of where underground water
would lie

is not that unheard of.

In fact, we do the same thing.

The importance of water
is really paramount,

so what we do is
we often mark these areas

where underground water
can be found.

So, why not expect
ancient people to have a map

that would indicate
where water sources were?

[pensive music playing]

[narrator] With funding from the
National Geographic Society,

in 1998, Proulx and Johnson
took a team to Nazca

to test the theory.

They investigated sites
all over the Nazca region.

It was the first time in history

that such a survey
had taken place there.

[Mark] Now, Proulx was quite
intrigued by this hypothesis.

But thankfully, in many ways,
he's a true scientist,

and that meant that
he created these hypotheses

based on these ideas.

So, he got together
a multidisciplinary team,

and he went to the field
using multidisciplinary

kinds of methods
to test out these ideas.

Not just accept them,
but simply test them,

one by one, to see if they work.

[narrator]
They worked long hours

in the searing heat
of this barren land.

They had all the data
they needed

and took it back to America
for analysis.

But just like many
archaeologists before them,

their theory wasn't
scientifically provable.

Now, statistically
at least,

there's no strong relationship

between the underground water
and the geoglyphs.

However, it doesn't mean
that relationship doesn't exist.

It's possible that the geoglyphs
have multiple purposes,

and so some of the geoglyphs
may have been, in fact,

markers for underground water.

[narrator]
But if the Nazca Lines

were not a map to the heavens

or to fresh water,

then what were they?

One truthseeker believes
the truth is to be found

in the Nazca people themselves.

Who were they?

Why did they carve these lines

in the desert?

Who were they trying
to communicate with?

[pensive music playing]

Scraped into the deserts
of Southern Peru,

the huge engravings

are one of the world's
great unsolved mysteries.

There are countless theories
about who made them,

and why.

[no audible dialog]

Anthropologist
Dr. Karen Bellinger

has been investigating
the ancient people

who may have carved the lines.

[Karen] When most people
think about

pre-Columbian South America,

the Inca pop to mind immediately,

and for good reason.

They created these
monumental sites

such as Machu Picchu

and their capital city
of Cusco.

But it's really important
to realize

that the Inca were
a flash in the pan

compared to the people
who constructed the Nazca Lines.

They were around
for 1,000 years

before the Inca rose and fell,

and so if we want
to understand the Nazca Lines,

we've got to examine
that civilization.

[pensive music playing]

[narrator] Around 1,200 BC,

an ancient Peruvian people,
now known as Paracas,

arose in a coastal region
just north of Nazca.

They were farmers and artists,

famed for
their colorful pottery

and intricately-embroidered
textiles.

The Paracas
left no written records.

But they did leave a wealth
of archaeological evidence

in the form of
subterranean burial chambers,

which housed mummy bundles
and artifacts

that were preserved perfectly
for 2,000 years,

because of the dryness
of the desert environment.

From excavations,
we know now that the Paracas

never built the kind of grand,
monumental architecture

that we associate
with the Incas.

But they had
an incredibly sophisticated

artistic tradition,

which reached its pinnacle
in incredible textiles

and ceramic production.

[gulls crying]

[narrator] But it wasn't just
with pottery and textiles

that the ancient Paracas
expressed themselves.

They also carved images
into the earth.

It is during
the Paracas period

that we see the emergence
of geoglyphs in this area.

They tend to be
on the smaller side,

often human topics,

and carved into hillsides.

[narrator] In around
the 3rd century BC,

groups of Paracas
migrated south.

In the valleys of Nazca,

they settled in tiny villages

on the banks of the Rio Grande.

There, they lived and flourished
for the next 800 years.

[Karen] The Nazca
were primarily farmers.

They grew corn, potatoes,
peppers, beans, and cotton.

But they also were located
near enough to the sea

that they could exploit those
resources for easy protein.

[narrator] But they took
their old Paracas traditions

with them as well.

The Nazca inherited

the Paracas
artistic traditions,

and continued them
in textiles and ceramics.

They also inherited
the Paracas tradition

of etching drawings
into the earth.

And here is where the Nazcas
really outdid themselves.

By the 1st century AD,

the Nazca were their own
distinct cultural group,

and that was reflected
in the lines

they were drawing
on the ground.

[narrator] Instead of digging
into the hillside,

the Nazca began carving images

into the desert floor itself.

It was a vast blank canvas
for the Nazca,

and it was in between
the geographical

boundaries of their lives,

the mountain and the sea.

It is on this canvas
that we see a shift

from smaller, more human forms

to larger, often animal forms.

Well, it seems to have
coincided with

the emergence of a new,
unified Nazca religion.

[narrator] Just south
of the Nazca plains

lies the temple city
of Cahuachi.

For centuries,
it was the ceremonial heart

of Nazca life.

The site contains
more than 40 mounds,

natural hills that the Nazca
adapted to their needs.

Some were used for burials.

Others, for religious ceremonies.

They were topped
with buildings

and surrounded by walls
and passageways,

plazas, and platforms.

We don't know exactly how
Nazca society was organized,

but what does seem clear
is that

it was a group
of individual tribes

that were unified not by
a single political authority,

but rather by
a shared belief system.

[narrator] The Nazca believed
that supernatural forces

controlled the elements
and the fates of humans.

[Karen] They believed that
powerful mythical creatures

controlled the
availability of water,

and thus the viability
of agriculture.

[man chanting
in foreign language]

[narrator] Shamans were
the intermediaries

with the spirit world.

They used hallucinogenic drugs

to induce visions,

and they led the rituals

where offerings were presented

to the gods.

[unsettling music playing]

These included pottery.

Animal sacrifice.

Smashed panpipes,

and human heads.

Archaeologists have recovered
dozens of severed heads

at the site of Cahuachi.

And they show evidence

for having been
very deliberately processed

in a uniform way.

The soft tissue, the brains,

have all been removed,

and the lips are sewn shut

with cactus spines.

And holes have been drilled
in the foreheads

to permit them
to be strung along on a rope.

Headless skeletons
have been found

which show clear cut marks

in the spinal column
near the skull.

And that would have been done
with obsidian knives,

it would have been slow-going
and brutally hard work.

Contrary to early beliefs

that these victims
must have been war enemies,

the DNA testing shows that
they're Nazca people.

This is evidence for, likely,
human sacrifice.

[men chanting
in foreign language]

[narrator]
Human sacrifice was common

among the ancient peoples
of the Andes.

For the Nazca,
the rituals of decapitation

appear to have been linked
to renewal and fertility.

[Nazca chant continues]

[Karen] There's iconography
showing plant life

growing out of the mouths
of these trophy heads

depicted in textiles
and ceramics.

These are farmers
in a very harsh land.

They're caught on a desert
between the mountains

and the sea,

and they've got to ensure,

however possible,

that water is available
for their crops to grow.

So this becomes a clear way

in which they hoped
to propitiate the gods

and beg for their blessing
in the form of water.

[narrator] Many scholars today
believe the Nazca Lines

were part of the same web
of ritual and belief.

Given how close
the Cahuachi complex is

to many of the Nazca Lines,

there's got to be
a correlation between the two.

[narrator]
Rituals that involve

walking along set lines
to holy places

is still a feature of indigenous
communities in Peru today.

Such pilgrimages were likely
a part of Nazca life as well.

There's one amazing
figural work of ceramics,

and it depicts what has been
interpreted as a family

walking in procession

with dogs dancing around them,

and with birds perched
on their shoulders.

Possible offerings
to be made.

[narrator] The Nazca
journeyed to Cahuachi

for ritual feasts
and gatherings,

traveling from settlements
in the mountains

and at the coast.

Many of those routes
would have taken them

through the desert
of the Nazca Lines.

[Karen] The lines depicting
the hummingbird,

the monkey, the killer whale,

they correspond
to ceramic motifs,

and they symbolize
the powerful forces

of air, earth, and water.

[narrator] There is
considerable evidence

of human activity
among the Lines.

Broken pottery and panpipes,

animal offerings,

and even possible remains

of building structures.

[Karen] It's possible that
the lines were sacred paths,

taken by the Nazca on
their pilgrimage to Cahuachi.

They're about the width
of a footpath,

and there are many
in straight lines.

And, in fact,
people looking at them

have identified
compression in the soil

as opposed to the area
outside the line.

And what could have
created that?

People's feet.

[narrator] Were the Nazca Lines
pathways to water,

or to ritual sites to bring
water forth from the gods?

We know that their lives
were precarious.

They lived at the mercy
of the elements,

and the lines were
a response to that.

But that hasn't stopped
other theories taking hold.

Some that will take us
away from Peru,

around the world,

and to planets
beyond our imagination.

[pensive music playing]

The truthseekers
are investigating

one of the world's
most enduring conundrums.

Why did an ancient people
in South America

move tons of earth and stone
in the middle of a desert

to create vast drawings

that they themselves
could barely see?

[pensive music continues]

The Nazca Lines were
rediscovered by modern science

in the early 20th century.

Our team of truthseekers
have learnt much

about the people
who made them.

About their art.

And their religious rituals.

[man chanting
in foreign language]

But despite their efforts,

the purpose of the Nazca Lines
remains a mystery.

In the 1920s, when the lines
were rediscovered,

this really was a period
when we had very little ability

to acknowledge the agency
of indigenous ancient peoples.

There was a real prejudice
towards a belief

that the Nazca could have
produced these lines themselves.

[narrator] Cultural historian
Dr. Fern Riddell

has been researching
the more unusual theories

about the Nazca Lines.

[Fern] We've tried
to understand

how the Nazca could have
created these lines,

without things like airplanes
or helicopters.

Some of these theories
have ranged from the idea

that perhaps the Nazca
invented hot air balloons

and that allowed them
to look down on the Earth.

Or even that
there may have been

a shared ancient code

between, civilizations
like the Babylonians,

the Romans, the Nazca,

that allowed them to construct

these incredible structures.

[narrator] The most famous and
influential of these "theories"

belongs to the Swiss author,
Erich von Daniken.

In 1968, he published a book

called "Chariots of the Gods."

It claimed that
the technologies and religions

of many ancient civilizations

were given to them
by ancient astronauts,

aliens who were welcomed
on earth as gods.

[Fern] Daniken's theory
of alien astronauts

is this belief that alien
civilizations came to Earth

at moments when we were

really at the dawn
of our civilizations.

That they landed and that
they created ancient religions,

and kind of set the human race
on its path.

So, from the Nazca Lines
in South America

to Egypt, to Russia,

we can find, as he felt,

evidence of these alien
civilization's impact on us.

[man talking indistinctly]

[narrator]
Von Daniken's explanation

for the Nazca Lines

was that long ago,

aliens had landed

on the arid desert.

Their spaceships
blasted away the stones,

exposing the
lighter ground beneath,

creating these lines,

and once they left,
the Nazca drew new lines

to encourage their return.

[Fern] Once the alien gods, or
the alien astronauts had left,

the Nazca were desperate
to try and call them back.

So they created
their own markings

in, kind of, retaliation,

to draw the aliens
back to Earth.

These wonderful spiders
and fish

and images that could perhaps
be seen from space.

[narrator] Nevertheless,
von Daniken's book

became a bestseller.

It sold tens of millions
of copies

and made its author
a very wealthy man.

[Fern] When Daniken
is publishing in the 1960s,

this is really the heyday

for our obsession with sci-fi
and with space.

Combined with that, you've got
the counter-cultural

revolution in the West.

Every aspect of life

was being questioned
by New Age beliefs.

You've got a huge change
taking place.

The moon landings,
potential nuclear war,

Watergate, UFO sightings,

all of which told people

that the truth was
being hidden.

That there were
conspiracies out there.

You can understand why,
in that climate,

Von Daniken's book
was so successful.

It was both revolutionary
and reassuring.

It tore down the pillars of
society, history, and religion,

while offering a neat
and comforting explanation

for the mysteries of the world

in a time of upheaval
and change.

[light percussion
music playing]

[narrator] Mainstream
historians and scientists

have long pointed out
the many errors

in von Daniken's work.

But it still finds
new believers,

and it continues
to inspire pop culture.

Hollywood films
such as "Stargate"

and Ridley Scott's 2012
horror "Prometheus"

both owe much
to von Daniken's ideas

of an extra-terrestrial
origin for humanity.

The idea that aliens have had
a hand in our civilization,

in the creation
of our civilization,

is one we're still
fascinated by.

We've really kind of
pushed our own ideas

and our own understanding
of ancient structures

onto the Nazca Lines.

And that hasn't allowed us
to see them

for what they really were.

And that's really
denied the Nazca

their own culture
and their own agency.

[narrator] The Nazca were not
the only ancient people

to etch images
into the earth.

North along the
Pacific Coast from Nazca,

among the foothills
of the Andes Mountains,

what looks like
a giant candelabra

is carved into a hillside.

It is visible for
kilometers out to sea.

Further south, in Chile,
can be found

the largest human geoglyph
in the world.

Etched out of a mountain,

the Giant of Atacama is
a thousand years old

and almost 120 meters long.

And in western Bolivia,

the Sajama Lines
are a network

of thousands of
crisscrossing straight paths

etched into the ground.

They cover an area
15 times larger

than the lines at Nazca.

These ancient geoglyphs
have been found in Russia,

in Kazakhstan, Israel, India,

and even in England, we have
the Huffington white horse.

And they are
an incredible example

that in every culture,

humans have wanted to leave
their marks on the earth.

[narrator] Like
the Nazca Lines, however,

the purpose of these
other carvings into the earth

has long been debated by
scientists and historians.

[Fern] I think
one of the problems

we have in our modern world

is we have to find
a reason for everything.

We can't just allow the lines
to exist for art's sake.

There has to be
a specific construction.

A specific explanation.

And sometimes,

human beings just
like to create.

These lines are clearly trying
to tell us a story,

but we've only been able
to decipher part of it.

It's a tale of human ingenuity,

human sacrifice,

life and death,

on one of the most alien
landscapes on the planet.

[Mark] I wouldn't be surprised
if there are multiple meanings.

Perhaps they're a way
of storytelling.

Perhaps they're just pathways
connecting sites.

Perhaps they are markers
for things like water.

So, I'm happy to believe
all these to some extent.

If we think about
our own monuments,

there isn't just
one meaning to them.

They often change over time.

So, I won't be surprised

if a lot of these ideas

that have been
proposed about them

have some merit of truth.

[Karen] It's only really
in the last century at most

that in-depth research
has been done into the Nazca.

They demonstrated great
sophistication in adapting,

not just to live, but to thrive

in these harsh
desert conditions.

They were truly
remarkable people.

[narrator]
Although they left behind

no great pyramids
or walled cities,

there remains a monument
to these ingenious

and artistic people

in the lines
they carved into the earth.

Lines which have fascinated us
for generations.

Lines which will go on

sparking our curiosity
and our wonder

for many years to come.

[light percussion
music playing]