In the afternoon of our Nazca day we had the option to visit Chauchilla Cemetery, the remains of a pre-Inca cemetery in the dessert from around 1000 to 1300 AD.

We had a few stops on our way to the cemetery (roughly 30kms from Nazca); Hilda, our local guide, gave us some good introductions to the local flora and fauna (including some explanations on cochineal red and a local tree).

When we finally arrived at the cemetery, it was pretty obvious that grave robbers had been here first; bone shards and clothes fragments could be seen anywhere around the cemetery.

The Nazca Lines are one of those wonders, where no-one actually knows how, when and why they are here. As usual there are plenty of theories, including some that even involve extraterrestrials…

The most likely scenario though seems to be, that the lines have been created by several people over centuries and millennia – with the earliest culture dating back to as far as 900 b.c. and the youngest to around 600 a.d.

The question about their purpose also returns an array of possibilities – from being an astronomical calendar, running tracks – to signs for extraterrestrials… Just have a look yourself.