In October 2020, archaeologists carrying out maintenance work discovered this giant geoglyph (ground etching) of a cat at the site of the famous Nazca Lines in Peru.
Credit: Jhony Islas, Peru’s Ministry of Culture

This month, archaeologists discovered a catlike figure carved into a hillside in Nazca, Peru. Archaeologists are people who study the remains of past human cultures. The cat is the latest geoglyph (ground etching) to be found in a region famous for its giant designs. The Nazca people marked into the ground these designs, also called the Nazca lines. The Nazca were a Native American culture that lived as early as 100 B.C. to A.D. 800 in the coastal desert of what is now southern Peru. Drawn centuries before such other famous cats as Garfield and the Chesire Cat, this catlike geoglyph illustrates the timeless appeal of our feline friends.

The catlike image in Nazca has pointy ears, round eyes, and a striped tail. It is also engaged in a favorite cat pastime—lounging. Its long body stretches 40 yards (37 meters) on the hillside. The geoglyph is said to date from 200 B.C. to 100 B.C.—making it a lot of cat years old. The cat is believed to be older than the other geoglyphs that have been discovered at Nazca over the years. Archaeologists came across the etching while they were remodeling a section of the hill.

The Nazca made the geoglyphs by removing surface stones and piling them along the edges of the designs. Removing the dark rocks exposed the bright sand beneath. The designs have lasted for centuries in the desert environment, with little rain or wind to wear them away. The geoglyphs can only be seen in full from the air.

Many of the geoglyphs form the outlines of gigantic animals and plants. They include figures of a killer whale, a lizard, a monkey, and a spider. More common are geometric forms, including spirals, straight lines, trapezoids, and triangles. Some of the lines appear to spread outward from small hills, like the spokes of a wheel. The lines stretch for miles or kilometers across the desert. Platforms lie near the bases of many of the trapezoids.

In 1994, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Nazca lines a World Heritage Site. UNESCO gives this designation to areas of unique natural or cultural importance.

Scholars believe that the Nazca lines had several functions. Investigations by scientists indicate that people gathered and walked on the lines. Scholars think that people placed offerings on platforms around the shapes to encourage the nature spirits to provide rain for their crops. The animal designs symbolized the essence of the nature spirits, whereas some of the geometric lines led pilgrims to ritual centers.

In Peru, a unique conservation effort is taking place near the city of Cusco at the Parque de la Papa (Park of the Potato). Located outside the Andes Mountains town of Pisac (or Pisaq), the park celebrates the Peruvian potato, of which there are some 3,000 varieties. The park is also a living tribute to the cultural heritage of the region’s indigenous (native) communities.

Potatoes originated in the highlands of Peru and nearby areas of the Andes Mountains. Credit: © Shutterstock

The Parque de la Papa is administered and farmed by the local Amaru, Chawaytire, Pampallacta, Paru Paru, and Sacaca indigenous communities. Within its grand boundaries—the park covers over 22,000 acres (9,000 hectares)—are grown more than 1,300 varieties of potato native to that area of the Andean highlands. Many potato varieties in the park are found nowhere else in the world. The cultivation of such rare potatoes helps ensure their existence for future generations, as does the park’s sharing of precious seeds with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a long-term seed storage facility in Norway.

The Parque de la Papa demonstrates the ability of potatoes to survive in the region’s harsh but changing conditions. The park sits in the cold and thin air at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) above sea level. Climate change is bringing warmer temperatures, however, forcing farmers still higher to reach the optimum growing environment for some potato varieties.

Peru is home to some 3,000 varieties of potato. Credit: © Shutterstock

Visitors to the park learn about traditional potato cultivation, harvesting, cooking, and storage. They are also treated to delicious local potato dishes. Hiking trails allow people to walk off their meals while also providing panoramic views of the Andean highlands. The Parque de la Papa features a variety of local crafts and products—from cosmetics and teas to medicines and textiles—made from potatoes and other plants native to the area.

A patchwork of potato fields covers this section of the Altiplano, a cold plateau in the Andean highlands. Credit: © Roux Frederic, Shutterstock

The potato originated in the Andes Mountains of South America. Scientists believe cultivated potatoes came from a species that first grew around Lake Titicaca, in what are now Bolivia and Peru. People living there and in surrounding areas were growing potatoes long before Spanish explorers arrived in the early 1500′s. Potatoes were then introduced to Europe and other parts of the world. The nutritious potato became a vital food crop in many regions.

October 4, 2019

Since the beginning of winter in South America (summer in the Northern Hemisphere), more than 200,000 wildfires have struck the Amazon rain forest of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. Some 30 million acres (12 million hectares) of wilderness have been lost in the fires, causing incalculable damage to the environment. The unusually severe fire season was blamed on winds and high temperatures as well as the ancestral practice of chaqueo (slash-and-burn farming). But many fires were thought to have been illegally set to clear land for large corporate agriculture, logging, and mining interests. Blame also fell on lax policing and the weakening of the environmental protection system in Brazil, where most of the fires occurred.

On Aug. 27, 2019, smoke rises above charred trees in the Amazon rain forest of northern Brazil. Credit: © Joao Laet, AFP/Getty Images

Forest fires are common in the Amazon during the dry season, from July to October. The fires are sometimes caused naturally by lightning strikes and exacerbated by drought, but most of the recent fires were probably started by people wanting to clear the land for other uses. There has been a vast increase in large, intense, and persistent fires along major roads in the Amazon, for example, something inconsistent with the randomness of lighting strikes. Climate change too is making the fires worse, as dry seasons in the Amazon become ever dryer, hotter, and longer.

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The Amazon rain forest covers much of northern South America. About two-thirds of the rain forest lies in Brazil. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The fires (and the fire starters) have received divided attention in the Palácio do Planalto, the official workplace of the president of Brazil in Brasília, the capital. There, President Jair Bolsonaro has decreased environmental protections since taking office in January 2019, allowing an increase in deforestation—both legal and illegal, and always a problem—in the Amazon. Bolsonaro too has refused much international aid to help fight the fires, which continue to burn and destroy large portions of the rain forest. Bolsonaro eventually deployed some 44,000 soldiers to help the understaffed firefighters in the rain forest, and he agreed to coordinate firefighting efforts with other Amazonian countries. At the end of August, after the fires had raged for months, Bolsonaro also announced a 60-day ban on the legal setting of fires to clear land.

Deforestation results in the loss of vast areas of tropical rain forest each year. This photograph shows an area of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil that has been destroyed as part of slash-and-burn agriculture. In this method, farmers cut down trees and burn them. The ashes enrich the soil for only a brief period before the nutrients are depleted. The farmers then clear another area of forest. Credit: © Julio Etchart, Alamy Images

All seven Brazilian states that include parts of the Amazon have experienced sharp increases in fire activity in 2019. Numerous wildfires are also consuming alarming amounts of rain forest in the Amazonian regions of Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. The massive number of wildfires has greatly increased emissions of toxic carbon monoxide and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, a leading contributor to global warming. Smoke from the fires has obscured skies and aggravated such health problems as asthma, bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in people throughout the region.

August 9, 2019

On Friday, July 26, the Pan American Games opened in Lima, the capital of Peru. The Pan Am Games, as they are frequently called, are a series of athletic contests patterned after the Olympic Games and sponsored by the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO). PASO is made up of Western Hemisphere nations. The games are held once every four years, usually the year before the summer Olympics. Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra led the opening ceremonies at the Estadio Nacional del Perú in central Lima.

Lima, Peru, is hosting the 2019 Pan American Games from July 26 through August 11. Credit: © Pan American Sports Organization

The 2019 Pan Am Games include more than 6,000 athletes from 41 countries and territories of the Americas (all areas except French Guiana, Greenland, and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon). More than 400 events in 39 sports ranging from archery to wrestling are taking place throughout Lima. The gymnastics and track and field competitions have drawn big crowds, as did the baseball (won by Puerto Rico) and men’s basketball (won by Argentina) tournaments. The most popular event, however, will be showcased tomorrow, August 10, as Argentina and Honduras square off in the men’s soccer (fútbol) gold medal final at Lima’s San Marcos Stadium.

The Pan Am Games wrap up with closing ceremonies on Sunday, August 11. From August 23 to September 1, Lima will also host the Parapan American Games for athletes with a variety of physical limitations.

The Pan American Games were inaugurated after World War II (1939-1945) by the Pan American Sports Congress, which became PASO in 1967, as a way to increase good will among the countries of the Americas. The first Pan American Games were held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1951. Santiago, Chile, will host the next Pan Am Games in 2023.

June 24, 2019

Today, June 24, people in Peru celebrate the Fiesta del Sol (Festival of the Sun, or Inti Raymi in Quechua, the ancient language of the Inca). The festival marks the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, and it is considered the most important day on the Inca calendar. The festival celebrates Inti, the Inca sun god, and begins the new Inca year. Inti Raymi celebrations include elaborate dances, the wearing of colorful costumes, and the sharing of traditional food and drink.

An Inca man displays a colorful quipu, a knotted record-keeping device, during an Inti Raymi procession in Cusco, Peru. Credit: © James Brunker, Alamy Images

The Inca are a native South American people who once ruled one of the largest and richest empires in the Americas. The Inca empire emerged in the early A.D. 1400’s and occupied a vast region centered around the capital of Cusco, in southern Peru. Today, Cusco remains a center of Inca culture, and it hosts the main celebrations for the Festival of the Sun. Nearly half of all Peruvians are descended from the Inca or other indigenous peoples, while another third are mestizos—people of mixed Spanish and Native American heritage.

The traditional Inca religious ceremony—the Festival of the Sun, or Inti Raymi—is reenacted at an ancient fortress in Cusco, Peru. Credit: © M. Timothy O’Keefe, Alamy Images

Originally, the Sapa Inca (emperor), nobles, priests, and thousands of devoted worshippers celebrated Inti Raymi at Huacaypata, Cusco’s main square (now called the Plaza de Armas). Ancestral mummies were paraded through the plaza, great numbers of llamas (and sometimes people) were sacrificed, dances and songs were performed, and sacred food and drink were taken. The ceremony was banned after the Spanish arrived in Peru in the 1530′s, but the festival was revived—minus the mass animal sacrifices—in the 1940′s. Today, Inti Raymi draws many thousands of people to Cusco and other Inca sites.

This illustration shows an Inca emperor entering the Temple of the Sun in Cusco, the capital. The chosen women, who prepared food and offerings used in the ceremony, stand near the mummy of a former emperor, left rear. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustration by Richard Hook

June 24 is a busy feriado (holiday) in other parts of Peru, as well. The day marks the birth of San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist), one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. People enjoy the Día de San Juan throughout the Selva (the Amazon region), where San Juan is the patron saint. June 24 is also the Día del Campesino (Day of the Peasant), a holiday once known as Día del Indio (Day of the Indian) that celebrates farm workers as well as Peru’s large indigenous population. For hundreds of years, in the Rímac district of Lima, June 24 was also the Fiesta de Amancaes. Amancaes, or flores de Amancay, are large yellow lilies native to the district, which was once a haven for people looking to escape the city for an afternoon.

March 8, 2018

In February, an exhibition called “Super/Natural: Textiles of the Andes” opened at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition features numerous textiles (woven fabrics) and other items created by the ancient Andean cultures of South America. These textiles were traditionally worn as clothing, but they also were used for communication and artistic and religious expression among the diverse peoples of the desert coasts and mountain highlands of the Andean region.

The “Super/Natural” textile exhibition includes this otherworldly figure holding a wild Pampas cat. Credit: Mantle (detail) (100 BC/AD 200), Wool embroidered in stem stitches by Paracas Necropolis; Emily Crane Chadbourne Fund/The Art Institute of Chicago

Textile creation in the Andes dates at least to the ancient Chavín culture (900 B.C. to 200 B.C.) in what is now Peru. The Chavín developed a backstrap loom and many of the techniques that weavers in the Andes still use today. In a backstrap loom, a strap on one end of the loom wraps around the weaver’s back. The weaver attaches the other end to a solid object such as a tree and leans or sits back to pull a set of yarns called the warp taut. 

The above textile, a product of the Paraca culture (500 B.C. to A.D. 200) in Peru, is a detail from a mantle (cloak) included in the “Super/Natural” exhibition. The figure holds a Pampas cat, a powerful predator and protector of agricultural fields. The individual appears to channel otherworldly power, as colored streamers emerge from the mouth and down the back, suggesting that the figure embodies the supernatural forces believed to govern the natural world. This type of representation is common throughout the Andes. Among the Nazca, a culture that emerged after the Paracas, woven textiles and painted vessels depict similar imagery. Individuals dressed in ornate costumes and wearing whiskered masks suggest transformation and connection between the natural and supernatural worlds. Later, such Andean cultures as the Wari, Chimú, and Inca also created intricate textiles for a variety of uses.

The “Super/Natural” exhibition features over 60 ancient textiles along with a number of Andean ceramics from the Art Institute’s collection. The exhibition highlights the unique aspects of individual Andean cultures while also demonstrating the similarities among them. The artistic objects deal with everyday life, the natural world, the supernatural world, and the afterlife.

January 21, 2019

On Thursday, January 17, weary and filthy racers from all over the world pulled their off-road vehicles into Lima, the capital of Peru, completing the final stage of the Dakar Rally. The racers entered the city and crossed the beach finish line in the Magdalena del Mar district after 10 grueling stages of gritty cross-country racing, covering 3,107 miles (5,000 kilometers) of dirt, rock, and sand. The race began in Lima on January 7, running south into the deserts and mountains of southern Peru and passing through the cities of Pisco, Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna before returning north to Lima.

An off-road racer climbs the desert dunes near Ica, Peru, during the Dakar Rally. Credit: © Christian Vinces, Shutterstock

The Dakar Rally, once known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, is an annual cross-country endurance race. The rally includes five different vehicle categories: cars; motorcycles; quads (all-terrain vehicles, or ATV’s); trucks; and utility task vehicles, or UTV’s (a two-seater style of ATV also known as a Side-by-Side, or SxS). The first Dakar Rally began on Dec. 26, 1978, as 182 motorcycles and cars revved their engines on the Place du Trocadéro in Paris, France, preparing for the 6,200-mile (10,000-kilometer) journey to Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Covering more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) per day, the winning racers crossed the Dakar finish line on Jan. 14, 1979 (just 74 vehicles completed the race). The racers followed a route from Paris to Marseille, where boats carried them across the Mediterranean Sea to Algeria. From there, the route continued through the dunes and dust of Niger, Mali, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), and, finally, Senegal.

A lone biker follows a remote desert track during the Dakar Rally. Credit: © Dan Istitene, Getty Images

The Dakar Rally continued annually and gained popularity, reaching a peak of 688 racers in 2005. In 2008, security threats in Mauritania (Mali’s neighbor to the west) shut down the race, and it was moved to the deserts and scrubland of South America. The 2019 Dakar Rally began with 462 racers from more than 40 countries. The winning drivers in each category came from Argentina, Australia, Chile, Qatar, and Russia. Accidents, mechanical failures, and other problems accounted for a high attrition rate (percentage of racers unable to finish the rally) of 56 percent in 2019.

To compensate for negative impacts of the race on the environment, Dakar Rally sponsors donate large sums to the Madre de Dios project that works to protect the Amazon rain forest and other natural habitats of South America. Race routes avoid sensitive archaeological or paleontological sites, and strict cleanup and recycling rules ensure the integrity of the stunning natural landscapes that define the spectacle of the rally.

August 6, 2018

About 8 million people in Andean South America speak one of the many dialects of the Native American language Quechua. Quechua, or Runa Simi as it is called by its speakers, is commonly heard in Peru and in parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. Spanish is the official language of these nations, but Quechua has equal status in Peru. Quechua descends from the dominant tribal groups of the Inca empire. More than a quarter of Peru’s population speaks Quechua. In Bolivia, there are more people who speak Quechua than speak Spanish.

Quechua is an ancient dialect of the Inca empire. Many people speak the language in Peru, where Inca religious ceremonies—here, the Festival of the Sun—still take place. Credit: © M. Timothy O’Keefe, Alamy Images

Quechua originated as the language spoken by the Inca. The Inca were a native South American people who ruled one of the largest and richest empires in the Americas. The Inca empire emerged in the early A.D. 1400’s and occupied a vast region centered around the capital of Cusco, in modern-day southern Peru. The empire extended over 2,500 miles (4,020 kilometers) along the Andes Mountains. Different peoples within the empire spoke Quechua and a variety of other native languages. A second important language in the empire was Aymara, which is still heard in Bolivia and other nations.

The Peruvian flag flies over millions of Quechua speakers. Credit: © Gil C, Shutterstock

The Inca did not have an alphabet. They did have quipu, however, a cord with knotted strings of various lengths, colors, weaves, and designs that served as a system of record keeping. Special officials throughout the empire read the quipu and maintained the knotted strings. Archaeologists have discovered how the Inca recorded numbers and dates using quipu, but they are still trying to understand what other information might be encoded in the knotted strings.

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The map at left shows the location of the Inca empire along the Andes Mountains of South America. The empire’s capital, Cusco, is in modern day Peru. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Without an alphabet or written language, information was passed along the Inca empire’s system of royal roads by messengers called chaski. Messages were passed by word of mouth or by quipu. Chaski were stationed every few miles, and messages would be passed from one messenger to the next so information would flow quickly throughout the empire.

The sons of rulers throughout the empire were sent to Cusco, where they were instructed in Inca language, history, and religion. They were also taught about the quipu and Inca fighting techniques by teachers called amauta. These teachers also recorded stories and legends in poems and songs that they retold at gatherings.

In the 1500’s, during the Spanish conquest, missionaries used Quechua to teach the Inca about Christianity. The missionaries were the first to record Quechua in written form. An official orthography—method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols—was drafted in 1939 and adopted in 1946 for the main Peruvian dialect of Quechua.

May 11, 2018

At the end of April, Archaeologists in Peru published shocking details about an ancient site where more than 140 children were ritually killed in a human sacrifice ceremony about 550 years ago. Archaeologists consider the site, built by the Chimú culture on Peru’s northern coast, as evidence of the largest single mass child sacrifice in pre-Columbian history (the period before the arrival of Columbus in America). The site, which also includes the remains of more than 200 sacrificed llamas, is in Huanchaquito, a town near the city of Trujillo.

The remains of sacrificed children and animals were found near the ruins of the ancient city of Chan Chan, seen here before the modern buildings of Trujillo in the background. Credit: © Jess Kraft, Shutterstock

The Chimú were one of several civilizations that developed in what is now Peru beginning around 2800 B.C. The Chimú built a large capital city called Chan Chan. It was begun about A.D. 1000. Chan Chan’s ruins cover about 8 square miles (20 square kilometers) outside the present-day city of Trujillo. Experts in pre-Columbian history know that sacrifices and offerings were important in the religious ceremonies of many peoples, including the Chimú. People often sacrificed crops and animals to ensure adequate rainfall and fertile soil. Human sacrifices were made under certain circumstances, and numerous individual graves of sacrificed children have been found. The remains of the Chimú children of Huanchaquito, however, represent the first evidence of sacrifice on such a large scale. Archaeologist believe the mass child sacrifice must have been performed during a time of terrible crisis, perhaps caused by a natural disaster.

Richly decorated walls line the ruins of the Chimú capital of Chan Chan. The Chimú people were among Peru’s early inhabitants. Credit: © Christopher Howey, Dreamstime

The ceremonial site at Huanchaquito was discovered by archaeologists in 2011 as they were investigating the remains of an early Chimú temple. Archaeologists called the site Huanchaquito las Llamas because they found the skeletal remains of several llamas that had been killed as a religious sacrifice. Radiocarbon dating of remains indicated that the sacrifice occurred around A.D. 1400 to 1450. However, many ancient human remains were then also found at the site. As excavations continued, the number of human skeletal remains totaled 140 individuals. The researchers were shocked to discover that the skeletal remains were all from children aged 5 to 14. Most were between 8 and 12 years old. The llamas were young too, all less than 18 months old.

Other evidence showed that the children all died together as part of a mass human sacrifice. Forensic anthropologists observed cut marks on many of the bones. Such marks show the children were intentionally killed by other people and that they were not victims of a flood, earthquake, or other calamity. Especially telling were cut marks found on the sternum (breastbone) of many victims, along with damage to their ribs. This is evidence that the victims had their chests cut open and their hearts were violently removed. Traces of powdered cinnabar, a red mineral pigment often used in religious ceremonies, were also discovered among the bones of the child victims. The Chimú children were buried facing west toward the nearby Pacific Ocean. The llamas killed at the site were buried facing east toward the Andes Mountains. Archaeologists believe the children and animals were killed as part of the same ritual.

Archaeologists observed that the sacrifice victims were buried beneath a layer of fine mud. This evidence suggests a severe flood at the time in the otherwise arid (dry) region, perhaps caused by an unusually powerful weather event known as El Niño. In the late 1400’s, within a few decades of this mass child sacrifice, the Chimú were conquered by the expanding Inca civilization.

Before Huanchaquito, the largest known mass child sacrifice event was at the Templo Mayor in the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán (modern-day Mexico City), where the remains of 42 children were found.

January 24, 2018

On Saturday, January 20, weary and filthy racers from all over the world pulled their off-road vehicles onto the streets of Córdoba, a city in central Argentina, completing the final stage of the Dakar Rally. The racers entered the city and crossed the finish line after 14 grueling days of gritty cross-country racing, covering 5,457 miles (8,782 kilometers) of dirt, rock, and sand. The race began in Lima, Peru, on January 6, running east into Bolivia before winding south to Argentina.

A lone biker follows the track through a remote part of northern Argentina during the Dakar Rally. Credit: © Dan Istitene, Getty Images

The Dakar Rally, once known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, is an annual cross-country endurance race. The rally includes five different vehicle categories: cars; motorcycles; quads (all-terrain vehicles, or ATV’s); trucks; and utility task vehicles, or UTV’s (a two-seater style of ATV also known as a Side-by-Side, or SxS). The first Dakar Rally began on Dec. 26, 1978, as 182 motorcycles and cars revved their engines on the Place du Trocadéro in Paris, France, preparing for the 6,200-mile (10,000-kilometre) journey to Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Covering more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) per day, the winning racers crossed the Dakar finish line on Jan. 14, 1979 (just 74 vehicles completed the race). The racers followed a route from Paris to Marseille, where boats carried them across the Mediterranean Sea to Algeria. From there, the route continued through the dunes and dust of Niger, Mali, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), and, finally, Senegal.

The Dakar Rally continued annually and gained popularity, reaching a peak of 688 racers in 2005. In 2008, security threats in Mauritania (Mali’s neighbor to the west) shut down the race, and it was moved to the deserts and scrubland of South America. The 2018 Dakar Rally began with 525 racers from 54 countries. The winning drivers in each category came from Austria, Brazil, Chile, Russia, and Spain. Accidents, mechanical failures, and other problems accounted for a high attrition rate (percentage of racers unable to finish the rally) of 45 percent in 2018.

To compensate for negative impacts of the race on the environment, Dakar Rally sponsors donate large sums to the Madre de Dios project that works to protect the Amazon rain forest and other natural habitats of South America. Race routes avoid sensitive archaeological or paleontological sites, and strict cleanup and recycling rules ensure the integrity of the stunning natural landscapes that define the spectacle of the rally.