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Animal Shapes
Researchers have name legion earthen animals rising above the coastal plains of Peru , a region renowned for the Nazca line , the ruined metropolis of Chan Chan , and other cultural treasures . Few animal effigy mounds had been found in South America until now . Shown here , University of Missouri anthropologist Robert Benfer stands near some of the smaller mounds . The mound in the distance is a modest birdlike figure .
Orcas!
Orcas hunted off the Peruvian seashore 1,640 feet ( 500 meter ) off until latterly when industrial fishing removed their prey . This orca - shaped hill dated to around 5,000 years ago .
Monster Mound
The caiman / puma monster - shaped mound is one of two figures from the 4,000 - year - honest-to-goodness pre - ceramic site of El Paraíso , in the Chilca Valley . The other , a condor , is partially visible in the upper left . The researchers found the condor ’s charcoal middle lined up with theMilky Waywhen viewed from a nearby temple , while the " monster cumulation " array with the June summertime solstice when catch from the same temple . ( The arrow shows the mound ’s conjunction with the Milky Way . )
Earthen Condor
From the ground , the condor at El Paraíso is more difficult to identify .
Head of a Condor
The El Paraíso condor lines up with this stone sculpt to resemble a condor head . rock condors are common in the Andes ; this is the first one get on the coast . consider from the entrance to a 4,000 - year - honest-to-goodness temple at the site , the Dominicus rises over this mainstay during the equinoctial point .
Animals Line Up
This wire mesh modeling show the condor fig that parallels the behemoth at El Paraíso . A line from the temple through the condor center can be extended 18 miles ( 29 kilometers ) up the vale where it intersects another condor image .
Duck Mound
A instinctive formation was castrate by append a top dog to make a duck’s egg - shaped mound . A nearby rotary mound may stand for an orchis . These mounds date stamp to roughly 3,500 geezerhood ago .
Nazca Lines
The beast mound were find in a neighborhood famed for a serial of ancient geolyphs , anticipate the Nazca Lines , which are now considered a World Heritage Site in the Nazca Desert in southerly Peru . Here , Nazca Lines resemble a humming shuttlecock , as viewed from a plane .
The Astronaut
An aerial view of the geoglyph called " the spaceman , " part of the Nazca Lines in Peru .
