You will be collected from your hotel at a designated time and transferred to the local airport of Nazca, located just 4km from town. Upon your arrival at the airport, our staff will show you a film about The Nazca Lines. This interesting documentary lasts about 40 minutes and involves serious information about the Nazca Culture, as well as the figures you will see from the air. For this aerial tour, you will board a small Cessna single-engine aircraft (Station air, Skyhawk or Skyline type), which has spacious room for 5 people, each person will have a window seat.
After the video, our bilingual pilot will proceed to give you a briefing about this air tour and also will give each participant a map of the archaeological zone, which shows all the figures you will see from the air. After safety instructions, you will board the airplane ready for take off.
In a matter of just 2 minutes you will be flying over the Nazca Lines zone, you will have the chance to appreciate many figures such as: The whale, trapezoids of about 2 kilometres long and “The Astronaut”. Unlike the other drawings, the astronaut was etched on the slope of a small hill, and not on the desert surface. His body is south facing; it does not represent an astronaut, but a shaman or ancient Nazca priest. The monkey figure is an enormous drawing that measures about 90 meters in length. The dog figure is a small drawing in comparison. The best preserve figures of the whole area are “The hummingbird”, a gorgeous design perfectly made on a dark plateau located at one corner of the archaeological complex. According to Maria Reiche this figure is associated with the summer solstice, as one of the lines connected to its beak, points towards the place where the sun rises every year during our summer solstice. Not very far from the hummingbird, you will find the spider, a figure that according the local knowledge, represents the fertility and water, as this insect used to appear when it is going to rain or the water in the rivers is about to come. Some meters away we will find the huge condor figure, featuring a straight line that crosses its wings and points towards the place where the sun sets every year on summer solstice. Our next figure will be the flamingo, which is the longest figure on the desert, with over 300 meters. According to Maria Reiche the beak of this bird points towards the place where the sun rises every year on winter solstice. Then we will fly over the parrot figure, a huge bird with about 230 meters in length. In addition to the parrot you will also see several geometric designs around, and the beautiful valley of Ingenio.
Finally we will fly over the Pan-American Highway, where you will see 2 figures; the hands and the Huarango tree. If you look carefully, you will find next to the tree, another figure representing a big lizard. Unfortunately when the people built the highway in 1937, they had no idea that ancient figures were drawn there, so the cut the lizard figure in two, destroying mainly the central part of its body, leaving the tail on one side of the road and on the other side part of its back, and its complete head with its two hands.
After flying over these figures, we will return to the airport where you can still enjoy straight lines that run for kilometres and a stunning panoramic view of the Nazca desert. Your tour will then finish on the return to the airport.
