Mysterious 37m feline geoglyph discovered in Peru near famous Nazca Lines

Archaeologists in Peru have discovered a huge feline geoglyph on a hillside, the country's Ministry of Culture has said.

The new motif was found in Nazca, home to Peru's world famous Nazca Lines that are carved on the surface of the coastal desert in the south of the country, depicting creatures, shapes and plants.

In a written statement, the ministry said the newly discovered geoglyph, which is 37 metres long, was barely visible and at danger of becoming completely erased due to its position on a steep slope, subjecting it to the effects of natural erosion.

Mysterious 37m feline geoglyph discovered in Peru near famous Nazca Lines

The feline was discovered by maintenance workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Looks like a cartoon animal to me.

The director of the Nazca-Palpa management plan of the Ministry of Culture is Jhony Islas. He thinks there are more geoglyphs out there waiting to be found. I think that is a pretty sure bet.

According to Jhony, drones are a big help in finding geoglyphs. The drones can fly lower and get better images than manned aerial photography.

The Nazca Lines have always been interesting to me. The big designs that you can only see from high in the air are amazing. So is the fact that you can still see them today, after all that time. And why did they spend time and energy making them?

The geoglyphs are thought to have been made by the Nasca civilization, who inhabited the region for around 800 years beginning in 200 B.C. (The terms "Nasca" and "Nazca" are often used interchangeably, but the former refers to the period and culture, while the latter describes geographical locations.) Scientists date the lines to between around 200 B.C. and 600 A.D., based on radiocarbon dating of pottery found nearby, estimates of rock aging and other measures.

Of the many mysteries of the lines, their survival is perhaps the simplest. It rains so little in the Nazca desert, less than an inch per year on average, and the air is so still, that there’s little to wash the lines away. Their construction, too, is easily explained. The lines were made by scraping away the reddish desert topsoil to reveal a slightly deeper layer that’s more gray in appearance. None of the lines are inscribed very deeply into the soil — no more than a foot or two. They vary from around a foot to over a dozen feet in width.

In 1982, a small team was able to reproduce one of the larger drawings, the condor, using wood and ropes to mark off measurements drawn from a small-scale drawing. These simple tools and methods would have been available to the Nasca at the time, and the reproduction easily shut down a theory that “ancient aliens” were somehow involved in the lines’ creation.

The Enigma of Peru’s Nazca Lines, Giant Geoglyphs Etched in Desert Sand

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Looks suspiciously fake to me. Its only been discovered yet its on the side of a hill?
Also looks like a child did it

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

I had the same thought at first too.

But Peru's Ministry of Culture would not make this announcement to the world without being sure it was real.

Or would he, it is 2020?

Is it just me or does it look like a cat happily taking a poo in your shoe?

a reply to: Nivhk

That's just Pareidolia.

lol

They rarely show many of the glyphs I wonder why and this one is rarely shown and never close ups of details. Is there anyplace that shows ALL known ones well?

I think this was their practice run. They finished it and the spacemen looked down from the sky and say, "Guys, that sucks. Looks like a cartoon cat. You gotta do better."

a reply to: LookingAtMars

I've been in Nazca a several times. It doesn't look at all like the Nazca lines at all. According to me it's fake.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: SecretKnowledge

I had the same thought at first too.

But Peru's Ministry of Culture would not make this announcement to the world without being sure it was real.

Or would he, it is 2020?

Oh yeah. It wouldn't be the first time.

a reply to: SecretKnowledge




I dunno , FELIX The CAT comes to Mind here.........Hmm.....

a reply to: LookingAtMars

hmmmmmmmm

First thought , it looks to much like a modern drawing of a cat.

There is a video at the ops link.

Thanks scraedtosleep.

I should of pointed that out.

I would say fox before feline due to the big fat tail. If it wasn't S.A., I would say kangaroo.

Cat with a smiley face, I think someone is trolling NAZCA, LOL

Recent man-made fake is my guess.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Looking at the full Glyph, to me it looks like the cats head has been added more recently to the body of something else which may or may not have been there for years!

What kind of maintenance were these guy doing there. There is nothing but rocks and a fence/walkway seen in the images.

I don't think there was a fence/walkway there before the discovery. No reason for it.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Is it April 1st already ?

If find it difficult to believe that such a thing has not been discovered until now and that something so crude could be the work of the Nazca artists ... it looks more like the work of bored maintenance workers.

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

It looks like a kids drawing of Felix the Cat.

I showed the missus it - she hadn't heard of The Nazca Lines..... - and some pictures of the other geoglyphs, she started laughing and immediately said it looks nothing like them, completely different style.
Now she's no expert, not by any stretch......but I've got to agree with her on this.

Fake.

The BBC has picked up on the story and they have a better picture.

Johny Isla, Peru's chief archaeologist for the Nazca lines, told Efe news agency that the cat pre-dates the Nazca culture - which created most of the figures from 200 to 700 AD.

The cat, he said, was actually from the late Paracas era, which was from 500 BC to 200 AD.

"We know that from comparing iconographies," he said. "Paracas textiles, for example, show birds, cats and people that are easily comparable to these geoglyphs."

Large 2,000-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

it looks nothing like them

Freeborn, maybe this is why: "the cat pre-dates the Nazca culture - which created most of the figures".

a reply to: Trueman

I agree with T above ... and further, though I have never been to Nasca (yet), people are shown walking DIRECTLY ON THE GEOGLYPH!!! WTF?

Edit added: okay, wow. I just cannot believe they are walking on it, but I guess that doesn't prove anything. It could still be authentic, and they are just degrading it. Or, do they usually do it that way? Still, it makes me completely cringe.

*cringes*