The Moche and the Nazca
Canals through desert, and lines you can only see from the air
See it on the timeline →In depth
Moche society rested on irrigation works that carried Andean river water across the coastal desert, and on metallurgy that mastered gilding by electrochemical replacement. Their portrait vessels are among the most naturalistic in pre-Columbian art. The Nazca lines, made by clearing the dark surface layer, were probably processional ways and water-related ritual sites rather than anything meant to be seen from above. Both cultures collapsed under prolonged drought and El Niño flooding — an early demonstration that highly specialised irrigation societies are fragile in the face of climate swings.
For children
On Peru's bone-dry coast the Moche built canals that turned desert green, and made pots shaped like faces — so exact that we can recognise individuals. Further south the Nazca scraped enormous figures into the desert floor: a hummingbird, a spider, a monkey, hundreds of metres across.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org