The mysterious aqueducts of Nazca and their «eyes of water»

From the air the spirals formed amaze in the middle of the desert of Peru through the «eyes of water», part of a pre-Columbian system of underground aqueducts which from the Andes continues to irrigate three valleys in the region of the famous Nazca geoglyphs.

Built a few years ago 1,700 years Near the city of Nazca, 450 km south of Lima, the aqueducts spread like branches, forming a system of wells and canals made with stones and beams from huarango, a coastal Peruvian tree.

The work is a wonder of hydraulic engineering launched by settlers of the ancient Nazca culture and its preservation prompted the Peruvian authorities to propose it to UNESCO as a world heritage site.

It is a pre-Columbian system of underground aqueducts (AFP).

«Now we know that they were built around the year 100 to 200 AD, in the full development of the Nazca society,» said the director of the Nazca-Palpa Management Plan of the Ministry of Culture, Johny Isla, in 2023.

This civilization developed on the southern coast of Peru and is also attributed with the mysterious and famous Nazca lines, whose development is after the aqueducts.

«They are both contemporaries and were made by the same society,» says Isla.

The wells have a depth of up to 15 meters (AFP).

Of the 42 aqueducts from Nazca, 29 still transport water from the snow-capped mountains and rivers to the farmlands where potatoes, cotton, vegetables and fruit trees are planted.

The system carries some 18 to 20 liters of water per second and currently benefits some 900 small farmer families in three Nazca valleys, mainly for their crops. They pay about 120 soles annually ($32) to a local entity.

«It helps us irrigate all the agricultural fields,» says farmer Nicolás Quispe, 39, who maintains his potato farm with water from the Ocongalla aqueduct.

The stones in the canals are made of pebbles and are placed in a way that filters the water (AFP).

«It is unique in all of South America,» Isla stands out while walking along the Cantalloc aqueduct, protected by the geoglyph of a feline that seems to monitor the course of the underground water from a neighboring hill.

The stones of the canals are made of pebbles and are placed in such a way that the water filters into the wells, whose depth is up to 15 meters.

«Without this system, a civilization like the Nazca culture would not have been possible,» said archaeologist Abdul Yalli after emphasizing that the rivers in the area are dry almost all year round.

From the Andes it continues to irrigate the three valleys where the famous Nazca geoglyphs are located (AFP).

An enormous ancient public work

The wells are considered a great ancient public work.

«This is a work of art, architecture and engineering. These are stone channels that continue to function and in order to build them obviously had to be removed million tons of sandmake the canal and cover it again,» highlighted the Spaniard Jorge López-Doriga, Communication Director of the AJE Group, the Peruvian multinational that supports local authorities in the enhancement of this hydraulic work.

The Nazca aqueducts are on UNESCO’s indicative list to be declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity after being registered in 2019.

The same civilization that built the aqueducts created the famous Nazca geoglyphs (AFP).

«This type of aqueducts, which are like spirals, do not exist anywhere else,» said Ana María Cogorno, president of the María Riche International Association, which works to spread the value of the Nazca lines.

The Nazca Lines, a World Heritage Site since 1994, are according to UNESCO «the group of geoglyphs most prominent in the world and are incomparable in extent, magnitude, quantity, size and diversity with any other similar work in the world.»

It is a series of geometric figures and giant animals made in the middle of the desert that can only be appreciated from the sky, and their meaning is still an enigma: some researchers consider them an astronomical observatory and others a calendar.

AFP Agency.