Nazca culture

The Nazca flourished from about 100 BCE to 800 CE along Peru's arid southern coast, in the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley, heirs of the Paracas textile masters. In one of the driest farmed landscapes on earth they raised two wonders of coordination: the Nazca lines, immense desert geoglyphs of hummingbirds, monkeys and geometries whose purpose is still argued, and the puquios, underground aqueducts tapping mountain aquifers, dozens of which still water fields today. Nazca potters painted slip-decorated vessels with trophy heads, killer whales and botanical catalogues; weavers carried Paracas embroidery to new brilliance. The ceremonial centre of Cahuachi, empty of residents yet crowded with pilgrims, anchored a society of chiefdoms without kings. After 600 the lines grew fewer, droughts bit, and Wari influence spread; by 800 the Nazca world had dissolved into the highland empire's provinces. Dozens of puquios still carry mountain water to Ica Valley fields after two thousand years.