Aveni proposes an alternative theory. After decades of wild speculation, an evocative picture is finally beginning to emerge of a vanished culture that left behind one of the greatest archaeological wonders of the world. Nasca people made the ground drawings on the desert centuries ago by clearing away darkened pampa stones to expose the pale sand beneath, piling the stones around the margin to create an outline a few inches high. A relatively small group of people could easily have sketched the long, straight lines by eye and moved the stones, smaller than footballs, by hand. The ground drawings aren't the only large-scale archaeological marvels the Nasca people left behind.
Ancient aqueducts ring the arid pampa.
These aqueducts, called puquios, are a vast system of channels, in some places 30 feet deep and a half-mile long, carefully lined with cobblestones. The puquios captured David Johnson's imagination when he began visiting the Nasca region five years ago and set out to help the dirt-poor modern inhabitants of scattered villages on the edge of the pampa find new sources of water. A trickle of water still flows through the ancient aqueducts. Villagers told Johnson the Nasca and Ingenio rivers were the primary source of water in the aqueducts. He decided the rivers couldn't be feeding the puquios.