Lima (AFP)
A new geoglyph, more than 2,000 years old and representing a feline, was recently discovered in Peru which will reopen access in November to these mysterious giant drawings traced on the ground in the Nazca desert.
This geoglyph of a cat with pointed ears, about 37 meters long, was recently brought out of oblivion, its lines having been spotted by a drone flight.
"The silhouette was barely visible, it was on the verge of disappearing due to its location, on a fairly steep slope, and the effects of natural erosion," said the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.
A group of archaeologists cleaned and redrawn the contours of the geoglyph located on the hillside and whose lines are 30 and 40 centimeters wide.
According to its stylistic characteristics, the recently unearthed geoglyph dates from the end of the Paracas period, an ancient pre-Inca civilization (-800 BC).
"The representations of felines of this type are frequent in the iconography of ceramics and textiles of the company Paracas", explained the ministry.
On November 10, Peru will reopen the site of the Millennium Nazca Lines, one of its main tourist attractions, closed for seven months due to the pandemic.
Located over an area of 750 km2 in the desert, about 350 km south of Lima, these lines had, according to archaeologists, a ceremonial function.
The best known of these geoglyphs are a monkey with a wingspan of 135 meters, the spiral tail, a spider (46 meters long), a hummingbird (66 meters from one wing to the other) or a giant bird, long 300 meters wide and 54.
They were carved by the Nazca, a people established in the area from 200 to 700 AD, and are therefore believed to date from the geoglyphs of the Paracas.
© 2020 AFP