5 Ancient Ruins in Nazca That You Shouldn't Miss

Reviewed By RafalWVIIX - Skoki, Poland

I'm not a amateur of guided tours, but in some cases, when it's hard to get somewhere on your own, I'm joining the group. In case of Peru I was doing it quite often. After exciting flight over Nazca plateau in the morning , I finally found a little time to take a shower and eat something before I went for another trip early afternoon. Two off-road cars took our international group to the depths of desert surrounding town of Nazca. Luckily, I could borrow pair of goggles from driver, because in other case, a rough ride through the desert in windowless car would be a real torture. Took us a while to get there, but finally we have arrived. First of all, that was a surprise to see pyramids in Peru. I knew, that there's plenty of step pyramids in Meso-America but I've never heard about such a structures, I mean pyramids, in South America. The group of over thirty of those structures was found in 1922 to the west of Nazca. Proper excavations started over thirty years later, but only three units were thoroughly researched. Unearthed structures were nothing like those from Mexico or Guatemala. First difference it was material used for their construction - adobe instead of stone and earth. Second - they weren't exactly step pyramids.They looked more like terraced hills. Erected by people from Nazca Culture, Cahuachi site, that looked quite eerie when sun hid itself behind the clouds, was used as a ceremonial centre from around 1 to 500 AD. Three excavated units contains, among the other features, kanchas, walls, passages and circural depressions Although, those pyramids weren't that impressive like their more famous equivalent from other parts of the world, still, it was very interesting to see them, and to learn some historical facts about them from our guide.