rammetry. 
573. 
Beutner, Sabine 
  
SIGNALS IN THE SAND: 
3-D RECORDING AND VISUALIZATION OF THE NASCA GEOGLYPHS 
À. Grün, S. Bär, S. Beutner 
Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich 
Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 
CH - 8093 Zürich 
agruen@, sbaer@, beutner@ geod.baug.ethz.ch 
Working Group V/5 
KEY WORDS: Archeology, DTM, 3-D vectors, Texture Mapping, Visualization 
ABSTRACT 
The geoglyphs of Nasca, Peru are considered one of the world’s major mysteries. Despite the fact that many efforts have 
been made in the past 70 years to record and analyze the geoglyphs no convincing explanation has emerged yet which 
would explain the purpose of these drawings in the sand beyond any doubt. Many hypotheses have been put forward and 
each author will find a certain number of lines and figures in support of his/her opinion. The huge number of lines, trape- 
zoids, star centers, biomorphical figures, etc. has up to now defied any comprehensive recording and analysis. 
We are currently conducting an ambitious project which aims at the complete 3-D recording of the geoglyphs of the areas 
of Nasca, Palpa and San Ignacio (a total of about 300 km?) with photogrammetric means. This is done in cooperation 
with a group of archeologists who will try to relate their excavation results to the geoglyphs in order to get a more com- 
plete picture of the overall cultural and social background of the Nasca people (200 B.C. - 600 A.D.). 
We are using the latest digital photogrammetric technology for the recording of the geoglyphs and some of the most 
advanced visualization software. Finally, all data will be integrated on a GIS platform, which will require the efficient 
management of both vector- and extensive raster image data. 
One of the final aims is to make the vector data available to the international community of scientists who show a serious 
interest in contributing towards the solution of the Nasca mystery. In this process we have produced over 1000 aerial pho- 
tographs at scales 1:5 000 and 1:10 000 both in color and B/W. In addition we have collected existing, older photographs 
which can give us an indication of the damage that has been done to the geoglyphs in recent years. 
At present the block Palpa has been fully processed and visualization results have been shown to the public on a SGI 
Onyx2 in an interactive mode at the Nasca exhibition in the Rietberg Museum, Zürich and in the VisDome of ETH 
Zürich as stereo projection on a large 4x12 m? screen. We report here about the current stage of the project. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
In the sandy desert of the coastal region of Peru, 400 km south of Lima, lies one of the great mysteries of mankind - the 
Geoglyphs of Nasca. Over an area of several hundred square-kilometers, on flat plateaus called "pampas", ancient civili- 
zations have carved an array of over thousand geometrical and biomorphic figures of varying size and precision into the 
earth for no apparent reason. Although it is commonly assumed that most of these earth drawings have been produced by 
the Nasca people between 200 B.C. and 600 A.D., the purpose of the geoglyphs still remains a mystery. As always in 
such cases, the very few scientists that approach this problem with serious and sound research concepts are outnumbered 
by far by the hordes of self-proclaimed experts who voice their opinions in all available media (for example: check the 
Internet for webpages under "Nasca Lines" or similar terms). Therefore we count today more than 2 dozens of hypothe- 
ses offering explanations. The most popular and at the same time the most improbable refers to the lines as landing and 
starting sites for extraterrestrial spaceships (Däniken, 1997). 
The more serious ones may be classified into the following categories: (a) solar, star or moon calendar and astronomy, (b) 
indicators for underground water, irrigation and agriculture, (c) ceremonial practises, mountain or fertility cult, shaman- 
ism, (d) geometry and artistic expression, (e) movement, transportation, communication. It is hard to believe that these 
geoglyphs did serve just one specific purpose. Too large is the variety of different patterns and figures. We distinguish 
long straight lines, star-shaped arrangements, geometrical elements like triangles, trapezoids, rectangles, spirals, dou- 
blespirals, zigzag lines, meandering lines, biomorphic figures (human-likes, animals, plants), and patterns which are hard 
to interpret as anything realistic. 
Although these geoglyphs, which are commonly and for simplicity termed the "Nasca Lines", were known already to the 
early Spanish explorers, it was until 1926 before the western world took notice again through a report of the Peruvian 
archeologists Julio Tello and Toribio Mejia Xesspe (Mejia Xesspe,1927). However, it was the work and the lifelong ded- 
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B5. Amsterdam 2000. 53 
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