Earth works
Humanity has been etching figures into the ground for millennia.
NAZCA LINES, PERU
In southern Peru lie artworks that can only be understood from the air. Yet the Nazca Lines were created between 500BC and 500AD. Depicting animals and geometric shapes, the images cover 450sq.km and were found in the 1920s. They may have had astronomic significance.
UFFINGTON WHITE HORSE, UK
For 3000 years, a white horse has been galloping across an English hillside. Cut into the chalk of Oxfordshire downland, the 100m-long Uffington White Horse has been there since the Bronze Age, and is re-cut every year by volunteers.
BLYTHE INTAGLIOS, USA
Three human figures, two animals and a spiral lie across a Californian mesa, the biggest 52m long. Etched into the landscape between 2000 and 450 years ago, the human figures represent Mastamho, the Creator, and the animals are Hatakulya, a hybrid mountain lion/human who helped Mastamho create life, according to the local Mojave and Quechua Native Americans. They marked a location for dances to honour creation.
STEPPE GEOGLYPHS, KAZAKHSTAN
We have Google Earth to thank for the 2007 discovery of more than 50 geoglyphs on a treeless steppe in northern Kazakhstan. The rings, crosses, squares and one swastika-like symbol could be as ancient as 8000 years old.
ELK GEOGLYPH, RUSSIA
Another geoglyph discovered by satellite imagery, this animal has probably lain on a hillside in the southern Urals for 6000 years. The 275m-long figure was meticulously constructed by an entire community, probably including children, as suggested by the small tools at the site. It seems they dug out trenches and filled them with stones, outlining the edges with larger stones. It’s not clear why the elk (or deer) was built.