EXPLAINEDBEINGS · GEOGLYPHS
The Nazca 'Astronaut'
c. 500 BCE – 500 CE · Nazca, Ica · Peru
WHAT IT IS
A thirty-metre figure with a round head and huge eyes, one hand raised, cut into a hillside above the Nazca plain. It is the line that looks back at you.
THE ALIEN READING
Erich von Däniken presented it as a portrait of the beings who landed on the plain; Ancient Aliens has it waving at visitors from the sky.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
Maria Reiche, who spent her life on the lines, called it the 'owl-man' (1949). Other readings include a fisherman with a net. It is a Nazca hillside figure; only the 'astronaut' name is modern.
WHERE IT STANDS
Explained. Historians and archaeologists account for what it shows. The alien reading is a modern one.
STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 3 OCT 2026
THE RECORD
- DATE
- c. 500 BCE – 500 CE
- PLACE
- Nazca, Ica · Peru
- MADE BY
- Nazca culture
- MEDIUM
- Geoglyphs
- TECHNICAL
- Geoglyph (cleared hillside) · c. 30 m · Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa (UNESCO)
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FOLIO 03 · EXPLAINED
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FOLIO 04 · EXPLAINED
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FOLIO 05 · EXPLAINED
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FOLIO 06 · EXPLAINED
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