Nazca Culture

Hello! We are the Nazca people. We lived a very, very long time ago. Our home was in a place called Peru. It was a dry, sandy desert where it hardly ever rained. Because it was so dry, we needed to find water for our farms. We were clever and built special tunnels deep under the ground. These tunnels brought water from far away right to our homes and gardens. This helped us grow food to eat.

We loved to make beautiful things with our hands. We were artists who used clay from the earth to make pots and bowls. After the pots were shaped, we painted them with bright colors. We painted pictures of the animals we saw around us. You could find pictures of birds flying and fish swimming on our pots. We also made soft cloth. We wove it into colorful patterns to make our clothing.

One of the most special things we did was draw on the ground. We made huge pictures in the desert sand. Today, people call them the Nazca Lines. The pictures are so big that you can’t see what they are when you are standing next to them. You have to be high up in the air to see the whole drawing! We drew many things, like a big monkey with a curly tail and a tiny, fast hummingbird with a long beak.

Our time on Earth was long ago, and we are not here anymore. But the amazing things we made are still here for people to see. People from all over the world can visit Peru and look at our giant drawings from high above. In museums, you can find the colorful pots we made and painted so carefully. These things tell the story of who we were and the beautiful art we created in the desert.