Berkeley Students Collaborate to Recreate Mysterious Nazca Lines

More than 50 students from AP Calculus, Art and Spanish 4 Honors classes worked together to create a scaled down replica of the world-famous Condor, Nazca lines this Friday. The students studied the history and theories of the Nazca lines before collaborating to create a grid using the exact dimensions of the actual Nazca lines and scaling the dimensions down to replicate the Condor. They began the project by plotting and staking out several points using approximately 3,000 yards of string to delineate 4 x 4 yard squares in the shape of the original Condor, Nazca lines. The students then painted each of the squares. Because the Nazca lines can only be seen from the air, photos were taken from a nearby rooftop in order to give students the opportunity to compare their end result with that of the original lines. The Nazca lines are among archaeology's greatest enigmas because of their quantity, nature, size and continuity. The geoglyphs depict living creatures, stylized plants and imaginary beings, as well as geometric figures several kilometers long.