Water for Humanity - Appropriate Technology

The Underground Aqueducts of Nazca, Peru

by Steve Herbert

Steve Herbert scales ancient Inca steps to Machu Picchu.In 1988, I engineered the opportunity to travel to Peru and Bolivia on my first trip to South America. I signed up for a “spiritual adventure tour” led by shaman Inti Malesquez and his assistant Raoul. As it turned out, due to the surge in activity of the Shining Path, most people cancelled out except for myself and one other person. As a result, I was fortunate to get a very personal tour of the many wonders there.

One of the stops on the tour was the coastal desert plains of Nazca, Peru, known mainly for the huge figures or “geoglyphs” drawn into the desert floor by moving aside the darker desert-varnished stones to reveal the lighter colored ground beneath. There are hundreds of features ranging from simple lines up to complex geometrical patterns, and over seventy representations of insects, animals and even one human. They are spread over a 200 square mile area, having been created during the period 200 BC to 600 AD when the pre-Inka Nazca culture flourished. I had the opportunity to take a flight in a small plane to view the figures from above over the plain of Pampa San Jose.

A figure of a parrot drawn onto the plains of Nazca.The figures on the plains of Nazca range up to the largest of over 900 feet long, leaving many to ponder why or how the Nazca people created such figures which they would not have been able to appreciate except from high above. This is why one theory gained popularity for a time positing the involvement of extraterrestrial visitors, put forth by Erich von Daniken in his book Chariots of the Gods. Other theories connected the figures to archaeoastronomy, representations of astrological signs, or to the Nazca religion. Since the figures were characteristically drawn in one single line, some have explained the geoglyphs as a kind of “walking temple”.

Straight lines once thought to be landing strips for ancient astronauts on the plains of Nazca.Equally fascinating to me were the underground aqueducts of Nazca, called puguios in the local Quechua language. These subterranean man-made tunnels served as conduits to channel water, commonly from the Andean foothills, to irrigated fields. The pampa in this region normally remains at a constant temperature of 25 degrees C (77 degrees F) year round with very little wind and even less rain. There were about 50 of these features constructed by the Nazca people, which attested to their agricultural success to be able to afford to allocate so much labor to infrastructure. Some of these are still being used. During my visit, I saw that at periodic distances along each puquios was a feature some have variously called “blowholes”, “windows” or “chimneys”. These were positioned directly over the aqueduct with a narrow path spiraling down into it. It is speculated that these were used for periodic cleaning and maintenance, and occasionally for repair following tremors.

In recent years, a new theory has arisen to explain the geoglyphs of the Nazca plains, a theory which also ties the geoglyphs together with the aqueducts and underground water, and is rapidly supplanting previous explanations involving ancient astronauts and local religion. This new theory was originated with a dowser by the name of David Johnson. Mr. Johnson was a videographer on assignment with the Catholic Church who also happened to be a dowser. While going about his work during that trip in 1996, David began to wonder if the desert figures really had more to do with water, given the scarcity of the resource. Beginning his investigation with the use of dowsing, Mr. Johnson found that indeed the figures did seem to be associated with aquifers being tapped by the puquios. Conversely, he found that once one knew how to read the geoglyphs, like a map these could predict the locations of water sources.

A deep "window" in one of the underground aqueducts of Nazca.

A shallow "window" in one of the underground aqueducts of Nazca.Later, in 1998, an interdisciplinary team of geologists and archaeologists, supported in part with National Geographic funding, conducted scientific research to test Johnson’s theory, concluding with positive results. They found a complex fracture system in the region associated with the puquios and in proximity to archaeological and ancient habitation sites. The fractures often conducted the underground water to where it was intercepted by the puguios. Thus the hydrology, the structural geology and the archaeology were all found to be related. David Johnson himself, and a colleague by the name of Don Proloux both wrote about the origination of the theory and the resulting research on a website (www.dowsingworks.com/nascalineproject.html).

The outlet of a Nazca underground aqueduct system.During the trip I also visited the cities of Lima and La Paz, Lake Titicaca and the island of Taquile, the ruins at Ollantaytambo and Pisaq, Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu, and the archaeological sites at Sillustani and Tiahuanaco, as well as the plains of Nazca. I was fairly new to dowsing at that time, and experimented with dowsing the energies around the seat of the Inca atop Huayna Picchu and in the Temple of the Sun at Michu Picchu. Though in 1988 I had not done much with water yet, the underground aqueducts of Peru enticed me in that direction.