Nazca sits in the middle of one of the driest places on earth, a small desert town of about twenty-four thousand people on the Pan-American Highway, famous for lines drawn in the ground that nobody quite agrees on. The Nazca Lines, a collection of enormous figures and straight lines scratched into the stony plain, were made between about two thousand and fifteen hundred years ago by removing dark surface pebbles to expose the pale ground beneath. Birds, a monkey, a spider, a hummingbird: they were drawn on a scale that can only be appreciated from the air, and in 1994 they were listed as a World Heritage site.
The explanations are many. Some say astronomical calendars, others say ritual paths, others say water, and one German mathematician, Maria Reiche, spent most of her life here measuring and sweeping the lines clean. Her house is a museum, and she is remembered with real affection in town. The desert's dry, windless climate is what has preserved the markings, though a rare rainstorm is a worry to the guardians.
For riders the best free look is the viewing tower beside the highway north of town, a rickety metal lookout that gives a glimpse of a couple of the figures. Proper sightseeing means a small plane from the airfield, which is a bumpy, nauseating and thrilling half hour. If you plan it, go early in the morning before the thermals build up. The region has other treasures too: ancient aqueducts, spiralling underground channels that still feed the farms, and the desert cemeteries where mummies lie in the dry sand.
The riding here is long and straight, with enormous distances between towns, brown mountains and no shade. The road from Ica comes across dry plateaus and the wind is variable, often strong in the afternoon. The temperature climbs hard through the day, so drink more water than seems sensible, and start early. Fuel is easy to find in Nazca itself, a proper town with garages on the main road, restaurants serving grilled chicken and ceviche, and plenty of hostels, though it is wise to top up before heading south on the next stage towards Camana, where distances between pumps grow again.
When the sun goes down the desert cools fast, and the stars here are thick and brilliant. A rider with a camera should save a little energy for that.