Nazca Lines Timeline

The Nazca Lines were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, formally recognizing their outstanding cultural value to humanity.

After flooding and mudslides in the area in mid-February 2007, Mario Olaechea Aquije, archaeological resident from Peru's National Institute of Culture, and a team of specialists surveyed the area.

The Greenpeace incident drew attention to other damage caused in 2012 and 2013 by off-road vehicles of the Dakar Rally, which is visible from satellite imagery, outside the World Heritage area.

In 2012, squatters occupied land in the area, damaging a Nazca-era cemetery and allowing their pigs access to some of the land. As of 2012, the lines were said to be deteriorating because of this influx of squatters.

In 2013, machinery used in a limestone quarry was reported to have destroyed a small section of a line and caused damage to another.

In December 2014, controversy arose when Greenpeace activists set up a banner within the lines of one of the geoglyphs, damaging the site and prompting international criticism.

In January 2018, an errant truck driver drove across part of the Nazca Lines and was arrested but later released for lack of evidence indicating any intent other than a simple error.

In 2025, Peru's Ministry of Culture ordered a 42% reduction in the land area of the Nazca Lines reserve, from about 5,600 square kilometers to roughly 3,200 square kilometers, citing updated archaeological studies.

Since 1996, researchers have documented and excavated more than 650 sites in connection with the study of the Nazca Lines and surrounding areas.

In the twenty-first century, several hundred new figures have been found with the use of drones, and archaeologists believe that there are more still to be found.

A team from Yamagata University in Japan began conducting fieldwork at the Nazca site in 2006, launching a long-term research program that would uncover many new geoglyphs.

The discovery of two new small figures was announced in early 2011 by a Japanese team from Yamagata University. By 2012, the team had found approximately 100 new geoglyphs.

In March 2012, Yamagata University announced it would open a new research center at the site in September 2012, related to a long-term project to study the area for the next 15 years.

In 2018, drones used by archaeologists revealed 25 geoglyphs in the Palpa province that are being assigned to the Paracas culture.

The discovery of 143 new geoglyphs on the Nazca Pampa and in the surrounding area was announced in 2019 by Yamagata University and IBM Japan.

A June 2019 article in Smithsonian magazine described recent work by a multi-disciplinary team of Japanese researchers who identified or re-identified some of the birds depicted among the geoglyphs.

Lines forming the shape of a cat were discovered on a hill at Nazca in 2020, adding another well-known figure to the catalog of geoglyphs.

The number of known Nazca geoglyphs amounted to 358 in 2022, reflecting decades of survey and documentation efforts.

A field survey took place between September 2022 and February 2023 and was conducted on foot for ground truthing under the permission of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

In 2024, archaeologists from Yamagata University's Nazca Institute, collaborating with IBM Research, used artificial intelligence to discover 303 previously unknown geoglyphs depicting parrots, cats, monkeys, killer whales, and even severed heads near the Nazca Lines.