Nazca History

The town of Nazca has a history that dates as far back as 300 BC. Between 500 BC and 600 AD the Nazca culture thrived and its influence spread to what today is Canete in the north and Acari in the south. The Ceremonial Center of Cahuachi was its main capital, which was most likely chosen as such because of the abundance of water that came from natural springs that allowed the maintenance of an agricultural way of life in a region that is naturally desert in texture.

Archaeologists believe that the Nazca civilization lived and thrived for more than 800 years but then declined when particular natural disasters began to occur around 350 AD. El Nino weather phenomena caused disastrous floods that engulfed major parts of the Nazca valley, but more importantly, flooded the Cahuachi center. The Nazca people finally abandoned their beloved city sometime around 400 AD after several attempts to reconstruct the city but failing when a powerful earthquake hit, literally splitting the city in two and leaving it in ruins.

The legacy this civilization left behind was impressive and includes the mysterious Nazca Lines as well as the remarkable aqueduct system that still functions today. The reign of the Inca Empire over most what today is Peru followed on the heels of the Nazca culture’s decline, and this coastal town was engulfed in that process. Nazca came under the control of Tupac Inca sometime around 1471 AD.

The Spanish conquest of the region occurred in 1591. Nazca, an agriculturally-based urbanization, became a hot spot and began to develop more rapidly with the discovery of the Nazca Lines in 1939. Since then, signs of growth in this small town can be seen in the airport shuttle houses, the planes that fly tourists over the Nazca lines, and the new settlements popping up in the Nazca outskirts that represent the increasing number of inhabitants wanting to make this region their home.