Below is my rendering of a photograph taken by Erich von Daniken
in the direct neighbourhood of Nazca (Nasca). Daniken imparts to us
the little publicized fact that the famous Nazca lines sometimes stretch
all the way into the mountainous region of Palpa in the nearby Andean
foothills. This news has direct bearing upon my report on the Nazca
figure of a nine-fingered monkey.
It turns out that the monkey is directly connected by a straight line, as
if by an umbilical cord 1.5 km long to a net of lines and planes, some of
which in turn indubitably connect to the Palpa markings. For instance,
Daniken says about the below image that a line connects it to one of
the Nazca figures. Unfortunately,  Daniken does not produce a map.

Looking at this figure, one may remember what special role  squares play
in my report on the advanced geometric plan of the monkey. Yet,  only
the monkey's arms have a discernible square arrangement, and the whole
figure could hardly be called outwardly geometrical.  But, at Palpa we see
that the same designers really did concern themselves with squares.
 

         Zeichen fur die Evigkeit
                      (Signals to Eternity)
 

Erich von Daniken has been going to Nasca since 1965.
For a long time, he wrote surprizingly little about it - a few
paragraphs per book. Yet, it was enough to cause Daniken's
downfall as a scholar, and ensuing widespread skepticism
for his investigative journalism's classic "The Chariots of the
Gods".  At fault was his annotation for a single photograph:

"Another of the strange markings on the Plain of Nazca.
This is very reminiscent of aircraft parking areas in modern
airports."

Daniken owned up to a big mistake, when confronted on TV
with the fact that this marking was hardly big enough to
fit a wheelbarrow in.. In my opinion, Daniken sometimes
confouds himself, needlessly. Here, he had the right idea -
to show the public an example of what gives him the distinct
impression that aircraft had once operated at Nazca. Instead,
he blunders into the worst, bypassing all those fantastic vistas
of airport-like pistas on artificially flattened mountaintops.

"Zeichen fur die Evigkeit"  (Signals to Eternity)

In 1997 Daniken went back to Nasca to redeem himself by
a new book. What had renewed his interest in Nazca, turning
him into a Nazcan "Zeichendeuter" (Sign Reader). Is my web
report on the Nazca monkey invisible, and is the 'noise' I make
about it on several newsgroups inaudible? What made Daniken
progress to ideas of rational geometry? He had previously said
some unwarranted, and untenable things about Nazca:
 
 

"Only now have the lines and geometrical figures been measured.
The results "CLEARLY" confirm the hypothesis that the lines
were laid out according to astronomical plans"

Yet, no one has ever gotten such results. How can "clearly confirm"
be ever undone?  Daniken also said:
 

" Seen from the air, the clear-cut impression that the 37-mile
long plain of Nazca made on me was that of an airfield!"

That idea is perhaps tempting, but utterly fallacious - the plain
is simply unsuitable to being an airport for machines requiring
runways. It has never served as such, because then the ground
would preserve all sorts of traces. And, aircraft with no need for
runways,  leave no lines in the desert for the Nascas to imitate.
Moreover, orientation by the maze of lines would dizzy any pilot.
 

"According to my way of thinking, they could have been laid
out on their gigantic scale by working from a model and using
a system of coordinates, or they could also have been built
according to instructions from an aircraft. It is not yet possible
to say with certainty whether the plain of Nazca was ever an
airfield."

But if there were a starting model, or a plan, why speak of
indecipherable chaos, later on?
And, an airfield built according to instructions from aircraft?
How? By two-way radio? Balloons, or aircraft mostly offer a
skewered view of things on the ground. We  have aircraft
today, yet, I have yet to hear of some such aircraft-directed
construction.  Besides, whoever can develop aircraft, probably
can do trigonometry, as well.
Daniken's hypothesis is that longer ago than anyone is willing
to believe,  'gods' had arrived to Nasca in gleaming vimanas
to extract some of the varied local minerals.
In contrast, I believe that it was Nazca's microclimate,  which
they (not necessarily aliens, but someone with advanced tech-
nology) sought after. Nazca was the place to lay out a library
of geometrical code, because there the markings would survive
for long ages, and longer than at other places.
The mining idea seems unreasonable. Any prehistoric mining on
a large scale anywhere in the area would have left many traces.
But, the only marks of earthmoving are numerous flat mountain-
tops in the adjacent Palpa area. Precious ores are seldom located
near mountaintops. In any case, there are many readily accessible
sources of ore in the world, but, as far as I know, there is only
one microclimate like Nasca.

Daniken says that the vimana occupants had flattened a few
mountaintops, and marked them with long and broad strips,
now called by the Nascan word "pista(s)". These are typically
a kilometer long and close to a hundred meters wide, but can
also be up to several kilometers long.
These markings had supposedly served navigation purposes
during landings by the ore cargo vimanas.  After the vimanas
had left for good, the  place has naturally acquired a religious
importance, its population grew, water was piped in, and tribes
outdid each other in imitating the markings left by the gods.

But why imitate markings, which are very unimpressive from
the ground level, and even difficult to spot, as the modern history
of Nasca's slow discovery proves all too well?  Daniken says that
the Indians had carried on for ages, decorating, and redecorating
the sacred desert, and from that comes the present indecipherable
chaos. The Nascan animal drawings then are tribal symbols, claiming
sections of the desert.
Let's carry this "indecipherable chaos" in mind just a little
longer, for when Daniken speaks of the nine-fingered monkey..

Daniken laughs at attempts to make sense out of the lines:
"Wolf Galicki from Canada recognizes signals of extraterrestrial
intelligence in this goulash of lines on the Nasca Plain. Oh yeh, |
and he (Galicki) adds that only from this viewpoint can we compre-
hend the plan of this gigantic work, and the incredible working effort."

Of course, Galicki is closer to the truth than the goulash of lines.
The lines, and the figures are not chaotic at all. They are systematic.
Nazca's message is infinitely more important than Daniken suspects.

"Those with hair can pull other hair-raising solutions out of it", says
Daniken. How does he speak of the monkey figure?

    Daniken on the nine-fingered monkey of Nazca.

Page 18 .. Attention worthy and literally begging for a solution
are yet other geometrical figures , often but not always
connected to animal figures. For example, from the centre of a
net of straight lines and planes protrudes a 1.5 kilometers
long line, as if ruler-drawn, which connects at the other
end with a nearly 60-meter monkey.

Daniken comes up with fascinating information on the monkey.
The monkey is connected to an impressive system of lines and
pistas, a system, which appears to Daniken as geometrical, on
its own.  If only he knew how geometrical..  Anyhow, he says:

.. "Under the animal's legs are seven big incisions or notches.
The feet have three toes, one hand has four, and the other five
fingers (im.3). From the monkey's tail leads a straight line
changing to a geometrical form of sixteen equally long zig-zags.
Higher mathematics?"

As anyone, who has read my "Nasca Monkey Report" knows,
the monkey's figure does speak a sophisticated mathematical
language - But, why should Daniken ask this question?
Until now, he mentioned nothing justifying the mathematical 
possibility. To the contrary, he professes glumly that Nasca, as 
a whole, is undecipherable chaos (remember our mental note), 
and moreover, he believes the Monkey to be but a tribal symbol 
like the other figures.. (BTW, if one must deem the animal figures 
to be tribal symbols, claiming parts of the sacred desert _ sacred, 
because of the markings left by the gods -  why should the animal 
figures be then generally found to be the oldest of all the markings?)
 

So, speaking of higher math out of the blue, raises the question
of whether Daniken had known of my report, which shows the
monkey to be a confirmed encryption of the (geometrical) Seal
of Atlantis .
The seal is a design - sufficiently complex to guarantee that
it won't ever appear randomly in any other image. The seal is
like a secure lock, which can only be opened by specific exact
knowledge. Considering that this seal's owners practically claim
authorship both of the decorated Plain of Nasca, and of the La
Marche engravings - the mind reels at the mass of information,
which might become available after the complete decoding.

Those, who think that I flatter myself that Daniken could be
influenced by my report, are wrong - there are some real links:

a) Strangely enough, my research began after I have seen the
prehistoric La Marche picture (Athena) in a Czech version of 
Daniken's "Erinerungen an die Zukunft" (COG).

b) Soon after catching on to the mathematical nature of that image,
I dispatched a note alerting Mr. Daniken to the fact, but his office
answered with a form letter.

c) In the "Zeichen.." Daniken mentions a few people monitoring
the media for him, and keeping him informed on news in his fields
of interest. _  I imagine that these people would also check the news-
groups,  including "sci.archaeology".
There are still more people in contact with Daniken, those who
operate various national chapters of the Ancient Astronauts
Association (AAA),  a worldwide network created by him.

d) In 1990, I was a frequent visitor to AAA's Prague headquarters.
I was trying to attract the local chapter's interest to my discovery.
My efforts would have been an utter failure, if not for one of the
AAA's functionaries. She took my theory seriously, and one day
brought me a rather distorted picture of the Nasca Monkey, asking
what might happen if I should subject it to my analytical methods.
Before my departure overseas, I wrote a brief, preliminary report
on the monkey's figure for her. I told her that she was probably right
on the money. _ Would none of this seep back to Daniken? Why does
he say the following?

"There are more such mathematical tasks, so maybe my pictures
will inspire some mathematician to attempt a solution of the puzzle."

Does not Erich know yet that I have already done that, without
being asked?! In a nutshell, I had solved the basics of the Nasca
Monkey, though a mountain of work in the actual sorting, and
decoding of the available archaic materials is still ahead.

Does Daniken want to take credit for sponsoring the solution of
Nasca's hermetic mathematical nature? Why then does he state
that Nasca is nothing but Chaos? Why does he say that the animal 
figures are tribal symbols?
Don't get me wrong. Although it is my nature to be bluntly critical, 
when I see something wrong, it is my sincere desire to be respect-
ful to Daniken. After all, he does loom like a godsent angel behind 
my discoveries.
Besides, he is not nearly as bad as some would have us believe.
In my honest opinion, he has a unique nose for prehistorical
mysteries, as almost every site he mentions in the "Chariots"
deserves being written a whole book about.

All in all, "Zeichen fur die Evigkeit" is a most commendable book.
Daniken manages to be entertainingly thought-provoking on Nasca,
and his book includes about 150 fascinating color photographs.

Main pluses of "Signs for Eternity"

1) An informative section dealing with the Ica stones.
2) Expansion into Palpa, a notion of Nasca/Palpa, as one
   prehistorical site.
3) A chapter on "puquios"
4) Discovery, and photographing of giant geometrical figures
   at Palpa, which corroborate my theory significantly.

The plateau, and the mountains of Palpa

Here, there is an unspecified muber of mountain tops, which some-
one has sheared off. Judging by the steepness of these hillsides,
the volumes of moved earth were staggering, and would surpass
many times the Giza volumes.. Daniken doesn't investigate what
had happened to the removed earth. If it was just shoveled over
the side, its loose structure should still be conspicuous. Moreover,
the angle of the slope would be typical for piled soil.

Line Properties

Daniken also describes and documents some interesting properties
of the lines/markings themselves. He points out that this is more
than just an issue of breaking the surface crust and exposing
the contrasting color of the soil below. He says that there are
some fields, which were tilled for years, but, when the fields
were abandoned, the original ancient markings were still somehow
visible! Similarly, older markings are still visible under newer
markings. Daniken documents this by excellent photographs of
the effect.

Puquios

These resemble huge wellheads, up to 17 meters in diameter, but
are actually access sites to a system of monolithic granite pipes,
through which, incredibly enough, cold fresh water still flows,
most likely from the nearby mountain Cerro Blanco. Nasca has 29
such puquios, the valley of Las Trancas has four, and the Taruga
valley has two.
By the way, the top of the 2.5 kilometer high Cerro Blanco is
hosting the WORLD's LARGEST SAND DUNE (according to Daniken).
Evidently, the more we learn about the area of Nasca, the greater,
and more fantastic it becomes in our eyes.

SQUARE GRIDS  - A Phenomenal Discovery!

It just so happens that square grids are of great importance
in my Nasca Monkey Report. Now, Daniken discovered at least
two real square grids on flat mountaintops of Palpa. Daniken
calls finding these figures a phenomenal discovery._I agree.
After all, they were previously seen only by every pilot, who's
ever circled the area, keeping his radius to about twelve minutes
of flying from the Nasca airport..
The official reason for Palpa's lack of publicity is that it is
not in Nasca, but in Palpa, though both form one continuous area.
Suffice it to say that there are lines here, which connect designs
from Nasca to designs in Palpa, across valleys and hills..
Here, over Palpa, Daniken photographed several magnificient
patterns on the ground. Unlike the rest of Nasca markings, it
is obvious at a glance that these are true geometrical patterns.
The existence of square grids in the area should make my square
grids from the Nasca Monkey Report a lot more palatable to the
precedent-hungry scholarly minds.

Looking at the first such figure, Daniken thought it a fake.
It was half a kilometer across, so he could see that such a
fake would have required an extreme effort, but on the other
hand, he postulated that the figure would be famous, if real..
The next day, when flying at a greater height above the same
figure, he saw that it was merely the center of a much larger
configuration, well over a kilometer long. Moreover, some lines
run all the way from Nasca and then pass through this figure.
Who on earth could create such fakes before being nabbed?
Strangely, Daniken misjudges this mountaintop figure - a delta
wing. His perception stumbles badly in identifying the twelve
little squares in the center, forming a cross, as rectangles instead..
Also, he OMITS TO MENTION the SQUARE GRID ! ! !

This grid is set by the dozen little squares in the center, but
it is quite difficult to see, as most its lines are really faint.
Some people would even venture a doubt on the reality of the grid.
There is however, a dark point clearly visible in each intersection
of the same square grid, certifying my eyesight. In all, the grid
forms a perfect chessboard composed of 64 squares! Twenty-four
of these squares are clearly visible, but forty are faint enough
to have eluded Daniken's unpracticed eye. The outline of the largest
square is copied at a 45 degree rotation, creating an octagon.
This figure also contains three concentric circles. I cannot tell
from the photograph if there is a fourth circle near the center.
Lines of the octagon converge on each side to form a cone. The
overall effect then makes the figure look like a delta wing.
Centering on the inside line of each winglet are three concentric
circles. Interestingly, Daniken sees only the two clearest circles
on each side, and misses the largest and faintest circles. I have
drawn my impression of the image. While the square grid should be
realistic, I had no way of telling the angles of the cones/winglets,
so, what you see is very approximate.
http://www.vejprty.com/palpasi1.gif

The greatest importance of this delta figure to me lay in its two
cones/wings. A cone with a circle centered upon a line of the cone,
and a large circle topping the same cone amounts to exactly the same
idea seen in my geometrical analysis. Hence, the mountaintop cones
corroborate my analysis.
What Daniken fails to provide is exact plans of the figures. I would
need such a plan to determine, whether the delta figure was constructed
by any of the smaller circles centered on the cone sides.

         Daniken can do nothing wrong

Having misssed the square grid in the delta wing Daniken has his
pilot follow a single line trailing from the figure across hilltops
and valleys to - what else - but, a pure square grid!

Daniken says that it is made of 36 lines by 15 lines. I have counted
these lines in his photograph several times, and found to my bewilder-
ment that the grid is instead composed of 28 lines by 15 lines! This
is a classic Daniken mistake. Having followed his fabulous nose to
a great discovery, in the end he completes his good work by hurried,
shoddy observation of the phenomenon itself..
But, the fact remains that the two square grids are connected to each
other, and then in turn to an unspecified Nasca figure. I wonder if
the said figure might turn out to be the notorious Nasca monkey..
 

©Jiri Mruzek August 1998

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