Nova: Season 49, Episode 21

49 - 21: Nazca Desert Mystery

One of the world's greatest ancient enigmas, the Nazca lines are a dense network of crisscrossing lines, geometric shapes, and animal figures etched across 200 square miles of Peruvian desert. Who created them and why? Ever since they were rediscovered in the 1920s, scholars and enthusiasts have raised countless theories about their purpose. Now, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of long-hidden lines and figures as well as evidence of ancient rituals, offering new clues to the origins and motivations behind the giant desert symbols.