In the ancient times, the area used to be the home of an ancient civilization called "Paracas", that existed during the pre Colombian era. The most famous remnant of this culture is the "El Candelabro" geoglyph, carved on a hillside on the way to Ballestas islands. The length of the "El Candelabro" geoglyph is 128 meters.

The amazing thing in the geoglyphs of Peru is the fact that they mostly survived intact.  The fact that the weather is minimal with almost no rain played an important role.  However, some geoglyphs were modified or erased by later cultures.

  Map of the Paracas Candelabro location

 Paracas Peninsula

The Paracas coast

Just inland from the Paracas Bay is total sand dune desert

Drawing of the Paracas Candelabro

Note the bounding box surrounding the Candelabro

Just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean
amazingly it survived

The Great Dune Desert Of Paracas

New Paracas geoglyphs - Above is a new geoglyphs found near Paracas, in the Paracas Group 1 style.  In addition to the Nazca geoglyphs, unique geoglyphs can be found throughout the Ica department of Peru.  New geoglyphs are being discovered all the time!

East of the town of Paracas lies a vast desert of giant sand dunes.  Here too, you can find ancient geoglyphs, such as these: Long Lines, a huge barely visible Broad Runway, and a Grid of lines similar to the Checkerboard of Cantalloc.

A Long Line in the Ica Desert

The Paracas culture was an important Andean society between approximately 750 BCE and 100 CE that developed in the Paracas Peninsula, located in what today is the Paracas District of the Pisco Province in the Ica Region. Most of our information about the lives of the Paracas people comes from excavations at the large seaside Paracas necropolis, first investigated by the Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello in the 1920s. The necropolis of Wari Kayan consisted of multitudes of large subterranean burial chambers, with an average capacity of about forty mummies. It is theorized that each large chamber would be owned by a specific family or clan, who would place their dead ancestors in the burial over the course of many generations. Each mummy was bound with cord to hold it in place, and then wrapped in many layers of incredibly intricate, ornate, and finely woven textiles. These textiles are now known as some of the finest ever produced in the history of Pre-Columbian Andean societies, and are the primary works of art by which Paracas is known. They had extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management.

  Paracas culture - Early Horizon, 300 -100 B.C.
This is a typical blackware jar in the Paracas "Cavernas" style.

Paracas geographically, 700 - 1 B.C., was a complex of cemeteries and habitation areas located on the arid Paracas Peninsula on the south coast of Peru. Paracas was discovered in 1925 by the famous Peruvian archaeologist, Julio C. Tello. Tello uncovered hundreds of mummy bundles wrapped in multiple layers of exquisitely decorated textiles, including mantles or shrouds. Sometimes more than sixty layers of textiles covered one mummy. These garments were elaborately embroidered in rich colors of red, dark blue, dark green and yellow. The textiles seem to have been made primarily for inclusion in the mummy bundles (rather than for use by the living).

By 300 B.C., Paracas weavers were using camelid fibre (probably alpaca from the highlands) to fashion tiny figures that decorated the borders of mantles. Paracas ceramics include some post-fired painted pots decorated in earth tones, and monochrome pottery in the shapes of plants and animals. Birds were prominent in the Paracas landscape and appear more frequently than any other animal in Paracas ceramics. This example depicts a falcon, an impressive creature, which is known for its unusual ability to seize other birds in mid-flight.

  Typical Paracas pottery

  A Paracas Mummy

  MUSEO REGIONAL DE ICA: Deformed Cranium high fashion in the Paracas Culture

How could separate culture of South and Central America arrive at the same cosmetic disfigurement?

Not only did they deform but also engaged in brain surgery

Through ceremonies, societies celebrated their relationships with nature. Ancient Andean potters and weavers created colorful and exquisitely crafted objects reflecting the natural world. Ancient peoples revealed much about their beliefs, rituals, gods, rulers, flora, fauna, architecture and many other aspects of their lives. Designs from pots and textiles were also depicted on and metalwork.

The coastal environment isolated the early coastal cultures into separate independent units. People settled in coastal valleys, and used irrigation so they could cultivate the land. Settlements were concentrated around oases, where irrigation supported large agrarian populations. By 2500 B.C., the communal labour of village settlements had begun to build many large ceremonial buildings. As the centuries passed, monumental building projects became more and more elaborate.

Because coastal cultures were isolated, coastal art styles showed variety and uniqueness from one valley to the next. the Moche dominated the north coast between A.D. 1 and 800. These sea-oriented people are associated with a great art style and ideology. At the same time in the south, the Nasca chiefdoms, not politically unified like the Moche, left a permanent impression on their landscape. They are still famous today for their enormous geoglyphs (the "Nasca Lines" etched into the desert terrain), as well as their polychrome pottery and exquisite textiles.