120-foot-long geoglyph discovered on a hillside
Archeologists discovered a huge feline figure carved into an arid(dry) hillside and the image was made more than 2,000 years ago, in southern Peru. The discovery was made during maintenance work at a visitor viewing point in this hugely popular tourist destination.
The Nazca lines, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is home to designs on the ground created somewhere between 500 BC to 200 AD. The dry environment and still air have preserved the markings. The lines were made by scraping away the reddish desert topsoil to reveal a slightly deeper layer that’s more grey in appearance. Like other Nazca Lines, including a monkey, spider, killer whale, pelican, hummingbird, etc, the cat is huge. The entire feline is about 121 feet (37 meters) long, with a long body, striped tail, and distinct pointed ears on its head.
A geoglyph is a large design or motif (generally longer than 4 metres) produced on the ground and typically formed by clastic rocks or similarly durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth.