ICA PROVINCE, PERU—Live Science reports that a geoglyph depicting a killer whale has been cleaned and restored on a hillside in southern Peru’s Palpa region. Johny Isla of Peru’s Ministry of Culture saw a photograph of the geoglyph, which had been studied by German archaeologists in the 1960s, but its location had been poorly documented and then forgotten. He began his search for the orca with Google Earth, and then looked for it on foot on land that is now private property. “Being drawn on a slope, it is easier [for it] to suffer damage than [for] those figures that are in flat areas, such as those of the Nazca Pampa,” Isla explained. The 230-foot-long figure, thought to have been created some 2,000 years ago by the Paracas culture, was formed through the removal of a thin layer of stones from the surface of the ground. Some parts, including the creature’s eyes, were made of piles of stones. The Ministry of Culture is working to secure the geoglyph. To read about another fascinating feature in Peru, go to “An Overlooked Inca Wonder.”
