What to see in Nazca beyond the famous lines

After a couple of hours in Nazca, I went on a tour of the Chauchilla Cemetery. The famous cemetery was used as a set location in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The cemetery is in the Nazca plains and about an hour and a half’s drive out of the city.

The site itself is over 1,500 years old, and like many of these sites in Peru, it was discovered and raided by bandits. They would ransack the graves, take the beautifully intricate fabric the mummies wore and discarded the rest.

The ancient Nazca people wore mostly cotton due to its hot, humid climate. My guide, Julio, told me that if there was an individual tomb, it meant they were the only person who died that day. If multiple mummies were found in one tomb, it was highly likely that they were related. However if there are partitions between the mummies, it meant they died on the same day but no related, more likely warriors fighting over water. Water was limited in the plains and was often the cause of fatal battles.