Top 7 mystifying cultural wonders of the world

Nazca Lines, Peru [Photo/China.org.cn]

The Nazca Lines are a series of lines and huge graphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. Most of them are distributed along a 200-square-miles (51,800 hectares) area between Rio Ingenio to Rio Nazca. The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas and lizards. They can be viewed in their entirety only from 300 meters up in the air. They are believed to have been created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650.

The purpose of the designs remains an enigma. Scholars believe that they are irrigation schemes, giant astronomical calendars, religious symbols or fertility symbols. The Nazca Lines were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.