On January 27 a truck driver rode over Peru’s 2,000-year-old Nazca Lines to avoid paying highway tolls and causing medium level damages.

Telesur informed that the driver told the authorities that he was unfamiliar with the area and he ignored several warning signs while traveling with the truck. This recklessness caused damages to three of the ancient geoglyphs.

The driver’s name is Jainer Jesús Flores, 40, and before he was stopped by the authorities he had already driven over 350 meters of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, “leaving deep marks in the dry land”, Telesur explained.

After the national prosecutor’s office tried to fine Flores with $1,550 and five months in prison, the judge dismissed the case alleging that there wasn’t enough evidence to indict. This decision has dismayed Peruvians and foreigners alike and Nazca’s attorney general has decided to appeal.

The Ministry of Culture, Johnny Isla said, according to Telesur, that some areas of the Nazca desert are not constantly monitored and damage can occur. “Entry and transit are possible through valleys and streams where the archaeological area spreads out”, this media explained.

Nazca Lines are about 2,000 years old and consist of geometric and animal shapes carved on the earth that can only be appreciated from above. They were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 and this is not the first time they have been damaged.
In 2014, Greenpeace activists entered the area where a hummingbird-shaped geoglyph is located and left 45 pieces of fabric, and in 2015 a man wrote his name on one of the geoglyphs and was put into custody by the prosecutors.

(Source)
(Cover Photo Wikimedia Commons)

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