You are looking into a spiral pit, one of a series dug into the arid
ground by a pre-Christian civilization.




Enlarge photo
 

No doubt you are wondering what these descending paths signify. Some
believe them to be routes for a ritualistic procession. More likely,
they collected valuable additional water for aqueducts—at times 40
feet underground—running from fabled mountains to the east for crop
irrigation. Others, including you and perhaps the couple before you,
admire the sites as just plain art. Indeed, this culture, organized as
a federation of villages sharing a common faith, is famed for its
pottery and land art. Thanks to the climate—the region receives an
inch of rain each year—numerous huge etchings of animals and geometric
shapes, which the people carved into the earth throughout the region,
remain in existence. The outside world learned of these glyphs in
1927, when a native archaeologist discovered them.
The spirals are just outside a town that shares the name of this
long–gone, highly developed society. The town is 275 miles from the
capital of its country, where, three months ago, more than a hundred
farmers were injured in clashes with police as they protested the
government's failure to assist in alleviating their debts. At about
the same time, the president, whose approval rating had plummeted from
70 percent to 16 percent after one year in office, apologized to the
nation for failing to ease the burden on the common man, something he
had promised to do when he took office. The public has been
shouldering this load for a number of years: Somewhat disdainfully, a
Chicago–bred journalist wrote in 1967 that this is "the only nation in
the world which lived basically for a long period on bird manure."
Husbanding natural resources has a lengthy history here, and a future
as well. The country may be the only one in the world to have opened a
hotel that offers oxygen—enriched rooms—to smooth the transition to
the property’s lofty location. This is, after all, a place where
cooperating with Mother Nature leads to successful invention.

Where Are You, anyhow?

Dear cdrury,

The country is Peru, South America. The ancient civilization is the
Nazca culture, most famous for their gigantic line figures covering
217 square miles, discovered by the Peruvian archaeologist Mejia Xespe
in 1927. The town outside of which the spirals are located, is Nazca,
a community of 30,000 inhabitants. So that's "where I am".

Sources:

Ruins in Peru linked to famed Nazca Lines, by The Miami Herald, Sept.
25, 1999
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/nazca/palpa.htm

Minnesota State E-Museum: Nazca
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/prehistory/latinamerica/south/cultures/nazca.html

PeruFly: Nazca
http://www.perufly.com/nazci.html

Search terms used:
"lived basically for a long period on bird manure":
://www.google.de/search?q=%22lived+basically+for+a+long+period+on+bird+manure.%22+&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
peru 1927 nazca:
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=peru+1927+nazca&meta=
nazca spirals pits:
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=nazca+spirals+pits&meta=
"nazca is a town":
://www.google.de/search?q=%22nazca+is+a+town%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=

Hope this answers your question!
Regards,
Scriptor

This was terrrific!!!!! Right on target and very quick - thanks so much!!!!!

The missing photo can be viewed here:

http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/whereareyou/

"Peru, it may fairly said, is the only nation in the world which lived
basically for a long period on bird manure".

John Gunther, Inside South America, 1967.

P.S. Nepal also offers oxygen enriched hotel rooms.