Experience the best of Nazca

Nazca lies in a coastal valley in southern Peru, at the foot of the Andes, in one of the driest stretches of the country. On the plains nearby, the Nazca Lines, giant figures of a hummingbird, a monkey, a spider and a condor, together with straight lines and geometric shapes, were etched in the stony ground between about 500 BC and AD 500. UNESCO lists them as a World Heritage site, and the German mathematician Maria Reiche spent decades mapping them.

A roadside tower on the Pan-American Highway gives a ground-level glimpse of a few figures, and flights give a full view. The Chauchilla cemetery holds mummies and pottery in open desert tombs, Cahuachi was a large ceremonial centre of the Nazca people, and spiral aqueduct openings called puquios still carry water below the ground. Cerro Blanco, one of the highest sand dunes in the world, rises nearby.

Nazca's cooking draws on the coast and the Andes, with ceviche, rice and beans and fresh fruit juices, and the pisco of nearby Ica is the local brandy. The sky is mostly clear, rain almost never falls, and days are hot while nights cool off, which is partly why the lines have lasted for so long.