Comments on: The Mysterious Holes of Peru

The Mysterious Holes of Peru

Burhanistan — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:57:41 -0800

The Mysterious Holes of Peru. While the world is generally familiar with Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines, another mystery has come to light through the modern science of satellite photography.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:16:48 -0800

Obviously, that's where they kept the square eggs. (If only one person understands this comment, I will be happy).

By: gergtreble

gergtreble — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:20:27 -0800

Holey Rocks Batman!!!

By: newfers

newfers — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:40:32 -0800

"A series oh holes", it says in the article. A series oh holes? Sure sounds like this was written by a reputable person. Perhaps the writer deserves a "series oh kicks in the butt". Sorry, I had to be negative - in other words, this link sounds like baloney.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:47:17 -0800

newfers - here's a Google Map of the holes.

By: nola

nola — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:48:50 -0800

Very strange. I would love to read more about this.

By: django_z

django_z — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:53:49 -0800

yhbc - you almost made me spit out my mouthful oh water. dang, you're going way back with that one. Barks would be proud.

By: SteveTheRed

SteveTheRed — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:59:59 -0800

I wonder if they were for mining or maybe collecting water?

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:01:51 -0800

They were obviously designed to create ice lenses.

By: deadfather

deadfather — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:07:54 -0800

The shittiest assumption in that article is that it took "decades" to make the holes. Says who?

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:09:48 -0800

It looks like an attempt at a giant tattoo on the earth's skin. The only thing is, wouldn't they have gone for a more cool ethno design? A single plain strip sounds too self-consciously hipsterish for a bunch of half-naked, painted tribal types with bones through their noses & feathers in their hair.

By: inconsequentialist

inconsequentialist — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:15:14 -0800

Aliens are always responsible for this kind of thing. Always.

By: stenseng

stenseng — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:25:52 -0800

"Aliens are always responsible for this kind of thing. Always." "Undocumented Guest Workers." Please!

By: Termite

Termite — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:49:48 -0800

(If only one person understands this comment, I will be happy). Of course I do.

By: Slithy_Tove

Slithy_Tove — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:54:26 -0800

Obviously a shoggoth trail.

By: ontic

ontic — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:55:00 -0800

This is where the bees that make the giant yellow jacket nests come from. I thought everyone knew this?

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:01:16 -0800

So, no one has gotten close enough to these holes to actually take a picture of one?

By: jouke

jouke — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:06:04 -0800

(If only one person understands this comment, I will be happy). Me too. I loved the square eggs.

By: a bad enough dude

a bad enough dude — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:14:26 -0800

So, no one has gotten close enough to these holes to actually take a picture of one? And lived? No. No one, of course, except for Fred Ward.

By: rob511

rob511 — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:42:52 -0800

Es el rallador de queso de Chucque Norris.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:57:53 -0800

I don't get it - you can't put square eggs in round holes.

By: Listener

Listener — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:07:53 -0800

According to the googlemap link, the line ends right near the bottom of the rock, where there are farmed fields. If they are real, someone is getting a close look at them fairly often and it looks like it would not be hard to get right up to them.

By: Listener

Listener — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:08:45 -0800

Shoot, but something I have never noticed on googlemaps before: To the left it says, "The content overlaid onto this map is provided by a third party, and Google is not responsible for it." Hmm. ?

By: booksprite

booksprite — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:28:10 -0800

Square eggs? Don't you mean square pegs?

By: maryh

maryh — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 01:20:08 -0800

These holes are so consistent, so regular, so mathmatically precise, that they must surely be the only remaining evidence of Erich Von Daniken's exploding pogo stick.

By: hoskala

hoskala — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 01:54:57 -0800

The holes are there in the normal GMaps too. Who could forget the square chickens?

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:52:51 -0800

From that same page--can anyone confirm the claim about these holes being a missile silo? 41 53'22.88"N 122 05'26.78"W

By: loquacious

loquacious — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:31:44 -0800

Well, if you can't put a square egg in a round hole, you sure can put a square egg in a square pig. But I don't know nuthin' 'bout no square chickens.

By: furtive

furtive — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:40:39 -0800

Maybe it was to mark time, like in an annual or seasonal tradition. I bet you could roast a pig in one of those pits.

By: furtive

furtive — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:42:53 -0800

Maybe digging a hole was meted out as punishment for certain crimes or social punishment, with the number of holes to be dug reflecting the severity of the infraction.

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 05:25:47 -0800

punishment, with the number of holes to be dug reflecting the severity of the infraction. Can we get something like this for MeFi? 6 holes for a double, 4 for chatfilter, 1 for spurious pony requests in the blue, &c.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 05:43:51 -0800

Jessica Simpson and I used to suffer from these same kinds of holes, then we got ProActive^TM and they went away. I love ProActive^TM.

By: pokermonk

pokermonk — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 05:46:12 -0800

Those aren't holes; they're glass orbs! Obviously, escape pods in case of climate change just like when the ancients had to leave Mars. The real question we should be asking is, "where did they go now?"

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 06:34:51 -0800

Peru is totally awesome, and I am pretty sure that if there are real monsters that's where they live. Also, the satellite photos are stunning. Thanks!

By: WPW

WPW — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 06:58:22 -0800

But are there enough holes to fill the Albert Hall?

By: aught

aught — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:23:36 -0800

Sigh. Anyone who's done any reading at all about the Inca empire (i.e., not the creators of the endless poorly-informed "cosmic mystery" web sites) will know they did all sorts of incredibly labor-intensive projects, very often involving stone carving or excavation, dependant on the toil of armies of peasants for the glorification of hereditary absolute rulers. (I mean, it's not like this is not a common scenario repeated around the world throughout human history.) Cutting a mile-long swath of round holes in the ground was probably child's play for folks who could routinely make perfect stone walls like these. Ironically, wild explanations for prehistoric ruins are almost always a failure of imagination, underestimating what people in ancient times were capable of -- who were after all at least as intelligent and motivated as, and usually much harder working than, contemporary people.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:32:13 -0800

Actually, aught, I think that many people find it distasteful to think about what must have actually enabled these elaborate projects—slave labor. I think most people here recognize the beauty and ingenuity of these massive works, but there is no denying that they relied on the blood and toil of countless unfortunates, and so are monuments to cruelty. Sometimes it's more fun to pretend.

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:25:41 -0800

Okay, six feet deep, two feet in diameter, nine to twelve in a row stretching for one mile. Let's say there is one foot between rows. Then we have about 17,000 holes. One day's labor per hole is let's say one person working for 46 years or ten people for less than five years. Not that impressive. As to why, those things often disappear in history. The stone mason insisted the rocks did not touch each other. People believed they could forestall death by making their own grave in advance.

By: jouke

jouke — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:22:46 -0800

yhbc, termite, hoskala & me; the brotherhood of the square egg those who know don't speak, those who speak don't know.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:46:35 -0800

Something to do with Kevin Bacon, of course.

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:42:13 -0800

yhbc: Obviously, that's where they kept the square eggs. (If only one person understands this comment, I will be happy).

So it seems several have, but I'm not sure if I understand it correctly. Is this some reference to the Carl Barks series where Scrooge McDuck goes to Tralla La or Cibola or Macchu Picchu, and they have chickens that lay square eggs- square everything, really?

By: yhbc

yhbc — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:02:11 -0800

hincandenza - yes, but the story predated Scrooge McDuck. It was Donald Duck (and his nephews) that found the mysterious valley in the Andes where the square natives speek in a southern accent and the square chickens lay "squah aigs" in Lost in the Andes.

By: luriete

luriete — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:13:10 -0800

I think it was someone making art.

By: 1f2frfbf

1f2frfbf — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:23:52 -0800

Art without a pretentious statement of intent? Truly, it must have been the dark ages...

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:38:56 -0800

The Incas had ICBM's? Wow. Could be for capturing water run off.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:53:54 -0800

Marvellously mysterious! More speculating here.

By: ryanrs

ryanrs — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:04:55 -0800

dances_with_sneetches wrote: six feet deep, two feet in diameter [...] One day's labor per hole Carved in rock?

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:51:25 -0800

"except why would you bury anyone on a slope in rocky soil at more than a 45-degree angle?" Why would you put a tree in your living room in the middle of winter?

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:14:39 -0800

Tiny rare owl spotted in Peru's northern jungle

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:16:34 -0800

So, did I miss something, or is there really not any single close-up photograph of one individual hole?