by Jiri Mruzek
 

Even a cursory inspection of the image reveals some intriguing symmetries. These are no random scribbles, but a measured effort. For instance, check the diagram above for the clearly intentional alignment along the bases of the tail, and of the hands, and the tops of the sixteen lines forming a grill on the right. This alignment is perfectly perpendicular to the central axis of the X shape. I believe that Maria Reiche (Nasca's scholarly guardian angel) would have noted this alignment.

After all we are working with her copy of the desert glyph, and this alignment is strong, and obvious. In contrast, the monkey's alignment to the cardinal points is also strong, but cannot be shown with just a couple of lines. Both alignments suggest alternative postures for the monkey, much different from the currently prevalent baboon style, which has this spiral-tailed being tumbling on all fours. Such presumptuous attitude has so far led to a complete misunderstanding of what the monkey, and Nasca are all about.

Had Maria ever measured the angle of the X-shape?

The big X ( 'a' and 'b', the two longest lines) hugs visually exact 36 degrees, or one-tenth of a circle. See the similarity between the star configuration on the left, and the monkey configuration on the right of the diagram. There is identity of angle and of proportion, here.   This fact ignited my curiosity, as the 5-pointed star (36 degrees at each point) is pivotal to La Marche. More testing then led to sensational findings.

Above all, the monkey's geometry is also the geometry of the Athena engraving. Its study is an ideal follow-up on the initial discovery, what with the monkey's image being much simpler, yet in the same terms. As a consequence of this simplicity, though, the monkey lacks the self-explanatory quality of the Athena engraving. That is why a mathematician uninitiated into its concept of a 5-pointed star would have little chance of detecting it in the Nasca monkey.

Sharing of Hermetic Ideas
It is not easy to come to grips with the reality of Nasca's monkey. How can it share key hermetic ideas with the Athena engraving from La Marche? Here, critics will retort acidly that it doesn't, and the sharing is all in my mind. Rather than argue about the degree of my sanity, it is more effective to prove the case graphically, using diagrams, which successfully merge two separate realities - the artwork figure, and geometry. Here, success is measured by ability to reconstruct the given artwork as a system, thus simplifying the task. At the start, there can only be simple geometries, elements like circles derived from arcs in the image, all part of a standard procedure.

These elements are in position, before the experimenter has any idea of what is going to happen. There is no control over the result. If in the end the elements should add up to a real system, which expresses real ideas, then this was once the designer's thought.   The sharing of hermetic ideas begins with the two designs sharing the basics. In the beginning, there has got to be a regular 5-pointed star, each of whose arms is seen as five units long. The units are sometimes expressed by unit circles (like the blue circles in the diagram right). Then the 'Cone' (red and green) evolves from the star.

The square is constructed from the Cone as above, with the circles drawn. The cone below shows the two instrumental circles. The rest of the image is then based on this layout (cone & square).   Since such matching of systems cannot be accidental, it works as a stamp of authenticity under authority of a mysterious prehistoric advanced civilization. Let us call it the Seal of Atlantis..

Initial Testing for Geometry
The copy of the Nasca monkey we use was originally published by Maria Reiche. She had first learned about the giant figure of a monkey on the pampa from commercial pilots in 1952. It was to become her favorite figure, and apparently her measurements of it were especially meticulous.

Of course, once I saw that the monkey is balanced within a 36 degree angle, I wanted to see if there are other resemblances to La Marche, such as a given 5-pointed star setting units of length.

The Pipe-Dream Test
The biggest thrill, the moment of truth had arrived right in the beginning. Had this first computer assisted test not worked out, my visions of a 5-pointed star would vanish from the image, and that would have been the end of it.

The Big X

The Monkey stands between the top branches of a giant X shape (the Big X). In the test, the two lines of the Big X (a,b) had to show a rather precise angle of 36 degrees. I drew a straight line through line 'a' of the X, and got a beautiful match. One line disappears under the other. Then I rotated this new line 36 degrees about the X-Point towards the shorter line 'b', and the two lines merged into one (the rotated line shows in red through the black line "b").   The X matches the 36 degree angle to the imperceptible two one-hundredths of a degree.

Therefore, the X should fit into a circle ten times without noticeable overlap - as it does in the diagram below. Whosoever had made the big X to fit around a circle an even ten times, had also made sure that one monkey should fit another unambiguously just as well.

This brings us to the next question - Does this 36 degree angle indicate that we should look for a 5-pointed star of one particular size (like in the La Marche engraving)?
 

Our experimental 5-pointed star will emanate from the X-point, the center of the Big X. Let the line 'c' set its size. The rest is matter of automatic completion. This first star is the X-Star-1.

X-Star-2 is a mirror image of the first star, as seen through the X-point. X-Star-3, is a mirror image of X-Star-2. But, if we dropped this star onto the Big X from above, it would slide to the same position as well. This X-Star-3 casts itself upon the monkey's figure so well that it is named the 'Monkey Star'. The bigger star made from the Monkey Star obviously has a good fit to the end of line 'a'. In fact, if we reshaped the round bend at the top of line 'a' into a sharp corner, odds are that the star's end would coincide with the line's end with utter visual precision.

The Monkey Star, we find out later, is equivalent to the original star behind the Cone & Square configuration in the engraving from La Marche.

The Big X & the Golden Mean
The shorter part to the longer one is as the longer part is to the whole thing. The Big X's proportions approximate the Phi-ratio:

If the X-Star's arm is 1 unit long, the big star's arm is 2.618.. units long, Phi squared.

The Star Launcher
The Big X can be used as guide-rails for expansion of 5-pointed stars in both directions from the X-Point.. As the stars slide out, suddenly, a number of points comes up to meet the expansion almost simultaneously.

Each of these points suggests a similar size for our experimental 5-pointed star, the X-Star. This is just more confirmation that we are doing something right. The diagram right side, shows eight of these points (point 1 to 5, and 8 to 10). Points 6 and 7 demonstrate more symmetry through the X-Point.

The Second Inverse Cone Geometrically, the Big X represents an inverse cone. Another important big X is formed by the line 'c' at 60 degrees to the line '1' (diagram below). Altogether 'c' holds 60 degrees with half of the sixteen parallel lines of the grill shape. This second big X in the image also invokes a regular figure - the equilateral triangle.

The star's center closely coincides with the center of the monkey, whose head, hands and feet orbit it along the star's circumcircle. The head and the feet also press against the star's pentagon. The monkey straddles the imaginary central axis of the Big X as if it really were there.

Finally, the monkey's spiral tail also fits the star grid lines. Overall, this is a great balancing act on two feet. Facing towards the Pacific, the monkey appears focused on its hands, which are close together, as if doing something with both hands using the 'precision grip'. I can imagine the monkey playing bagpipes, or hiding behind a round shield ( the Monkey Star's circum-circle), walking a treadmill-wheel, dowsing, catching a football, etc. In another impression, the Monkey ensconced in its winged star, soars high above the Nasca desert.

The Wheel of Five Tumbling Monkeys   This is another obviously successful experiment. The figure was arrayed five times around the Monkey Star's center. It joins the 'chain of ten monkeys' in the gallery of fully functional five-fold arrays, one for each main point so far. How noteworthy, two wild stabs in the dark produced two big strikes - intrinsic art on a high level of participation by the explorer. The fact assails the idea of this art being due to wild luck.

The Monkey's head, hands, and feet are evenly distributed with respect to the Monkey Star's center.
The hands clasp the head like a pro holds his basketball. We also see a perfect regular pentagram. _ Skeptics will automatically laugh, and object that any line put into a five-fold array - will produce a five-pointed star, or a pentagon. - True, but here, we have two separate lines, each in a five-fold array, ten lines in all. Yet, we see one regular 5-pointed star only, and five lines - not two stars!

So, this is a special case, when lines merge in a given array, because of holding the required angle. (Nice try, though :-)

Polar Opposition of Genders

The transformation above is shown upside down below. The Monkey's image was mirrored along the line (a) of the Big X. It strikes me that whereas at the center of the image above I see a likeness of a warrior, hooded, and in a conical hat - the same image upended as below, and colored in a little differently, evokes a convincingly female form. Somewhat strangely, the warrior's hooded vest is streamlined like a jetfighter. There is also a cockpit.

In my opinion, each of these likenesses reinforces the other.