Sports complex theory

Press, 29 January 1982, Page 13

Sports complex theory

A German amateur archaeologist claims he has solved the secret of mysterious markings more than 1000 years old in the mountain plateau country of Nazca, in Peru. Georg Von Breunig a patent lawyer by profession says that the gigantic animal outlines and geometrical figures up to 50 km long and 10km wide are a sports complex. according to the Munich “Suddeutsche Zeitung.” A reporter, Sabine Reuter, says this is a more plausible

explanation than the one advanced by Erich Von Daniken, author of “Chariot of the Gods,” who contends they are spacecraft runways left by visitors from another planet. • . Adventurers and archaeologists amateur and professional have long sought to explain the markings. Paul Kosok, of the United States, thought they were an astronomical calendar. For 35 years, Maria Reiche, a German mathematics teacher who lives in Peru has been trying to back up

this theory using a spade and a pencil.

Others have interpreted the triangles, zig-zags, and spirals as vestiges of a totem cult, as a symbolic map of a lost empire' or as a king-size picture book of a pre-Colum-bian ruler.

Breunig says they are the largest sports ground in the world. A 47-year-old with an electrical engineering degree he had the idea while flying round the area. He looked down and. as a keen athlete said: "It's a running track!"