The Mandala Grid is fixed in size at 180 ft x 180 ft. The size is large enough to accommodate many people for design creations. The nature figures, on the other hand, are not fixed in size. The "ear" is smaller than the full grid, spanning 78 ft, while the "Frigate Bird" is many time larger, spanning 1060 ft! The Mandala Grid features "whole", "halve" and "quarter" blocks. Members of the "marching cast" would certainly be able to do whole-number multiples of their x-y movements from a center position, but not likely fractions thereof. Thus, a singe step can become 2, 3 or more. Using this strategy, figures could easily be replicated and magnified. To test this concept, the size of many of the figures in the Nazca desert region has been determined and related to how they would be staged on the Mandala Grid. The information is presented in the table below. The % dev from 1/2 squares is based on the design extremes being set to the nearest 1/2 square. The average error is just a bit greater at ~2.3% (the two smallest excluded), if the designs are actually scaled to the nearest whole unit of squares instead of halves.

That the nature figures could be transferred from the Mandala Grid stage to the desert with whole-number accuracy indicates the dedication of the "marching band" of performers to replicate their target locations. While the desert figures appear precise, they are not likely to have been "perfect" replicates of the Mandala Grid designs! Nearly so would still have been nice! Below are some of the nature figures as they would be scaled on the Mandala Grid. Most of the figures scale 1:1 or 1:2. The 1:5 and 1:7 figures entail very long bird beaks!

The long linear, zigzag and loop portions might not have been scaled on the grid (see below), as they could be added easily as line-of-sight extensions or wandering to meet as would likely occur for the "Frigate" bird.

The monkey seems to be two separately generated figures joined together. Note the bulge between the monkey's body and the spiral tail.

The scaling of the Mandala Grid has been related to those at other ancient sites using modern and ancient units⁸: meters, feet, Royal Egyptian Cubits, Solomonic Cubits/Sacred Cubits, Remens, Megalithic Yards, Mayan Hunabs, and Sumerian Feet. The figure on the left below offers a different scaling scenario that is based on touching wingspans of pre-Incas. The two red images in the upper right corner are the same person. A 5' 7.5" wingspan would be equivalent to a 5' 6" (1.68m) person based on the relationship between height and wingspan⁹. For community spirit activities, an addition person would fit very easily between them with hands joined leisurely beside each as the figure on the right suggests.

The Nazca figures have continuous loops which suggests that the participants are joined in a celebratory continuum. The Spider figure below illustrates how this continuum would have been effected.

The desert replications of the grid design would most likely be based on a single, straight, line-of-sight line with a center location marked where the figure would be located. Movements would be those set by the Mandala Grid - left or right moves off the line at the appropriate distance from the center point. The figure on the right indicates that ~100 "signal men" would be needed to define the spider accurately. The "red signal men" would take up the critical outer junctures in the desert. Those at U-turns would face the center point to provide left-to-right-hand connections¹⁰) for loop continuity throughout the figure. Their spots would have been at whole, halve, or quarter Mandala Grid points or multiples thereof. The "blue signal men" would occupy inner critical junctures and align with the "red men". Citizens would fill the spaces with left-to-right alignment between the "signal men". The continuous path of the figure is ~1740 ft (0.33 mile or 0.53km) long¹¹. If the figure contained just enough people for their wingspans to touch, ~300 of them would be needed¹². As indicated above, a very leisurely community-spirit continuum would contain 600 people cozily quartered for a figure this size. What results is a situation wherein each participant occupies only a 3' x 3' segment of the figure! Ceremoniously, and without significant effort, each would participate in the creation of the figure by clearing away the desert stones and smoothing the little area around them. With the figure's path established, they and others who were not involved in forming the figure could now "walk-the-lines" of the figure's continuous maze. Environmental conditions have not been severe enough for over a millennium to eradicate the paths of many of their creations.

Summary

Occam's razor is a useful scientific axiom: choose the simplest, unadorned, explanation of the data. Invoking extraterrestrial intervention for something that can be explained by simple application of earthly human knowledge at the time when that data was generated is stretching credibility far beyond rationality!

While the lines and figures in the Palpa-Nazca region of Peru are fascinating, their creation is not beyond the technical skills that the citizens of that area would have possessed. The linear and 2D features would have been created for the management of water - a scarce resource in a desert environment. The multitude of observed lines attests to the many efforts that were made over many years to effect this management.

The nature figures appear to be the creation of a citizenry in tune with the world around them. The means to blindly create large figures on a desert plateau was clearly available to them in the form of a well-defined grid - the Mandala Grid. This grid allowed them to design and stage figures that could be previewed before they were executed on the unruled desert plateau. The creation of the figures would have been celebratory with the created figures available for further enjoyment, communion, and therapy by "walking their lines".

There are many unexplained things in this world, especially those that would require technical skills thought not to exist when they happened, but the Palpa-Nazca lines and figures should not be among them. When those claiming the existence of extraterrestrial aliens continue to use these lines and figures in efforts to validate their claims, they demonstrate a clear lack of objective credibility and demean the creativity of humankind.