NONESUCH EXPEDITIONS   FOUNDED IN 1962
 
 
Nasca - A Mystery on the Desert in Peru
 
THE FIRST FILM OF MARIA REICHE - 1963
  
 

 

Nasca, Peru, February 1963 - Tony Morrison, Mark Howell and Allan Reditt were searching the desert for Maria Reiche a true solitary. Maria, then 59 was a mathematics teacher from Germany who had lived in Peru since the early 1930's. For twenty year she had been trying to solve the riddle of the curious markings on the surface of the desert - long lines, some many kilometers from end to end, huge clearings, animal figures and spirals. Why, how and who had made them? Tony and Mark were making a film for BBC Television and Norah Scott one of Maria's friends in Lima said they must find her and hear her story. Here is the first filmed encounter with Maria Reiche and her explanation for the desert mystery.

 
They first spotted Maria from the air. Her small canvas covered van was parked near two small hills - you can see her in the inset picture 
Player will show here
 
The film Mystery on the Desert was shown on BBC Television in August 1963 and was an immediate success. Press comments brought the Nasca markings to international attention.The idea of extra terrestrial spacemen came later with a book by Swiss writer Erich von Däniken. Maria remained a recluse while Tony, helped by television followed wider avenues to discover an answer to the mystery - see Pathways to the Gods
 Maria Reiche and Allan Reditt at the top of one of the hills.
 
For more photos of the desert markings
For more photos of Maria Reiche over the years to her death in 1995
  
 Filmed by Tony Morrison, Sound by Mark Howell © Nonesuch Expeditions [1963], South American Pictures.The original commentary for the 30 minute documentary was by Jacquetta Hawkes and was narrated by Duncan Carse.

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