Peru has always attracted me with its unique land features and topography. There is no coast quite like it. If you were to look down on it from space (a feat possible thanks to the advancement of technology and the Internet), it would look as if the water had just come down into the ocean from the mountains leaving behind a smooth rippled terrain that resembles beach sand.
I oftentimes look at photographs of South America in hopes of finding something interesting to me. Recently, I’ve been especially interested in the history of Lake Titicaca and the culture of the region’s peoples. I decided to take a virtual trip of the area, particularly along the coast by the ocean. My Google Maps window was significantly zoomed in as to better see the region’s diverse terrain and topography.
General view (Naska and Vitor)
The night had already begun. The silence of the night was interrupted only by the noise of the power supply fan. Continuing my “journey” along the Peruvian plains, I noticed a strange dark spot on the plateau near a little town of Vitor. I decided to zoom in closer and investigate it. With a newly found sense of purpose I scrolled the mouse wheel to focus in on the spot and get a better idea of what it might be. What I saw next sent shivers down my spine. From a distance, the large outline of the face of an old wizard was staring right at me. The fear of this strange encounter was only intensified by the eerie silence of my dark apartment room.
Zooming of the photo gives better details
At first I decided that it was merely a joke of some Photoshop-savvy kid with an Internet connection; however, a closer investigation of the “face” proved that it was decidedly not so. First, the contour of the face followed the uneven surface of the plain on which it was situated. Second, my colleagues could also see the “face” by simply inputting the coordinates I had used when I first found it. The “face” also did not look like shadows of clouds that conveniently happened to be passing up in the sky in the exact proximity to each other as to make their combined shadow resemble a human face. There was also no collection of plantations or bushes in the area for the “face” to be made up of vegetation. Even if it was merely a group of small shrubs, what caused them to grow in a way that resembled a clear outline of a human face?
Silver monk on the upland Vitor (Peru)
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