María Reiche Tower

The mirador on the Panamericana was built at the instigation of María Reiche, the German mathematician who spent five decades from the 1940s surveying, mapping and campaigning to protect the Nazca lines, living for years in the desert with a stepladder and a broom. The tower is about thirteen metres high and gives a partial, oblique view of two figures - the Manos, a pair of hands, and the Árbol, a tree - which the highway itself cuts across, since it was built straight through the pampa before the lines were protected. It is the cheap alternative to an overflight and it shows how little the geoglyphs give up from ground level: even from the tower the figures are foreshortened and hard to read. Reiche's house at San Pablo, a few kilometres away, is a small museum. Climbing the tower is not for anyone uneasy with heights or crowds on a metal stair.

What you actually see

• The two figures - the Hands and the Tree, seen obliquely and foreshortened.
• The highway cut - the Panamericana running straight through the geoglyphs.
• The tower - about thirteen metres of metal stair beside the road.
• The Reiche connection - built at the urging of the mathematician who protected the lines.

When to go

Year-round; morning or late afternoon for lower sun and better contrast. Thirty minutes. Buses between Nazca and Ica will stop if asked.

Honest expectations

The view is poor compared with a flight - the figures are distorted and partly cut by the road. The tower sways and is crowded when a bus stops. Standing beside a fast highway in the desert, with no shade. Not a substitute for an overflight if you want to see the lines properly.

Nearby

The María Reiche museum at San Pablo is close; Nazca town is south.