The "Band of Holes" consists of approximately 6,900 unexplained man-sized holes carved into the barren rock near Pisco Valley, Peru on a plain called Cajamarquilla. It dates back to ancient times and remain a mystery much like neighboring Nazca Lines and Machu Piccu best appreciated from the air and satellite imagery. You might want to locate them with Google Earth.

The Band of Holes is also known in Spanish as Monte Sierpe (serpent mountain) or Cerro Viruela (smallpox hill), is a series of about 5,000-6,000 man-sized holes found in the Pisco Valley on the Nazca Plateau in Peru. Local people have no idea who made them or how they were used. Over the years, it has been speculated that they were graves, defensive positions, or storage places. Recent thought is that they were storage pits built during the time of the Inca Empire (1438-1533).

The band lies between 13° 42' 59.9"S - 75° 52'28.46"W - and 13° 42'20"S - 75° 52' 28.46"W extending in a basically north-south orientation over uneven terrain.

The band begins at the edge of a valley and runs up a hill for about 1.5 km (0.9 miles). The holes, actually pits with raised edges, are about 1 meter in diameter and 50-100 cm deep. They are arranged in discernible blocks or segments along a band that varies in width from 14-21 meters, with an average width of about 19 meters.

Modern attention was drawn to the site in 1933, when the aviator Robert Shippee published an aerial photograph in National Geographic.

Victor Wolfgang von Hagen surveyed the area in 1953. In The Royal Road of the Inca he describes these as pre-Inca graves, writing that:

These circular, stone-lined although unused graves lay in rows, seven to nine, and marched up the 50° angle to the slope called Mt. Sierpe, that is the snaking line of graves reminding the one who named it of a serpent. There are over 5,000 such graves; empty, graves in so far as they are circular and stone-lined, and of the same construction of those graves which are found with mummies, weavings and pottery.

For years, ever since 1931 they appeared on the photographic plates of the aerial surveys of the Shippee-Johnson expedition, they were the "strange and mysterious pockmarks", but when discovered and surveyed by the von Hagen expedition in 1953 and found to be unused graves, the mystery was compounded. The Inca engineers would have seen the same phenomena but as in the case of the equally mysterious Nasca lines, they filled in those which interfered with the road and ran it over and through them.

Other visits were made in the early 1970s by archaeologists Dwight Wallace and Frederic Engel.

Archaeologist John Hyslop wrote in his 1984 book The Inka Road System that "Circular structures, sometimes semisubterranean, that may have been used for storage are also found on the Peruvian south coast in the sites Quebrada de la Vaca and at Tambo Colorado. Hundreds of stone-lined circular holes in rows have been found on a low ridge on the north side of the Pisco Valley.

Although their role has not been determined, a hypothesis for investigation is that they were used for storage. They are between two important Inka sites and very near the point where the Inka coastal road crosses the road to the highlands. They might be one of the empire's larger storage sites.

In 2015, archaeologists from UCLA made a brief visit to the site, using photography from drone aircraft to create a detailed map. They speculate that the holes could have been used to measure produce given to the Inca state as tribute; the measurements might have been recorded on Incan khipus and reported to government officials. The archaeologists hope to do further studies to detect pollen or phytoliths that could tend to confirm this hypothesis.

Local residents have no record of who made the holes or what their purpose was, as nothing in their ancient mythologies offers an explanation. Findings by archaeologist and anthropologists are also not conclusive.

Viewed from above, the "Band of Holes" glistens in sunlight as if giving off some sort of code to those who created them - messages in stone. Perhaps the code is linked to human DNA and the progression of consciousness through time or a coded message linked to ancient astronauts who visited here long ago.

Were the holes created by an alien device? If so, to what end? I agree with Erich von Daniken about a mathematical reference to binary code but not the part about fire signals between aliens and humans.

It would appear that long ago some sort of alien device - traveled down the mountain and across the terrain - or from the terrain upward - leaving imprints - perhaps as markers for incoming alien travelers as the Inca were definitely connected to extraterrestrial visitors.

These holes connect for me somehow with the next article that takes us from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Perhaps there are other such ancient imprints in other parts of the world.

The number 8 seems key in both articles. 8 is part of the Fibonacci sequence linked to Simulation Theory .

From the sandstone cliffs of continental Europe to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, something has been leaving its dazzlingly geometric mark since the dawn of complex life   IFL Science - July 16, 2024

Despite finding thousands of these perfect honeycomb-shaped fossils, however, scientists are completely baffled as to what type of creature could possibly have been producing the patterns for such an unimaginably long time. Amazingly, the earliest known record of these bizarre shapes can be found in Leonardo Da Vinci's Paris Manuscript I. Amongst a series of sketches of marine fossils sits a drawing of a connected grid of perfect hexagons, which scientists later linked to an ancient creature called Paleodictyon nodosum. The many holes at the surface of its abode link up below in a labyrinth of subsurface tunnels

The first physical traces of this enigmatic organism were discovered in sedimentary rocks that once sat at the bottom of an ocean during the Eocene, some 55 to 35 million years ago. Consisting of a net-like series of tunnels and shafts that link up to form honeycomb arrangements, P. nodosum has now been found in dried-up sediments across Europe, with the oldest specimens having been dated to the Cambrian Period, roughly 500 million years ago.

What scientists can't figure out, however, is whether these prehistoric impressions are simply burrows made in the ancient seafloor by some bottom-dwelling creature, or an imprint of the organism itself. As if another layer of intrigue were required, researchers later made the mind-blowing discovery that the creator of these perfect patterns may still exist at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

While exploring an underwater mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the 1970s, scientists started noticing arrangements of small holes in the ocean floor that looked very much like the hexagonal designs associated with Paleodictyon. It took until 2003, however, for researchers to finally look beneath the fine layer of dust and sediment that hid whatever was making the holes.

To their amazement, the researchers found honeycomb-shaped networks of subsurface tunnels that were identical to P. nodosum. However, after retrieving several samples from depths of around 3,500 meters (11,500 feet), scientists were frustrated to find that the hexagonal burrows were completely empty of any organisms, either living or dead. Even more infuriatingly, no traces of DNA could be detected within the tunnels.

What all this means is that we have absolutely no idea what is generating these mesmerizing patterns, which appear to have been in continual production for around 500 million years. We still don't even know if the net-like arrangements are burrows or the imprint of some sponge-like creature.

With no option but to speculate, researchers have hypothesized that Paleodictyon may represent a cast left behind by organisms similar to glass sponges or giant, single-celled creatures known as xenophyophores. An alternative theory states that the networks are actually the remains of abandoned nests, and that the burrows are produced by hatchlings making their way through the sediment. Yet another explanation posits that the underground burrows may represent a kind of "farm", built by some strange burrowing worm to trap and cultivate the bacteria it feeds on. Ultimately, though, none of these hypotheses are free of holes, which means that whatever it is, Paleodictyon has us completely stumped.