They're strange and eerie and no one knows why they're there. Theories include a calendar, messages to spacemen or an offering by a shaman who was high. But the most controversial is Erich von Däniken who describes them as landing strips for alien spacecraft in his book Chariots of the Gods. Residents say the Indians conducted rituals on these giant drawings, to thank the gods and to ensure that water would continue to flow from the Andes.
Whatever the reason, you have to go there and see them for yourself. And the only way to see them is from the air, in a tiny plane, bumpy and stomach-churning for some.
I'd seen a television programme about the Nazca Lines, but never dreamt that I would one day see them.
The lines are made up of shapes, from a dog to a monkey and a whale, spaceman, spiders and plants, a hummingbird, tree and hands to straight lines. Some are very clear, while others fade into the 1 300km of one of the driest deserts on earth.
Afterwards, a visit to nearby Cemetrio de Chauchilla is a macabre experience. Visitors view well-preserved mummified bodies sitting with hair, clothing and teeth intact, preserved by the dry atmosphere in the 12 to 15 sites. The Nazca culture flourished between 300BC and AD800. They also constructed an impressive system of underground aqueducts that still function today.
The Nazca Lines lured me to Peru but it was Bolivia that stole my heart, especially La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at 3 632m. I'll never forget travelling through the arid, brown, desolate altiplano when suddenly, a crack in the plateau, and there it was, 380m below - La Paz, guarded by snow-capped Illimani (6 402m). The valley was carved out of the mountain by a gigantic prehistoric glacier.
Streams flow through undergrowth of carob trees, with the wealthy living in the smog of the valley floor, while clusters of mud-brick adobe houses cling to the slopes.
La Paz is the political, economic and commercial centre of Bolivia and a major tourist attraction. It's a city of contrasts, with towering skyscrapers lining the main Avenida 16 de Julio, contrasting with the old town, which is full of character. In the markets you can buy anything from a plastic cup to a llama foetus to bury under the foundations of a house for good luck.
Tearing myself away I visited Tihuanaco, said to be the world's oldest city. It lies on a plateau that resembles the surface of the moon. According to Inca legend, it was built by a race of giants whose fatherland had been destroyed in a great deluge that lasted for two months.
Many of Tihuanaco's buildings were constructed of massive stones that were placed in such a manner that only people with advanced engineering skills could have designed and transported them.
Nearby is the highest navigable lake in the world, Titicaca, 3 750m above sea level, said to be sacred, a place of legends and an underwater city.
There was little research in the lake because of diving at altitude, until Jacques Cousteau, the French underwater explorer, came in 1968. He found a 1 500 year-old temple, a terrace for crops and a pre-Inca road.
From Copocabana, on the Bolivian shore, I was rowed to Isla de la Sol (Island of the Sun) and spent days hiking along the shore, all the time searching the water for signs of the ancient city.
By now my interest in ancient history was piqued, but it was in Peru that I learnt about other civilisations. Having read about blocks of rock where a credit card cannot fit between, I was completely in awe of the barrel-breasted, high cheek-boned little Incas.
This advanced civilisation made me feel insignificant with their amazing ruins, steps, palaces, temples, tunnels and cities that still stand today, despite earthquakes, development and time.
By world standards the Inca Empire was enormous, stretching 3 220km, from Ecuador through Peru, Bolivia and Chile to Argentina. About 15-million people submitted to the repression of the Incas, whose capital was Cuzco, "navel of the earth".
According to legend, the sun god Viracocha gave a gold rod to his two children, a boy and a girl. He told them that wherever they stopped to eat or sleep they should thrust the sceptre into the ground. This point was qosqo, "the earth's navel", and it was here that the Incas founded the city that became the centre of this great empire.
One of the best sites to experience the "credit card thing" is at the Sacsayhuaman, pronounced "sexy woman", 15km north as the condor flies, overlooking Cuzco in the Sacred Valley. In its day it was a fort, with zigzag walls of stone, thought to signify a puma's teeth. These blocks were brought from elsewhere and weigh many tons, but fit together without a hair separating them.
Following an original Inca trail, I stopped at the market town of Pisaq, visiting a bakery for empandas - similar to small Cornish pasties. They also had a pen of cuy, guinea pig, a speciality dating back to Inca times. The dish gets its name from the sound the animal makes just before being skewered and roasted.
After haggling and shopping, the next stop was cicheria, a house with a red plastic bag, signifying chichi, the local brew, for sale.
But it's Machu Picchu that most travellers want to see.
It's hard to believe that this "lost city" was once hidden in jungle growth until Hiram Bingham discovered them in 1911.
Even today the ruins are remote, making access difficult.
To this day, no one knows why Machu Picchu was abandoned and how it eluded the Spaniards, known for damaging so many archaeological sites.
It didn't have the gold the Spanish were seeking, therefore it is relatively intact.
However, archaeologists regularly uncover sites of more advanced societies than the Inca, such as the 4 000-year-old temple unearthed near Peru's northern desert coast. Ventarron, a 2 500m2 site points to an advanced civilisation. And, more recently, archaeologists, led by Cuzco's National Culture Institute, found an ancient roadway, irrigation system and temple on the periphery of Sacsayhuaman. The site includes 11 rooms, thought to have held mummies and idols. The team of archaeologists believe the structures predated the Inca empire.
Part of the structure was destroyed by dynamite blasts in the early 20th century, when the site was used as a stone quarry.
The roadway, buried for hundreds of years under a metre of soil, is believed to have formed part of a network connecting Sacsayhuaman's buildings.
Travelling north along the 5 000km Pacific coast of Peru, I found the tiny village of Huanchaco, near Trujillo, another hard-to-leave place. The long beach was deserted, except for caballitos (fishermen) in totora reed boats.
Huanchaco is small, almost untouched by tourism, and the people are friendly. It's the ideal base from which to explore the ancient civilisation of the Moche, 100 to 800AD.
Over time, Spanish explorers and others looted most of the pyramids' treasures but, judging by the museum in Trujillo, some of the artwork was saved. I was seduced by the erotic pottery of the Moche and found it contradictory to carvings on pyramids. Near Moche sites were carvings of nature's symbols of fish and animals.
Dozens of pyramids are dotted in arid valleys along the coast, serving as religious centres where the Moche built farming and fishing communities, and made pottery and jewellery. They were the powerfully religious elite, noted for elaborate gold work and artefacts contrasting scenes of sexual encounters with fishing, hunting, combat and punishment, evidenced by clubs, shields and nose rings.
Their capital was a flat-topped pyramid, Huaca del Sol, Pyramid of the Sun, and Huaca de la Luna, Pyramid of the Moon. These planets were the centre of their religious rites and governance.
At the six-tier mud pyramid of Huaca del Sol is a plaza larger than a football field. Archaeological evidence suggests it was used for rituals and as a royal residence and burial chamber, indicating that people partook of sexually explicit acts and human sacrifice.
The Moche added new levels to the pyramid, burying people inside before erecting new chambers on top. These platforms were the site of human sacrifice rituals. Afterwards, victims' bodies were hurled over the side and left exposed. The remains of multiple skeletons show grisly trauma, usually a severe blow to the head.
Along the shoreline, surrounded by sugarcane fields, is the archaeological site of El Brujo and part of an ornate frieze showing a life-sized man with a rope around his neck.
Over the centuries, El Brujo has been flooded, transforming the once grand cathedral of the Moche era into a mud mound. Archaeologists discovered rooms and terraces decorated with colourful art.
Further along the coast, in the Lamabayque Valley, is the 1988 discovery of the tomb of Lord Sipan.
Artefacts found in the tomb included a necklace portraying human heads, revealing that ritual bondage, torture and decapitation of prisoners had occurred. Naked, bleeding and bound, prisoners were led into the ceremonial plaza.
A Moche priest slit their throats, one by one, while a priestess caught the blood in a golden goblet for the priest to drink.
The Moche civilisation came to an end when a strong El Nino hit the Andean coast in the 6th century.
The Moche were also known for their irrigation systems - diverting rivers into canals in desert fields.
Go and experience these ancient civilisations for yourself and be humbled by their legacy.
- Air Malaysia have flights to Lima for about R9 651, to La Paz for R15 187 and Rio in Brazil for R15 187.
- Visas are not required for South African passport holders who stay for 90 days or less.
- Best time: The dry season is May to December.