Few Nazca settlements are known, perhaps due to their use of perishable building materials, although the houses at Tambo Viejo had stone foundations.
The main Nazca centre at Cahuachi probably had few or no permanent inhabitants. Instead its wide open spaces may have accommodated huge temporary encampments of pilgrims during ceremonies and festivals.
These spaces were defined by low adobe walls and were swept scrupulously clean after (and probably before) use. The centre also comprised more than forty adobe (sun-dried mud) mounds, constructed over natural hillocks. It has been suggested that these were the ritual monuments of individual communities or kin groups from all over the Nazca realms.
In addition there was one much larger structure, the 70 ft (20m) high Great Pyramid, probably the focal monument of the whole Nazca culture. Offerings found at Cahuachi included llama bones, feathers and many pottery panpipes, underlining the importance of music in ritual activities.
The proximity of Cahuachi to the Nazca Lines suggests that they were linked foci of worship. In this desert land where water was of primary importance Cahuachi probably owed its sacred status to its permanent springs. It went out of use as the major Nazca centre after AD 200 but continued to be a place of pilgrimage for many subsequent centuries.
