geoglyph

American  

[jee-oh-glif, jee-uh-] / ˈdʒi oʊˌglɪf, ˈdʒi ə- /

noun

1. a large-scale design or pattern on the surface of the land made by arranging stones, rocks, or earth, or by removing ground cover to expose the rock or soil beneath.

   We flew over the Nazca Lines—very old geoglyphs in the Peruvian desert that are believed by some experts to be drawings of animals.

---

Etymology

Origin of geoglyph

First recorded in 1950–55; geo- ( def. ) + glyph ( def. );

Example Sentences

“Over the past week, the geoglyph was cleaned and conserved, and shows a feline figure in profile, with its head facing the front.”

From The Guardian • Oct. 18, 2020

This revealed geoglyph number 143, our fellow with the cane.

From The Verge • Nov. 19, 2019

Akihisa Sakurai, a researcher from IBM Japan who was involved in the discovery, told The Verge over email that finding the new geoglyph was a tricky task.

From The Verge • Nov. 19, 2019

The illustration, known as a geoglyph, is thought to date to between 100 BC and 500 AD, and was made by removing the dark stones of the Nazca Desert to reveal the white sand beneath.

From The Verge • Nov. 19, 2019

Schaan and Ranzi have estimated that building a single geoglyph 600 feet across would require moving ten thousand cubic yards of earth— a big task without metal tools.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann