Museo Maria Reiche, Research museum in El Ingenio, Peru.

The Museo Maria Reiche is a research museum in El Ingenio dedicated to documenting the ancient Nazca Lines. The collection displays maps, photographs, and archaeological materials gathered across decades of scientific investigation and field study.

Research into the Nazca Lines began in the 1940s and transformed understanding of these enigmatic geoglyphs. Over fifty years of systematic measurement and documentation shifted how the scientific community viewed these ancient creations.

The museum reveals how the Nazca Lines became central to understanding ancient societies and their relationship with the landscape. Visitors see how these geoglyphs shaped both local heritage and scientific inquiry across generations.

The museum sits about 28 kilometers south of Nazca along the Pan-American Highway and is easily reached by car. Its location makes it convenient to combine a visit with exploration of the nearby Nazca Lines.

María Reiche died in Lima in 1998 at the age of 95, and her grave lies in the garden beside the house where she lived and worked. She had come from Dresden, where she studied mathematics, geography and physics, and from 1946 she devoted herself to the Nazca Lines, encouraged by the American archaeologist Paul Kosok.