Japanese scientists have used artificial intelligence to uncover 303 new etchings in Peru's Nazca desert -- doubling the amount of known geoglyphs made some 2,000 years ago by a pre-Inca civilization. The fabled Nazca lines, a series of massive incisions on the desert floor depicting animals, plants, imaginary beings and geometric figures, have fascinated scientists ever since they were first discovered around a century ago. Best viewed from the air, the lines situated some 350 kilometers south of Lima are one of Peru's top tourist attractions.

For nearly 100 years, scientists have been perplexed by the famous Nazca geoglyphs – ancient patterns in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. Now, with the help of AI, researchers have discovered another 303 drawings – and they're possibly the most bizarre yet. Among them are alien-like figures, killer whales holding knives, cats, camels and a figure that looks like Pixar's Wall-E robot. Photos show some of the new discoveries, with lines manually added on the images to emphasize the original lines, which have faded due to erosion. The mysterious Nazca glyphs may date back to 400 BC, but scientists are still unsure what their exact purpose was, if any.

Researchers have discovered another 168 geoglyphs made in the soil of Peru's Nazca Desert, known as the Nazca lines. The newly-discovered drawings – identified by a team at Yamagata University in Japan – depict humans, camelids, birds, killer whales, felines and snakes. One of the human drawings looks like Homer Simpson, with big cartoon eyes and a patch of what looks like stubble around the mouth. These 168 newly-found geoglyphs are thought to date between 100 BC and AD 300, according to experts, but other Nazca lines may go back even further to 400 BC. The Nazca lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru.

Trapezoids, triangles and many other geometric shapes -- that's what one would see if they flew a drone over the high desert in Peru, South America. These giant geometric figures resemble birds, insects and other living beings. These are the famous Nazca lines which were discovered in the 1920s. In total, there are over 800 straight lines and 300 geometric figures. Archaeologists have been studying these lies ever since their discovery and still continue to do so till date.

Scientists from Japan have used machine learning for the first time to identify a new figure among the ancient motifs of Peru's Nazca Lines. 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. It's small, just five meters in height, and it shows a humanoid figure grasping a cane or club. Like the other drawings in the Nazca Desert, its exact function is unknown, but its discovery next to an ancient path suggests it might have been used as a waypoint. "It is in an area that we often investigated, but we did not know the geoglyph existed," Professor Makato Sakai, the leader of a team from Yamagata University that conducted the research, told The Verge over email.