LIMA, Peru (AP) -- The United Nation's cultural agency has donated
                   $50,000 to prevent mudslides from damaging the famed Nazca Lines
                   and to draw up a long-term conservation plan for the mysterious
                   symbols and animal figures etched into Peru's southern desert centuries
                   ago.

                   Unusually heavy rains in the usually bone-dry desert triggered mudslides last
                   month, damaging one minor line about 14 kilometers (9 miles) south of the
                   most famous figures.

                   Archaeologist Luis Guillermo Lumbreras said in Wednesday's El Comercio
                   that with changing global weather patterns the landslides "represent an
                   important wake-up call."

                   Under Lumbreras' direction, workers are constructing a series of drainage
                   ditches to protect the most famous figures, which include a hummingbird,
                   monkey, heron, whale, and spider about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of
                   the city of Nazca, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of the capital, Lima.

                   The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization donated $30,000
                   to help fund the emergency measures and another $20,000 for a master plan
                   to conserve and manage the tourist attraction, etched into the desert sands
                   by the Nazca Indians between 300-600 A.D.

                   The lines were added to UNESCO's Cultural Heritage list in 1994.

                   The site has baffled archaeologists, who wonder how ancient cultures
                   constructed such straight lines and precise figures, visible only from the air,
                   without modern tools or airplanes.

                   Scientists debate their purpose, offering such theories as a calendar, a map
                   of underground water supplies and landing strips for space aliens.