Ancient giant carvings show how llama herders stayed skinny!

19°32'56.64"S 69°58'4.67"W

Near Tiviliche, Chile, you can find this geoglyph of a couple of llama herders and their herd. The fat llama herder on the left is waving his arms, while the skinny one on the right is running with the herd. The glyph is likely a product of the Atacameños, and is over 500 feet long from end to end.

Giant Geoglyphs of the Atacama Desert

19°12'12.97"S 70° 0'28.90"W

An interesting site in the Atacama desert of Chile, possibly constructed by the Atacameños, a native american people who inhabited the andean portion of the Atacama desert between 2000 BC and 100 AD. Anyone have any more info about this particular site?

The Blythe Intaglios - A Man and His Mountain Lion

33°48'1.44"N 114°31'53.52"W

About 15 miles north of Blythe, California, near the Colorado River, there are geoglyphs that were discovered by a pilot flying over the area. The largest human figure is 171 feet long. The figures have been fenced off to prevent vehicle and foot damage to the sites. The site is believed to be 450 to 2,000 years old. According to the Mojave and Quechan Indians, the human figures represent Mastamho, the creator of all life. The animal figures represent Hatakulya, a mountain lion who helped in the creation of the world. Read more here.

This fish is bigger than a house,and it's in Livingston, MT

45°40'14.49"N 110°33'47.55"W

On the hills overlooking Livingston, Montana, there is a huge trout, which probably has something to do the fact that Livingston is home to the "Fly Fishing Discovery Center and Museum." The big "P" off to the east is for Park County High School.

The Incredible Two-headed Dragon of Atacama

22°52'22.41"S 68°18'27.18"W

This two-headed dragon was built by Andrew Rogers as part of his Rhythms of Life earth art series. The geoglyph is about 80 m long by 2.8 m high, and is located at an altitude of 2469 m (8100 ft) above sea level, on the Llano de la Paciencia (Plain of Patience), 13 km west of the town of San Pedro de Atacama.

The giant scultptures of Eastern Park, Geelong Australia

38° 8'42.17"S 144°23'3.59"E

An earth art sculpture called "Rhythms of Life" by Andrew Rogers, constructed from large stones individually placed. It was commissioned in association with the Commonwealth Games 2006.

This may be the world's only spiral jetty.

41°26'15.85"N 112°40'2.39"W

Constructed on the shores of the great Salt Lake in 1970 by sculptor Robert Smithson, the Spiral Jetty is 1500 feet long. It was constructed on dry land during a drought, and remained surrounded by water for the next 30 years. More on the Spiral Jetty.

This political ad paid for by someone with waaaaaay too much time on their hands.

12° 0'30.87"S 77° 2'47.63"W

Huge lettering (over 300 feet across) near Pisaq, Peru, promoting a candidate in 2006 for Peruvian Congress, possibly Wilder Félix Calderón Castro, a member of the APRA Party (the logo for which can be made out in the star figure). The hills around this town arefull of ads, messages, graffiti and other humungous lettering. Apparently the ancient Peruvians (i.e Nazca) weren't the only ones who like this medium.

Rock Eagle Effigy Mound - Georgia

33°25'2.66"N 83°23'14.60"W

An archaeological site in Putnam County Georgia, USA constructed 1,000 to 3,000 years ago. It's built of thousands of pieces of quartzite laid in the mounded shape of a large bird. Although it is most often referred to as an eagle, scholars don't really know exactly what kind of bird it is supposed to be.
Read more about it at Wikipedia

Serpent Mound, Peebles, Ohio

39° 1'33.00"N 83°25'46.66"W

The Serpent Mound is 1,370 feet long. The most likely builders are the Adena Culture (800 BCE - 100 CE), the Hopewell culture (200 BCE - 500 CE), and the Fort Ancient Culture (1000 CE -1650 CE). Radio carbon dating of materials discovered in 1996 (see below) has indicated that the mound was built circa 1050 CE. This suggests that it was built by the Fort Ancient culture. The mound was built close in time to the appearance in the sky of a supernova which left behind the Crab Nebula (1054 CE), and may have been built in recognition of the strange light in the sky. More on Serpent Mound.

The Newburgh Bear

56°20'58.36"N 3°12'51.35"W

Located near Newburgh, England, it was created as a community project in 1980. The outline was plowed by a worker from Parkhill Farm, and permission for the outline was given by Mr Tom Howieson of Parkhill Farm. The bear is believed to be a depiction of a stone called the bear stone, from which the local Bear Tavern takes its name. More about the Newburgh Bear.

The Fovant Badges - Fovant, UK

51° 3'12.17"N 1°58'47.20"W

These hillside geoglyphs were created by soldiers garrisoned near Fovant, Wiltshire, England, during World War One. Read more about it at the Fovent Badge Society web site.

There's a creepy giant eye in the middle of Arizona.

35°25'38.22"N 111°15'19.95"W

Artist James Turrell decided in 1975 to take Roden Crater, a cindercone in Arizona and transform it into a gargantuan work of art. Still under construction, the finished project will resemble a huge eye, and will feature underground tunnels and chambers which are designed to make visiting the site a unique experience.

NYT Article on the Roden Crater Project
More on the Roden Crater Project

This giant propeller was carved into a hillside and dedidated by Queen Elizabeth!

51° 5'52.57"N 1°12'26.83"E

The Battle of Britain Memorial, located near Capel-Le-Ferne, dedicated by Queen Elizabeth on July 9, 1993 to those who fought in the Battle of Britain between July 10 and October 31, 1940. The Memorial is an immense three bladed propeller, each 38 metres long, cut into the hillside. The stone figure of a lone pilot (carved by Harry Gray) is seated on a sandstone base on which the badges of the squadrons which participated in the Battle, are carved.

The Battle of Britain Memorial Hope Page

"Earthsign" appears near Munich Airport

48°21'7.18"N 11°44'5.82"E

Just northwest of Munich Airport lies an mega-sized artwork by Wilheli Holderied's and Karl Schlamminger called "Earth: An Island in Time." It is formed out of gravel. The size of the geoglyph is 270 x 170 meters, the furrows are 3.40 meters deep.

A German web site about the "Earthsign" translated into English

100 Years of Coca Cola, Arica, Chile

18°31'45.67"S 70°15'5.25"W

To commemorate the centennial of Coca Cola, this mega-advertisement was created in 1986 on the "El Hacha" ("the Axe") hill in Arica, Chile; it measures 122 meters wide and 40 meters high and it is made from 70,000 Coca-Cola bottles.

Giant Pink Bunny, Artesina, Italy

It's not just giant and pink... it's knitted. Completed in 2005 by a group of artists who call themselves "Gelatin," the megalithic artwork is at home on Italy's Colletto Fava Mountain. Visitors are encouraged to climb upon the giant stuffed animal and rest.

Article at Ananova.com about the bunny
Article at ShowMe.UK about the bunny

The Gentle Giant of Craigmillar, Edinburgh Scotland

55°55'48.84"N 3° 7'5.71"W

This megalithic sculpture of Gulliver was designed by Jimmy Boyle, a former gangster and murderer while still a prisoner in the Special Unit in Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow. It was built by unemployed adults and youth, and completed in 1976. It has fallen into disrepair, and may be threatened with demolition. More on the Craigmillar Gulliver.

"Ni Pena Ni Miedo," - Atacama Desert, Chile

24° 2'6.67"S 70°26'14.50"W

"Ni pena ni miedo" translates roughly as "No shame, nor fear." The work of Chilean poet Raúl Zurita. He said that during Augusto Pinochet’s regime he “began to imagine writing poems in the sky, on the faces of cliffs, in the desert”. In the 1990s, Zurita turned his attention to the desert, where he had the words bulldozed into the sand. The phrase is an amazing 2 miles long!

Gulliver Travels to Valencia Spain

39°27'45.48"N 0°21'32.70"W

Gulliver Park is an attraction in the center of Valencia Spain, where kids can imagine themselves as Lilliputians, and climb all over the "giant" Gulliver.

Giant Characters, Xinjiang, China

42°27'14.57"N 94° 8'48.47"E

Chinese government sloganeering, carved into the ground in Hami Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. The letters are 185 feet tall, and the slogan is a whopping 1677 feet long. The translation reads: "Strengthen our race to keep our boundaries peaceful. Keep developing our economics. Enlarge our farming."

Tibetan Ice Characters on Frozen lake

32°54'30.71"N 97° 2'46.56"E

A frozen lake near Gyegu, Tibet displays huge tibetan characters carved into the ice and snow. The characters represent a common Tibetan mantra, "Om mani padme hung" - the mantra of Chenrezig, a buddhist Bodhisattva. Roughly translated, the phrase means "May all beings atttain enlightenment." The tallest letters are approximately 192 feet tall.

"City" Megalithic Earth Sculpture, Nevada

38° 1'57.05"N 115°26'19.75"W

A megalithic piece of earth art called "City" located in Garden Valley, Nevada. The work was begun in 1972 by the artist Michael Heizer and is ongoing. It covers a space approximately one and a quarter miles long and more than a quarter of a mile wide and is one of the largest sculptures ever created.

Clydesdale Horse - Waimate, New Zealand

44°44'41.60"S 171° 0'29.19"E

This white horse is on a hillside above Waimate, New Zealand. The horse was dedicated to the Clydesdale horses which were used to break in the land in the area. It was built in the late nineteen-sixties by Norman Haymanand and his wife Betty. The horse is constructed from over 1000 concrete slabs with a pre-cast head weighing two and a half tons. It measures 60 feet (18 meters) high by 48 feet (15 meters) long.

Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset, UK

50°48'48.64"N 2°28'27.43"W

The Cerne Abbas Giant or the "Rude Man" is the largest hillfigure in Britain, he is one of two representations of the human form, the other being the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex. The giant figure, carved in solid lines from the chalk bedrock measures in at 180 feet high, and carries a huge knobbed club.

Here's a picture of Genghis Khan, and its 455 feet tall!

47°53'8.26"N 106°55'29.91"E

Just south of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia is a 455 foot high portrait of Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire. Just to the west of the portrait is another geoglyph with an inscription depicting Genghis Khan's name.


See a photograph showing both geoglyphs

Giant Horse and Lizard Near Juarez, Mexico

31°39'40.82"N 106°35'26.02"W

This symbol appears on the ground 9.6 miles west of Juarez International Airport, Mexico. Just to the southeast of the horse is a small stylized lizard. There are also some other symbols in the area as well (a big "H" and a word or name spelled out, but pretty illegible). Painted in whitewash on a mountainside by local architect Hector García Acosta and his son Carlos, it is a huge reproduction of the Uffington horse in the U.K.

This Portrait of Turkey's President Ataturk is bigger than anything you've ever seen!

39°47'26.63"N 39°28'36.25"E

A portrait of modern Turkey's first President, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is embalzoned upon a hill overlooking the city of Erzincan, Turkey.

Read more about Ataturk

Could this be the lost city of Atlantis?

31°29'1.36"N 24°23'48.75"W

This underwater feature can be found about 430 miles south of the island of Santa Maria in the Portugese Autonomous Region of the Azores, west of North Africa. It appears to be an almost perfect rectangle, with streets and city blocks neatly laid out. There are even what appear to me major roads leading to outlying suburbs and existing above-sea level population centers. Google issued a statement pooh-poohing the idea, saying, "a statement from Google read. "What users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data." My response to that would be, then why is this phenomenon only visible in this tiny patch of ocean?

Read Google's Official Response, which is actually pretty convincing.

Bulgarian Cross and Centennial

42°54'6.64"N 22°59'34.04"E

Southeast of Dragoman, (Sofia Province) Bulgaria, you can find this huge geoglyph depicting the Bulgarian Cross of Bravery, and a centennial commemoration of Bulgarian unification after the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war. The medal measures 600 feet across, and the lettering is approximately 100 feet in height. So, now that we know what it is, and where it is, and even about when it was made (1985), who can tell us who, how, and why?

Bulgarian Cross of Bravery
Commemoration of the Centennial of Bulgarian Unification

Satellite photos picked up something VERY mysterious near Area 51...

37°38'46.62"N 115°45'1.66"W
North of Area 51's Groom Lake, Near Rachel, Nevada, USA

This 87,500 square foot picture of Colonel Sanders, which was referred to as the “Face from Space” by the project team, took a team of nearly 50 designers, engineers, scientists (including astrophysicists), architects and other professionals working nearly three months to conceive, create and execute building the world’s largest logo. The logo consists of 65,000 one-foot by one-foot painted tile pieces that were assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle: 6,000 red, 14,000 white, 12,000 eggshell, 5,000 beige and 28,000 black. See how it was done