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Source www.flickr.com Click to Enlarge

Source www.flickr.com Click to Enlarge

Source en.wikipedia.org Click to Enlarge

Category Outsider Art, Natural History, Rites and Rituals, Lost Tribes

Intaglios, or gigantic human, animal, and geometric figures drawn on the ground's surface are known throughout the American Southwest, South America, and New Caledonia.

While the best-known intaglios in the world are the Nazca Lines in Peru, there are over 300 intaglios in the American Southwest and adjacent regions of Mexico. The best known of the American intaglios are the Blythe Intaglios, located west of the Colorado River about 15 miles north of Blythe, California, and situated on two low mesas or terraces. The figures are believed to have been made by the Mohave and Quechan Indians, are somewhere between 450 and 2,000 years old, and represent Mastamho, the creator of life. The palette of these "drawings" is the earth itself; the artists scraped the dark rock of the desert ground to expose the lighter soil underneath.

With the largest human figure coming in at 171 feet (52 m) long, they are difficult to see from ground level and are best viewed from a helicopter. In fact, the figures are so difficult to see from ground level that it wasn't until 1932, when a pilot happened to look down and notice them, that they were rediscovered by modern society, all of which leads to the question: if the intaglios can only be seen from the air, how did the the Mohave and Quechan Indians see them?

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• Address California Highway 95, Blythe, California, United States

• http://www.blytheareachamberofcommerce.com/intag.htm

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33 degrees 48'00.81" N 114 degrees 31'54.91" W 1/4 mile west of California Highway 95 about 15 miles North of Blythe,California

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Comments

• Anonymous July 12, 2009
  I wonder if they are so old, why in 450 or more years they are not atleast partially covered or deteriorate by dirt, rubbish weeds and bushes and such.?.
• desertfairy July 12, 2009
  There are many of these figures in Imperial County that run all the way through to Yuma, Az at Pilot Knob.
• Anonymous June 17, 2009
  They were never meant to be seen by normal humans, but rather by the gods. Supposedly; perhaps, and probably, we will never know beyond mere speculation.