geoglyphs are fascinating and mysterious works of artistic and cultural significance many of which
continue to defy efforts to date or even uncover who made them let alone why we've talked about
the nazca lines in other videos but now it's time to focus on the lesser-known geoglyphs that have
been found around the world though not quite as famous as the nazca lines they are just as if
not more remarkable here are 10 of the most remarkable geoglyphs found around the world
10 white horse hill this giant stick figure in the shape of a horse is the size of a football
field and it's visible from as much as 20 miles away they survived for 3000 years thanks to a
persistent ritual called chalking day where groups of people are handed hammers and buckets of chalk
and assign specific regions inside the horse's outline those workers hammer and smash the chalk
into pace to brightening the white stony pathways inside the horse and preserving the oldest of
england's hill figures the national trust a conservation organization oversees the cleaning
ensuring that the horse's original shape is neatly preserved considering how old the geoglyph
is archaeologists think that the trenches which make up the horse's figure must have been dug by
antler picks and wooden spades and like many other geoglyphs around the world no one is certain why
it was made or how the ancient people who dug it up managed to know how it would look from
far away although one thing that stands out about white horse hill is how easily it can erode unlike
the nazca lines the horse requires constant upkeep it's a bit of a mystery white creators chose such
an unstable place for the horse but archaeologists suspect that this may have been intentional
9. kazakhstan's steppe geoglyphs back in 2015 nasa began studying a series of giant geoglyphs
in kazakhstan they went so far as to instruct the astronauts aboard the international space station
to photograph the region as well the oldest of the glyphs are nearly 8 000 years old and vary
in size and shape some of them appear as large circles composed of smaller circles
and some are as large as an aircraft carrier or large enough to hold several aircraft carriers
these geoglyphs have forced archaeologists to reconsider when humans developed the ability
to plan large sophisticated projects like this one of the mysteries that persists around the
neolithic markings though is the fact that many of them would have required the stone age tribes
who made them to stay in the area far longer than archaeologists think they did number eight blithe
intaglios the blithe intaglios are a mystery not only because archaeologists can't agree on how old
they really are but also because they can't agree on who made them best viewed from a helicopter
the geoglyphs appear like ancient cave paintings carved in the earth most of them depict a single
person accompanied by figures representing various animals such as horses and serpents
they're the only geoglyphs in this particular region of north america and they occupy a larger
trove of land than the nazca lines archaeologists are native americans who live on the land have
different theories for what the glyphs represent archaeologists believe that they were carved in
the earth three thousand ten thousand years ago as a means to represent powerful native american
leaders while the native americans believed that they've been part of the land since forever and
that the combined geoglyphs tell the story of their creation myth it's believed that the blythe
integrias were made by scraping at the darker top layer of soil revealing lighter soil underneath
one of the curiosities of these geoglyphs is that many of them depict horses which throws a wrench
into dating them archaeologists have presented a few options here one is that the glyphs were made
after the spaniards arrived in the americas in the 1500s bringing european horses with them
a second is that the geographists could date back more than 10 000 years before the north
american horse went extinct and the third is that north american horses didn't go extinct when we
think they did but were a source of food rather than a mode of transport for native americans
number 7. paraqus candelabra in peru the nazca lines may be the most famous geoglyph in the world
but they're not the only ones in peru or even in the nazca region paraca's candelabra is a large
image representing a trident with curly almost cactus-like extensions coming off it the geoglyph
is 595 to 800 feet long carved into the side of a hill with an average depth of two feet and is
visible as far out to sea as 12 miles radiocarbon dating puts the creation of the geoglyph back
to 200 bce what the candelabra depicts is up for debate some archaeologists believe it may
represent one of the south american gods or it could represent gyms and weed a hallucinogenic
plant it's thought that in ancient times residents of the paracas region would travel up the coast
to what is now california to harvest the weed though some residents think that the candelabra
represents a three-pronged candlestick holder or a cactus still the area has been a port for
seafaring travelers for centuries and some think that it's possible that one of those sailors could
have carved the candelabras into the side of the hill during a layover but no one's really certain
6. effigy mounds in iowa the effigy mounds national monument in iowa is meant to
protect more than 200 geoglyphs constructed by native americans between 700 and 2500 years ago
the area encompasses more than 2 500 acres with most of the mounds depicting local animals like
other geoglyphs most of the grass-covered mounds can only be properly seen from the air
archaeologists aren't really sure which native american tribes made the mounds but they have been
attributed to a number of different tribes who lived in the southwest in recent years activist
groups have called on the state government of iowa to officially designate the monument as a national
park to help preserve the mounds as a national treasure and provide a place where working
families can enjoy the natural beauty of iowa's scenery 5. atacama giant the atacama desert is one
of the world's driest non-polar desert it crosses parts of peru chile bolivia and even argentina the
desert is also home to more than 5 000 geoglyphs and one of them has sparked much debate in the
scientific community set against the backdrop of the atacama desert felsic lava formations
and reddish sand pointing towards the andes mountains the atacama giant is a mystery that
has puzzled archaeologists for years radiocarbon dating on the geoglyphs is difficult and produces
contentious records but some scientists think that the atacama giant dates back as far as 600 ce the
geoglyph is a simple stick figure of a man with his arms raised with what could be a crown some
archaeologists believe that the giant has some astronomical significance and that it was used as
a means to mark the change of the seasons the moon can sometimes be seen rising over it illuminating
the giant's crown but most archaeologists can't agree on the geoglyph's meaning or its origins
4. russian moose dating back more than 6 000 years the russian moose geoglyph which measures 900 by
12 by 15 feet and borders this europa lake in the ural mountains of russia is thought to be
the oldest in the world it was discovered by a local researcher named alexander chesterkov
while scanning through google earth images chesterkov then surveyed the area with seaplane
and paraglider followed by an archaeological expedition the moose is thought to have been
made by a megalithic culture that dwelled in the area and both children and adults are thought to
have aided in the digging of the massive ditches though is generally accepted that forced child
labor was not used by the adults of the tribe the building of the moose geoglyph was a cooperative
effort used to instill the common values of the tribe's culture into the children who helped build
the moose though who those people were and why they made the moose geoglyph remains a mystery 3.
works of old men located not far from the dead sea the works of the old men as they're called by the
bedouins occupy a larger swath of land than the nazca lines it consists mainly of large geometric
shapes accompanied by smaller ones and lines that crisscross their forms most of them appear to be
spherical will-like structures but a few oblong and rectangular some are solitary while others are
surrounded by other similar geoglyphs it's also thought that one of them shaped like a giant kite
was used in some kind of hunting system but like other geoglyphs on this list it's not really known
when or who built the works of the old men some scientists claim that the site is anywhere from
three thousand to five thousand years old builders suggest that it could be far older suggesting
eight thousand or even 9 000 years old that would put them right up there with some of the oldest
geoglyphs ever found on earth 2. rhythms of life geoglyphs not all geoglyphs are ancient gender
rogers a california artist has created a series of geoglyphs in yucca valley which represent native
american markings most of the glyphs are only truly appreciated from the air some measuring
as large as 200 feet and others measuring over 160 feet long more than 460 tons worth of stones
were used in their construction stacked on top of each other to create roger's designs as many
as 450 people aided in the construction of one of these glyphs while bearing 100 mile per hour
winds the geoglyph appears as a circle with a line through it from above a native american
hunting symbol his critics say he's crazy but some think that his geoglyphs could live on as long
as the nazca lines and stonehenge surviving until someone can puzzle over them and wonder who built
them just as we do with current ancient geoglyphs that we marvel at 1. the long man of wilmington
measuring over 230 feet and thought to date back to 10 000 bce the long man of wilmington england
appears as a guide over east sussex etched into the earth he holds two spears that run parallel
to his body since he was discovered in the 1700s scientists have been scratching their heads as to
when and who created him well some scientists have suggested he could be an iron age work others have
claimed that he might have been created in the 16th or 17th centuries and even the neo-pagans
have claimed the long man as an ancient sacred site neo-druids were outraged in 2007 when women
laid in the grass in an effort to give the long man feminine characteristics like hair lips and
breasts calling foul and claiming the stunt was an active vandalism on a sacred artifact
though in 2010 braxton has added a generously sized member between the geoglyph's legs giving a
new meaning to the long man so i really hope you enjoyed this video please don't forget to
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