Blythe Intaglios

The Blythe Intaglios are a mystery, not only because archaeologists disagree on how old they are, but also because no one knows who created them. The geoglyphs look like ancient cave paintings etched into the dirt when viewed from a helicopter. The majority of them show a solitary person surrounded by figures depicting diverse animals such as horses and serpents. They are the only geoglyphs in this portion of North America and cover a bigger area than the Nazca lines.

Archaeologists and Chemehuevi Native Americans who dwell on the land have various opinions about what the glyphs symbolize. Archaeologists believe they were etched into the earth between 3,000 and 10,000 years ago to portray strong native American chiefs, however the Chemehuevi believe they have been a part of the land since "forever" and that the combined geoglyphs convey the story of their creation myth.

The Blythe Intaglios are said to have been created by scraping away at the darker top layers of earth, revealing lighter dirt beneath. One of the oddities of these geoglyphs is that many of them depict horses, which makes dating them difficult. Archaeologists have provided several possibilities here. One theory is that the glyphs were created after the Spaniards arrived in the Americas in the 1500s, bringing with them European horses. Another possibility is that the geoglyphs date back more than 10,000 years, before the North American horse became extinct. The third is that North American horses did not become extinct when people think they did, but rather served as a source of food for aboriginal Americans rather than a vehicle of transportation.

Location: near Blythe, California, in the Colorado Desert
Founded: First recorded 1932