Blythe Intaglios, California

A group of three large human and animal forms made by scraping the top layer of desert pavement away, exposing the lighter layer underneath. The largest is an image of a woman, 171 feet long. There is also a snake, and an image of a four legged animal, which is interpreted differently by archeologists: to some it appears to be a horse, in which case the site would post-date 1540, to others it is a mountain lion, which could date the site to as much as 2,000 years ago. The remoteness of the site, next to the Colorado River, near Blythe, allowed these forms to survive, before protective fencing was installed in the 1960's.