No one knows which people group created them or why they did, but the Colorado Desert contains unusual renderings of ancient people and animals. UC Berkeley asserts the renderings could be at least 1200 years old.
Some experts refer to these pictorial representations as “geoglyphs” while others call them “intaglios,” an Italian word (with a silent g), meaning “designs cut into a hard surface.” In simple terms, they are referred to as “land art,” having been created by scraping away dark layers of sand and rocks to reveal a lighter soil underneath.
Tom and I visited the Blythe (California) Intaglios on a very hot day this past May. If we hadn’t known where to look, we might have missed the small sign along Highway 95 north of Blythe. Once we turned off the highway, a dirt road led us to them.
The Blythe Intaglios were discovered in 1932 by a pilot named George Palmer as he was flying between Las Vegas and Blythe. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County was notified immediately after his discovery. A team from the museum went out to survey and map them. But because of the Depression at that time, no money was allocated for continued study or preservation.
It is believed that tire tracks from General Patton’s troops damaged some of the intaglios when the area was used for World War II training. A chain link fence now surrounds and protects each one to prevent further damage.
As to what they actually look like, the Blythe Intaglios include several human figures, some animals, and a spiral or two. The largest figure is one of a person, measuring 171 feet long. Here are a couple of pictures we took as we stood not far away.
One of the complaints from tourists who visit the intaglios is that it is impossible to get a full appreciation of the drawings without being able to look down on them from a distance as one could from an airplane.
The Google Earth images do give that much-needed, overall perspective. The ones below are different from the ones pictured above, but give an idea of how amazing the intaglios are.
It should be mentioned that there are over 200 intaglios near the Colorado River in California and Arizona. The Blythe Intaglios, however, are the ones best known in the U.S. The most famous intaglios in the world are located in Peru. There are others in Brazil, Chile, the U.K., Syria, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India.
The earth is full of so many intriguing stories. In a world that has become overly commercialized, it’s a bit refreshing to go back in time when life seemed a lot simpler. But maybe it wasn’t really that simple for the people who lived then. Again, it might be a matter of perspective!
So unusual . How did you know about them?
Hi Dottie. We had seen info about the intaglios after we checked into our hotel room in Blythe. Otherwise, we would not have known. The day we were at the intaglios we were the only ones there. The heat was pretty intense that day, so that may have been why.
It is cool that you can see the images so clearly via Google Maps
Thanks!
Yes! When we saw the figures up close, we weren’t even sure what we were looking at until we later saw the Google Earth images.