By: Victoria Date: 1/18/08

The first ever Loch Ness Monster Sighting was in 565 A.D by an Irish Saint named Saint Columba There have been over 2,000 Loch Ness Monster Sightings since Saint Columba’s. The Loch Ness Monster resides in the Scottish lake of Loch Ness. Even though there are tons of photos and thousands of sightings, the existence of the beast is still an unsolved mystery. The last Loch Ness Monster sighting to date was in August of 2002.

Many sightings of the Loch Ness Monster descriptions have indicated that Nessie may be a plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs lived in the age of the dinosaurs, it was a marine reptile that was supposed to have gone extinct when the dinosaurs had gone extinct. It ate fish and marine plants. Many people believe that Nessie is a plesiosaur, but still, there is no proof that the monster exists, so there is no proof that proves Nessie is a plesiosaur. Which leaves one question, what is Nessie?

In ancient Scotland, there were ancient peoples called Picts. One of the Picts legends described a terrible beast living in a nearby loch. They also carved a picture of the beast in stone. The beast carved in the rock looked like a smaller version of what Nessie believers think Nessie looks like.

Probably the most famous Nessie hoax is the famous Surgeon’s photo. The Surgeon’s photo came into the public eye near the end of World War II, Nessie had shrunk out of the picture during the war and forgotten, until this picture was distributed. This picture was the picture that was proof that Nessie existed in the loch. Then, sixty years after the photo was taken, the person that had taken it confessed to one of the biggest hoaxes in Nessie history. He had used a toy submarine and a plastic head to use in the photo.