1. Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster

2. Where is Loch Ness? Loch Ness is located in the Scottish Highlands.

3. Loch Ness Facts Once known as Loch na Beiste or The Lake of the Monster. The lake is 24 miles long, one and a half miles wide, average depth of 700 feet. The water is very cold, and is an inky black color.

4. Characteristics of Nessie Has a neck estimated to be six feet long It has a serpentine looking head with a large bump behind it. Nessie is estimated to be about 30 feet long from head to tail Thought to be an air breather Appearance of a plesiosaur

5. Reported Sightings First reported sightings date back to 1933 Part of the sightings are due to the new road built alongside the lake. 1934, Arthur Grant made the first land sighting of Nessie Some sightings are thought to be nothing but a hoax

6. Hoaxes Most famous photograph, “surgeons photo”, found false in 1993. Photo was of a model of the monster. Another photograph shows a vague and fuzzy image of Nessie’s face, but was later proven to be the remains of a tree stump. Sonar images show large object in the water, but uncertain if it is a school of fish.

7. Foot prints were found leading out of the lake, but they were then proven to be that of a hippo, staged to be Nessie’s foot prints

8. Other possibilities Explanations can be either a manatee or a zeugloden (also known as a primitive whale). Other culprits could be unknown species like a long necked seal, giant otter, or overgrown eel. Logs of Scotch Pine trees that decay underwater and create gases that cannot escape, but will eventually break through and propel the log through the water. Standing waves that are created by wind piling up a layer of warm water to the end of the loch and forcing the cold water to the opposite side.

9. Surgeons Photo