The Mystery of Scotland

1. The Mystery of Scotland 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