Blythe Historic Sites & Interpretive Centres

Intaglios are earth figures created by ancient civilizations when the dark gravel surface of dry deserts was scraped off to expose a lighter subsoil, thus creating a large design in the earth. Two places in the world are home to such intaglios; the Atacama Desert in southern Peru and along the Gila and Colorado River near Blythe, California and Yuma, Arizona. In Blythe, the designs feature human and animal figures, with the largest human figure measuring more than 170 ft (51 m) and is anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years old. The intaglios are best viewed from the air.