Sheer sea cliffs, steep mountain flanks and barren hillsides aren’t called “rock faces” for nothing; more than a few actually display familiar profiles.
1. Stac Levenish, Scotland
Image via: Geograph/Stephen Hodges
The island of Stac Levenish (also known as Stac Leibhinis) is one of the more remote and inaccessible of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. This ancient, eroded sea stack stands 62m (203 ft) tall roughly 2½ km off Village Bay on Hirta, the main island of the St Kilda archipelago. Some sources indicate that “Levenish” means “useless” in the local Gaelic dialect because birds refused to nest on it. Perhaps the presence of a 20-story high human face on one side of the isle might have something to do with that.
Images via: David Alexander Elder, Glasgow Digital Library and Rojabro
Stac Levenish’s north cliff best displays the striking profile and from time immemorial those traveling to St Kilda from the east remarked upon the mammoth visage looming over them. The face can also be discerned from the opposite side of the isle though not quite as clearly. Scottish mountaineer Norman Heathcote, who made the first recorded ascent of Stac Levenish in 1900 (above left), described the climb as being “moderately difficult”. For him, maybe.
2. Romania’s Sphinx
Images via: WSU, Untapped Cities and 5th World
High up in central Romania’s Bucegi Mountains, wind- and rain-driven erosion have carved enormous rock outcroppings into a variety of unusual and unlikely shapes. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Great Bucegi Sfinx, first recorded photographically from its optimum viewing angle in 1936. The 8m high by 12m wide (86ft by 39ft) “rockhead” can be found at an altitude of 2,216 metres (7,270 ft), and is said to be most distinctly seen at sunset every November 21st.
3. Eagle Cap Chieftain
Image via: WSU
Photographer Ted Werth thought he was capturing a scenic shot of Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness Area but something else developed along with his film: the head of a proud Indian chief seemingly in mid war whoop! Shadowing and the lay of the land combine to impart a great degree of emotion to the perceived head at the summit, who appears to either crying out or wearing war paint…or both.
4. Hodge Close Quarry Skull
Images via: Tiscali, Untapped Cities and 5th World
Deep in England’s scenic Lake District lies Hodge Close Quarry, a cavern-pocked slate pit flooded with water over 35m (115ft) deep. The water’s surface level varies depending on the weather but when conditions are just right and the water is mirror-smooth, an eerie skull-like apparition forms before onlookers’ eyes.
Image via: MU-43/Al.
Here’s an image of “The Beast” tilted 90 degrees to the right, or what you’d see if you were at the quarry and tilted your head 90 degrees to the left. Kudos to MU-43 forum participant “Al.” who snapped the image above…and managed to escape with his camera (and life) intact.
5. Roswell Calling Card
Image via: Outdoors New Mexico
The Long House at the Bandelier National Monument in north-central New Mexico features a towering cliff face of volcanic tuff deposited over a million years ago. The eerie alien face peering out from the rock wall is somewhat younger, though let’s not annoy it by discussing its age.
6. Moher Of God!
Images via: The Daily Edge and Rockfeller
Ireland’s spectacular 120m (390ft) high Cliffs of Moher have been observed and photographed thousands of times from about every possible angle but nobody’s reported any faces on the windswept rocks…until now. American tourist Sandra Clifford, 42, apparently accessed an intriguing new angle (from above, via airplane) that revealed what appears to be the face of a bearded man from biblical times. Hmm, I wonder who it could be?
7. Rock Talk
Images via: Lancia Trendvisions
“Nature sometimes becomes an artist”, states Japanese photographer Kozo Yano, “and I am sure that it wants to tell us what it’s thinking.” Either that or it’s content to hold that secret for just a moment, geologically speaking, and reveal it long after humankind have left the proverbial building.
Image via: Lancia Trendvisions
Kozo has journeyed from the coast of Brittany to the beaches of California in an effort to find nature’s sedimentary spokes-persons and capture them for the world to admire. In doing so, Kozo reverses the roles of Artist and Model by letting “air, soil and light speak for themselves.”
Images via: Lancia Trendvisions and Cornel1801
“You see what’s you want to see,” stated the Rock Man from the late Harry Nilsson’s 1971 TV movie The Point, and looking at Kozo Yano’s photo of an anthropomorphic rock, I see the Rock Man. Maybe that’s the point.
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