Featured Image Credit: @gmapsfun/TikTok
Topics: Animals, Google Maps, France
Poppy Bilderbeck
Viewers were left baffled by a so-called giant snake skeleton spotted on the coast of France using Google Maps, but not all is what it seems.
If you ever get bored of social media and are stuck inside while it's raining but fancy exploring the outside then why not hop onto Google Maps and discover some of the weird and whacky sights there are to see?
Well, there's a TikTok account dedicated to just that.
In their latest video, the user has revealed the 'creepiest things that Google Maps recorded without even knowing it'.
Advert
From searching in the woods in Russia and ending up face to face with an ominous figure who some speculate to be Bigfoot, the user then takes their followers over to France.
Zooming in, the TikToker reveals the aerial view of a snake-like object on the coast.
The video states: "Somewhere in France, we can see something giant you can only see with satellites, hidden on Google Earth.
"Users believe this to be a giant snake. It's about 30 metres long and bigger than any snake caught before."
The account suggests the 'snake' could be a Titanoboa which is an extinct genus of exceptionally large snakes.
The video has since amassed over two million views, 70,000 likes and hundreds of comments, with users flooding to the comments in debate over the discovery in France.
However, many were quick to distill the TikToker's claims of having made a slithery discovery.
One said: "Ok we will not go to France."
Another wrote: "The snake is an artwork of an academy I think but I know it isn't real."
"This is what happens when the world is put on tiktok," a third commented. "People that don’t go anywhere raise conspiracies."
Fact-checking website Snopes has since responded to the claim that a 'giant snake skeleton' is perched on the side of the coast of France.
While the object is indeed a snake called Le Serpent d’Océan and pretty terrifying in itself, it's a large, metallic sculpture - so you don't need to get worried about getting bitten or swallowed up next time you paddle the shores of Mindin, Saint-Brevin-les-Pins.
The contemporary sculpture is listed on Val De Loire's website under 'Museum and interpretation centres'. The sculpture was created by Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping and the website states that it is free to go and see.
The page reads: "Its skeleton appears with each tide, resembling an archaeological excavation and its movement makes it look alive. Don't miss it!"
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]