What is the Loch Ness Monster?

The Loch Ness Monster is a huge sea monster that is reputed to live in the cold, murky depths of Loch Ness, in the northern Highlands of Scotland. Reports vary as to its size, but most sightings tend to suggest that it is very large, and very shy about being photographed by visitors and scientists alike. Like the big foot (sasquatch), the Loch Ness Monster – or “Nessie”, as locals know her affectionately – has become one of the most famous symbols of the entire area.

Theories as to what the Loch Ness Monster might be are numerous. Some scientists suggest that perhaps it is a relic from the age of the dinosaurs, a sea monster whose ancestors got trapped when geological changes cut Loch Ness off from the sea. And indeed geological records do suggest that, millions of years ago, Loch Ness was open to the sea at one or both ends, rather than an inland lake as is now the case.     (http://www.fife.50megs.com/loch-ness.htm)

Why is it famous?

Like the big foot, the Loch Ness Monster is perhaps most famous for never having been clearly photographed. Photos of Nessie do exist (as they do of big foot; sasquatches, it seems, look very much like men in gorilla suits), but they are too grainy, out of focus, or inconclusive to convince the skeptics.

Then there is the setting. Loch Ness is one of the more remote regions of Scotland: an inhospitable, prehistoric lake (“Loch”, in the Scots tongue) so deep that it could accommodate all the world’s population within it, despite being less than a mile wide at its widest point. It is easy to gaze out over this dark expanse of water and imagine that there is something prehistoric lurking in its depths.

(http://www.lochnessproject.org/ADRIAN_SHINE_ARCHIVEROOM/
papershtml/loch_ness_morar_report_1983.htm)

The big question: does it really exist?

Numerous scientific studies over the years have sought to prove or disprove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, but every time the skeptics try to debunk the myth, it seems, they find something strange that makes even the cynics pause. Several studies have used sonar equipment to try and find the elusive beast, and occasionally turn up some odd findings, such as the study of 1969 by Andrew Carroll that came into contact with a creature estimated at 20 feet in length, which he was unable to identify.

The truth about the Loch Ness Monster will probably never be known. Like a big foot encounter, though, a sighting of Nessie remains the dream of many believers in unexplained phenomena.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster