Nearly 1,500 years have passed since the legend of the Loch Ness Monster originated in Scotland. The Loch Ness Monster is a supposed creature believed to live in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The legend of the Loch Ness Monster originated in the first century AD, when the Romans arrived in northern Scotland. The Scottish Highlands were home to fierce, tattoo-covered tribes called the Picts. The Picts found animals very fascinating and treated them with great respect and belief. They made engravings on stones that still exist today. All the animals engraved on the stone were easily recognizable, except one. The drawn creature had an elongated beak and fins in place of legs. The Pictish sculpture was the oldest recognizable evidence of what was thought to be the Loch Ness Monster. The first account of the Loch Ness Monster dates back to 565 AD by a man named Saint Columba. According to his biography, Columba was on his way to visit a Pictish king when he glanced across Loch Ness and saw a large creature about to attack a swimming man. Columba raised his hand, ordering the monster to “go back at full speed”. The beast followed Columba's command and the man swimming in the lake was saved. The most modern legend was told around 1933, when a road was being built on the edge of Loch Ness. One afternoon in April, a young couple was driving by the lake and claimed to have seen a large animal on the surface of the water. The sighting was later recorded in the Inverness Courier, and so the legend spread. The article sparked public interest in the spring of 1933 and reached an all-time high when another couple reported seeing the creature on land. In October, several London newspapers were......in the middle of the newspaper......stood out from the rest. The photograph was taken by a man named R. Kenneth Wilson and showed a slender-necked animal rising to the surface of the water. From the moment the photograph was shown to the public, it became the face of the Loch Ness Monster and proof that such a creature actually existed. Years later however, in 1994, the photograph was reported as fake by an art teacher named Alastair Boyd who claimed to have seen the animal himself in 1979. Boyd discovered that the image was nothing more than a wooden neck attached to a toy submarine. The Loch Ness Monster may or may not be real. No evidence was found to confirm the existence of the creature, but no evidence was found to deny the existence of the animal either. The truth behind the Loch Ness Monster may never be known, but the legend will continue to grow as long as some believe it..