Atlas Obscura names Alberta's 'Badlands Guardian' curious, hidden wonder

This story was originally published Sept. 22.

Thousands of years of erosion haveleft southern Alberta with a spectacular geological formation thatyou can only see ifyou're a bird, a plane orSuperman.

Everyone else will have to rely on good ol'Google Maps:

1. Search"Badlands Guardian"
2. Click on the earth view option
3. Zoom out of the satellite image
4. Tah dah!

It's a hidden wonder, all right, andmind blowing enough to be named one of the most curious places in the world by thenew bookAtlas Obscura.

'That looks rather strange'

It was a Canadian who first discovered the oddity.

Lynn Hickox of Gravelbourg, Sask. stumbled upon it 10 years ago on Google Earth while she was"looking for the dinosaur museum in Drumheller." (For the record, the Badlands Guardian is located about 300 kilometres southeast of the Royal Tyrrell Museum.)

"I'd only just downloaded the Google Earthprogram there a couple of days before.I wasn't 100 per cent sure how to use it," Hickox told the Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday.

"I was just sort of panning around in that southern Alberta vicinity and I just happen to see it in the hills and I thought, you know, that looks rather strange."

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She figured out how to pin it, and named it "Indian Head" because of its uncanny resemblance to a First Nations chief wearing a traditional headdress.

The face is located on private land in Cypress County and the county's councillaterrenamed it the Badlands Guardian.

Is he jamming to music?

Is it a he?

Is it an alien?

There is no right answer, and a decade afterHickox put the mysterious head onthe digital map the online worldis still weighing in.

Some have even suggestedit'swearing headphones,anillusion created by acountry road that leads right intoitsear.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener