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If you hate snakes you better stay away from the coast of France.
A viral video is making some viewer’s skin crawl— as it appears to show the skeleton of a serpent the size of a cargo ship lying on a French beach.
The clip, which has racked up some 7 million views on TikTok since it was posted in March of 2022 by user @googlemapsfun, is shown under the heading “creepiest things Google Maps recorded.”
“Hidden on Google Earth, users believe this to be a giant snake. It’s about 30 meters long and bigger than any snake caught before,” the voiceover says, as it shows a satellite image of the bones on a beach.
Users quickly speculated the skeleton might have belonged to a prehistoric type of serpent called a Titanoboa. But the truth turned out to be less exotic.
The skeleton is actually an art installation called “Serpent d’océan” placed on the Saint-Brevin-les-Pins coast by Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping, according to Snopes.com.
The work is massive, stretching nearly 425 feet in length, and is an amazingly accurate image of a snake’s insides.
“Since June 2012, a huge snake, the work of the Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping, emerges on the beach of Mindin,” writes French website Loire Valley.
“Its skeleton appears with each tide, resembling an archaeological excavation and its movement makes it look alive. Don’t miss it!”
Some users were quick to point out the falsehood.
“The serpent in France is a recent artwork made by Huang Yong Pin that you can visit, nothing weird here,” said one user.
“The snake is a work of art. its made by humans, nothing special,” another said.
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