If you were traveling in the Wiltshire region of England, you might gaze in the distance and believe you were seeing a mirage. Near the town of Bratton, the huge figure of a horse is carved into the side of a hill. The hill is made of chalk, so the figure appears white. And this white horse is about 180 feet long!.
The present figure was carved during the eighteenth century. It was carved over what had been the much older figure of a horse. A legend tells that the original white horse was carved into the hill to commemorate a battle that took place in the ninth century.
But the horse was probably a good deal older. It may have been carved at a time when the Celtic people of the region worshiped a horse goddess.
