Cerne Giant Hill Figure

OS Map Reference ST666016

This huge and impressive giant figure is formed by a trench 0.3m (1ft)wide and the same depth, cut into the underlying chalk. He is 55m (180ft) long and 51m(167ft) wide, and his right hand holds an enormous knobbed club 36.5m (120ft) long. Hismost famous and prominent feature is the erect phallus and testicles which indicate thatfertility rites were practised here. The giant is generally considered to represent thegod Helith or Hercules.
A local legend says that a real giant was killed on the hill and that the people fromCerne Abbas drew round the figure and marked him out on the hillside. Barren women weresaid to conceive soon after sleeping on the Giant body.