Fact Check: Viral Elephant Mountain in Taiwan is not real, it is an artwork

To view the posts click here(1) Facebook, here (2) Facebook and here (3) Facebook.

Fact Check:

The viral image is false.

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found two photos on Shutterstock and Pixabay. The two photos had been merged and an image of an elephant added to create the viral photo using editing software.

Rock Gloomy Winter Landscape Background Stock Photo (Edit Now) 1766105489 (shutterstock.com)

Verucchio Snow Landscape - Free photo on Pixabay

Further, we also found a Facebook page 'Beautiful nature' that had posted the same viral picture in April and given credit for the photo to mirekis7. (2) Facebook

We found that Facebook user Mirekis had posted the image on his Facebook page on 18 January 2018 along with a message in Polish saying that it was the second image in a series of seasonal landscape artworks. The message, automatically translated and edited for clarity, read: "And this is the second image of the series "On the precipice", this time set in winter. The series is still missing spring and fall. I think it will be interesting to present all of them together."

Mirekis - A to drugi obraz z serii ,,Nad przepaścią,, tym razem... | Facebook

Mirekis had confirmed the same to fact-check website 'Snopes' in 2018. The user's Facebook profile has similar digital artworks showing frozen cliffs in the shape of animals. He said "Elephant's Mountain" was a composite of several different images. The foreground of the image, which shows a field and a few scattered bushes, was taken from a photograph of Rocca Malatestiana, a fortress on a mountain range in Italy.

FACT CHECK: Is This Mountain Cliff Shaped Like an Elephant? (snopes.com)

The viral image is not of the Elephant Mountain in Taiwan's Xinyu district. It is an artwork. Hence, the claim is false.