The Most Famous Mythical Creature of Every

Country in the World — Illustrated

The Sasquatch. Baba Yaga. Curupira. They are all bizarre creatures who have been widely claimed
to exist — although nobody has delivered proof. This means that they are cryptids — or mythical
creatures — and they are consigned to the realm of pseudoscience…

The Most Famous Mythical Creature of Every Country in the World — Illustrated

…but that does not mean that they are not real.

Every culture is riddled with unconscious fears and shared hang-ups. When a sequence of strange
events occurs, it does not take long for someone to conjure a scapegoat whose weird characteristics
fit the crime. If the scapegoat catches the imagination of the locals, the legend grows and mutates
over the weeks, years, and centuries. The cryptid lives and breathes in the minds of those who
believe and those who say they do not.

An article pertaining to the most famous mythical creature in every state in the United States
appeared at The Gate back on Friday, March 29, 2019 — but now the search has been identifying
the most popular mythical creature in every country of this weird old planet of ours.

According to that article, a bestiary is a catalog of animals, birds, and other natural — or imaginary
— phenomena. Intended not as a textbook but as an inspirational — and often scientifically dubious
— compendium, the bestiary first appeared in ancient Greece, but the form achieved greater
popularity in the Middle Ages.
The purpose of the bestiary — according to one author from the twelfth century — is “to improve
the minds of ordinary people, in such a way that the soul will at least perceive physically things
which it has difficulty grasping mentally: that what they have difficulty comprehending with their
ears, they will perceive with their eyes.”

A series of posters which celebrates the most famous mythical creatures in each country in the
world has been created; and this article — which was written by Barbara Davidson
from CashNetUSA — gives more details about them.

I have been given express written permission to use the images and the verbatim text from the
aforementioned article in this article. With articles such as this one, I sometimes add brief notes —
but I am not knowledgeable enough about them to add much value to the information which is
already here.

Bestiaries and encyclopedias — such as Monsters and Mythical Creatures from Around the World
— have been trawled and longlisted the “who’s who” of cryptids in every country in the world.
Then, the numbers were crunched on Google to see which creatures were the most searched in each
location.

Sometimes, multiple countries shared the same cryptid. In these cases, special attention to the fine
details reported by the spooked ancestors and trembling tourists who have come into contact with
them over the years. As an example, the English dragon is winged and lizard-like, while the
Chinese dragon is wingless and snakeish.

Finally, illustrator Laimute Varkalaite contributed to creating a series of maps which show the most
notorious cryptid in every country on earth: the mythical creatures that refuse to properly not exist.

Key Findings

The most searched or most famous cryptid — or mythical creature — in:

 The United States is the Sasquatch, which is a hairy, forest-dwelling humanoid.

 North America is the Madre de Aguas of Cuba, which is a horned, bullet-proof snake as fat
as a palm tree.
 South America is La Tunda, a hag with the power to shapeshift into the object of your
desire — before sucking your blood.
 Europe are dragons — specifically, in England.
 The Middle East and Central Asia region is the Turkish dragon, with the Egyptian griffin
— which is a lion with the head and wings of an eagle — in second place.
 The rest of Asia and Oceania is the Chinese dragon, followed by the cunning, ape-like
Orang Pendek in Indonesia.
 Africa is the Namibian Flying Snake.

North America

Click on the graphic for an enlarged view. Source: CashNetUSA.

“The hairs which you recently delivered to the FBI Laboratory on behalf of The Bigfoot
Information Center and Exhibition have been examined by transmitted and incident light
microscopy,” wrote the assistant director of the FBI’s science and tech division in 1977. “It was
concluded that the hairs are of deer family origin.” Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch (from the Salish word
“se’sxac” or “wild men”), has eluded capture for over two centuries – helped by the occasional
hoax to keep cryptozoologists and the FBI off the scent.
Nicaragua’s signature cryptid is literally death on wheels. La Carretanagua is an ox-cart driven by a
skeleton and pulled by ghostly steers. The myth probably emerged from the plundering of native
villages by Spanish colonists in the 16th century.

To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in North America, please view the
gallery of images below:

Costa Rica

Canada

Belize

Trinidad and Tobago

Saint Lucia
United States of America

Jamaica

Bahamas

Mexico

Cuba
Haiti

Grenada

Nicaragua

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Antigua and Barbuda

Honduras

Dominica

Barbados

El Salvador
 Dominican Republic

Guatemala

Panama

Europe

The dragon is the most-searched cryptid in England, Wales, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, San
Marino, and Italy. The Welsh dragon even features on the national flag. This dragon was said to
have been discovered at an underground lake beneath the Dinas Emrys hill in the 5th century. In
1945, a lake and a fortress dating to the 5th century were indeed found during excavation work at the
hill.

Bosnia’s Tur, a giant bull, lives underground on the head of a giant fish who swims an endless sea.
The bull needs only twitch his ear to cause an earthquake up above. Thankfully, Allah also created a
fly to buzz around Tur’s head, frightening the bull into keeping still.

To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in Europe, please view the gallery
of images below:
Belarus

Latvia

Andorra

Serbia

North Macedonia
Lithuania

Kosovo

Scotland

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Norway
Hungary

Denmark

Ireland

Croatia

Austria
Iceland

Finland

Greece

Czech Republic

Netherlands
Luxembourg

Belgium

Malta

Estonia

France
Sweden

Spain

Germany

Wales

Switzerland
Slovenia

San Marino

Liechtenstein

Italy

England
Armenia

Albania

Monaco

Portugal

Cyprus
Romania

Moldova

Ukraine

Slovakia

Russia
 Poland

Montenegro

Bulgaria

South America

La Tunda is Colombia’s most popular cryptid, even though this one-legged hag’s special move is to
fart on seafood and offer it to her prey. Her victims are unfaithful men and naughty children, who
La Tunda lures by shapeshifting to resemble their lover or mother. The only way to spot her is to
check her legs: the missing one has been replaced by a molinillo, or wooden spoon.

Paraguay boasts a lizard with seven dog heads for its most famous mythical creature. Teju Jagua is
the cursed offspring of an evil spirit and a mortal woman. Thankfully, part of his curse is to be
mostly harmless. While Teju Jagua’s eyes can shoot fire, he diets on fruit and honey rather than
roasted human flesh. Good boy!

To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in South America, please view the
gallery of images below:

Bolivia
Peru

Ecuador

Venezuela

Colombia

Paraguay
Argentina

Uruguay

Guyana

Brazil

Chile
 Suriname

Middle East and Central Asia

Jinn are notorious across this region. Known more commonly in the west as genies, jinn occupy
inanimate objects and take on human or animal form to create magic and mischief. Most famously,
they grant wishes only to deliver unexpected results. You are most likely to encounter a jinni in
Iran, Jordan, or Iraq, and the creature is the most-searched in half of the countries in this region.

Bu Darya, a mythical creature of Bahrain, is one such jinn in a different form. This ‘lord of the sea’
(also known as the ‘sea devil’) is a giant merman who sneaks onto ships at night to kidnap sailors to
eat. Bu Darya is also known to imitate the cries of distressed sailors or women to lure his prey.

To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in the Middle East and central
Asia, please view the gallery of images below:

Afghanistan

Kyrgystan

Kazakhstan
Kuwait

Uzbekistan

Syria

Israel

Yemen
United Arab Emirates

Turkmenistan

Saudi Arabia

Qatar

Palestine
Oman

Lebanon

Jordan

Iraq

Iran
 Egypt

Turkey

Bahrain

Tajikistan

Rest of Asia and Oceania

Naturally, the island nations of Oceania are beset by aquatic cryptids such as mermaids, shark gods,
and serpents. The Adaro are mermen who haunt the waters around the Solomon Islands. An adaro
has a swordfish-style spear growing from his head, but attacks by flinging poisonous flying fish at
victims’ necks. Oh yeah, and the Adaro travel to the sun and back along rainbows.

Georgia’s most-wanted is the devi. These hairy, horned ogres have multiple heads – and the more
heads a devi boasts, the stronger he is. A devi’s heads will grow back if you manage to chop any
off, so it is recommended to defend against him with guile rather than violence.

To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in the rest of Asia and Oceania,
please view the gallery of images below:
Vanuatu

Nepal

Bhutan

Japan

Kiribati
Tuvalu

New Zealand

Tonga

India

Thailand
Laos

Indonesia

Papua New Guinea

Micronesia (Federated States of Micronesia)

Taiwan
Marshall Islands

Singapore

Bangladesh

Azerbaijan

Brunei
Vietnam

South Korea

North Korea

Macao

Hong Kong
China

Georgia

Fiji

Sri Lanka

Myanmar
Cambodia

Australia

Timor Leste

Pakistan

Philippines
Palau

Nauru

Mongolia

Somoa

Solomon Islands
 Malaysia

Africa

The Namibian Flying Snake has everything you want from a cryptid: slitheriness, up to 25 feet long,
30-foot wingspan, bioluminescent crest, horns, an inflatable neck, and a ferocious roar. And it
smells like tar. The creature has been witnessed in the Karas Region since the 1940s, where it feeds
on livestock and frightens farmers.

“There are no bears in Africa,” stated a 1961 article in Boys’ Life, “yet men keep seeing this huge,
mysterious beast in the jungle.” The Nandi bear is a famous beast of Kenya and Rwanda. This
upright, nocturnal creature has thick, red hair and is known for scalping those who startle it. But the
creature has also been blamed for the occasional crushed skull.

To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in Africa, please view the gallery
of images below:

Ghana

Eritrea

South Africa
Botswana

Mauritius

Seychelles

Mozambique

Djibouti
Tanzania

Malawi

Swaziland (Eswatini)

Zimbabwe

Rwanda
Kenya

Namibia

Central African Republic

Uganda

South Sudan
Zambia

Angola

The Gambia

Senegal

Tunisia
Morocco

Mauritania

Mali

Libya

Guinea
Comoros

Burkina Faso

Ethiopia

Burundi

Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Lesotho

Sudan

Somalia

Chad
Madagascar

Sierra Leone

Sao Tome and Principe

Nigeria

Niger
Liberia

Guinea-Bissau

Gabon

Equatorial Guinea

Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

 Cape Verde

Cameroon

Benin

Algeria

Togo

Fantastic Beasts and Where They Will Find You

Some of the mythical creatures in our study are clearly the result of some imaginative myth-making.
Others may be misidentified or as-yet-unidentified animals that very closely obey known physical
laws. In each case, something sparked these cryptid tales that captivate (and terrorize) audiences in
every country around the world.

Meanwhile, in the woods or below the surface of the water, whatever really ate those children or
appeared in the background of an innocent holiday photo may not be very different from what the
people imagine.

Summary

For each country, a long list of famous mythical creatures was compiled, using sources such as
Monsters and Mythical Creatures from around the World by Heather Frigiola — as well as
Wikipedia and numerous independent sites.

To determine which mythical creatures from the long list were the most popular, they were ranked
by total search results on Google, using the search terms [Country] + [Mythical Creature].

The results showed that numerous countries share the same mythical creature. In these instances,
additional details were added which could help to distinguish them. For example, both England and
China have ‘dragon’ as the most popular creature, but an English dragon has wings and a more
lizard-like appearance, whereas a Chinese dragon does not have wings and has a more snake-like
appearance.