The intaglios are located east of the Big Maria Mountains, about 15 miles (24 km) north of downtown Blythe, just west of U.S. Highway 95 near the Colorado River.

Geoglyphs are found throughout the world, the construction methods ranging from earthen mounds, piles of stone, or the removal of surface plants or soil.

The displaced rocks outlined the figures and the exposed soil was stamped down which makes it more difficult for plants to grow in the lines.

Other intaglios depict mountain lions, birds, snakes and unidentified zoomorphic and geometric shapes.

[4] The set of Blythe Intaglios and nearby geoglyphs include several dozen figures, thought to be ceremonial in nature.

If the quadruped figures represent horses (reintroduced in North America by the Spanish) then a historical date would be supported.

[2] Jay von Werlhof and his collaborators obtained 13 AMS radiocarbon dates for the figures, ranging from 900 BCE to 1200 CE.

"[10] However, Ruth Musser-Lopez reviewed historic and archaeological evidence concerning the "maze" and found strong support for the conjecture that the feature was originally created as a result of late nineteenth-century gravel harvesting for railroad construction and thus unrelated to the Blythe geoglyphs.

[7] Additionally, 18-foot-tall (5.5 m) figures bearing a likeness to Mastamho and Kataar, the "hero twins of the creation myth," can be seen near Fort Mojave in Arizona.

Warfare has been offered a possible explanation as to the spread along the Colorado River of ceremonies such as the keruk and the similar style of desert intaglios.

[13] Of the nearly sixty sites containing humanoid figures, almost all of them have a deeply entrenched torso, while the limbs are much more shallowly etched into the surface.