Search for the Loch Ness Monster with Google Maps

Interested in searching for Nessie from your couch?

In honor of the 81st anniversary of the iconic Loch Ness Monster photo, Google has dedicated its homepage Doodle to Nessie and unveiled a new feature on Google Maps.

Now explorers at home can visit the waters of the Loch Ness in Scotland through Google Maps.

To capture the images, Google mounted cameras on a boat to create a 360-degree view of the Loch Ness, according to Google's official blog. The cameras also captured underwater images.

For the project, Google partnered with Adrian Shine, leader of the Loch Ness & Morar Project.

"You could say that the entire purpose of our civilization is to explore," Shine says in a YouTube video posted by Google. "Loch Ness is a lost world, but it's accessible through technology."

The iconic, grainy Loch Ness photo taken 81 years ago was captured by Colonel Robert Wilson. Wilson refused to have his name associated with the image, which became referred to as "The Surgeon's Photo." The image was later debunked as a hoax, according to Google.

While the images Google captured are clearer than in Wilson's day, the waters are still dark and difficult to see.

"We knew that at Loch Ness, because of the peat content of the water, which makes it more murky than normal, that it would be difficult to see," Deanna Yick, program manager for Google's Street View team, toldThe Atlantic.

While Google hasn't made any promises that potential explorers will catch a glimpse of the mysterious Loch Ness Monster, anything is possible, right?

"It's the sort of place that if there weren't any dragons there ought to be," Shine said in the YouTube video.

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