This Icelandic rock formation genuinely resembles an elephant's head

For years, social media users have shared images and videos they claimed show Elephant Rock, a naturally formed geological feature on a remote island in Iceland that resembles the face of an elephant seemingly dipping its trunk in the ocean.

Social media users have posted footage of the island to platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit (archived), including one clip shared to the online forum in February 2025 that showed a panoramic view of the island.

Commenters on one Reddit thread wondered if the formation existed, or if images and videos showing it were the products of artificial intelligence (AI) software or other digital editing tools, as in the case of a different purported elephant-shaped rock formation we looked into in 2018.

Elephant rock, Iceland
byu/Super_Steve117 inBeAmazed

Videos and images of Iceland's Elephant Rock in fact showed a place that genuinely exists — although some footage showed signs of exaggerated color balance or saturation levels. Elephant Rock is a real rock formation located in the Westman Islands archipelago, roughly 4.5 miles off Iceland's South Coast. As a result, we've rated this claim true.

Atlas Obscura, a digital travel atlas of obscure destinations around the world, writes that Elephant Rock – Halldórsskora in Icelandic – is located on Heimaey Island, the largest island in the small Westman Islands, or Vestmannaeyjar, archipelago off the south of Iceland.

Heimaey is an ancient volcanic island that formed around 2 million years ago during the Pleistocene, according to research published in 2003. The island last saw significant volcanic activity in 1973. According to Atlas Obscura, the Elephant Rock "is believed to be much older" than the 1973 eruption and was the result of "one of the many volcanic eruptions in Heimay's [sic] history." Erosion over time helped to give the volcanic basalt that makes up the formation its elephant-like appearance.

Visitors hoping to see Elephant Rock in person can visit by boat, usually from May to September. There are also guided walking trips available during the same time frame, according to the travel website Visit Westman Islands.