The unicorn is one of the most well-known mythical beings, often portrayed as a white horse with a spiraling horn exploding from its forehead. It’s not hard to envisage a horse with a horn, and for much of the legendary creature’s history, people supposed it actually was. But where did this myth come from?

Unicorn-like imagery dates back to the Indus Valley Development (about 3300 B.C. to 1300 B.C.) in South Asia, which comprised parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. A side outline of what looks like a horse with a single horn appears on seals from that period. However, these images were likely representations of aurochs (Bos primigenius), a now-extinct wild ox, rendering to the St Neots Museum in England.

Written Chinese images of an Asian unicorn date as far back as about 2700 B.C., according to the American Gallery of Natural History in New York. This “unicorn” seemed to be a combination of different animals and had the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, a rainbow or scaly dragon-like coat and a flesh-covered horn (or horns). Despite physical changes, Asian unicorns were labeled as evasive and solitary beings, just as they were in later European records.