A digitally manipulated image is being falsely shared as a real photo of Kailash Manasarovar
A photo (here, here, and here) of the moon behind a snow-clad mountain is doing the rounds on social media. It is being claimed that this photo was captured at Kailash Manasarovar, a lake located near Mount Kailash, Tibet. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Real photo taken at Kailash Manasarovar, Tibet.
Photo: This is an edited photo. The original photo shows a snow-covered mountain range in Switzerland. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the authenticity of the viral claim, we performed a reverse image search on the internet. This search led us to the original uncropped version of this photo uploaded on stock image websites like Alamy, Adobe Stock, and Getty Images. This is a wider, uncropped photo that does not have the moon.
As per the description of this photo available on Getty Images, it was captured in Switzerland. One of the tags on this image reads ‘Swiss Alps Photos.’ This information makes it clear that this photo was taken in Switzerland, not at the Tibet-China border.
A further search on this photo led us to an article published by ‘Walpapers.com’ in which this image is mentioned as wallpaper. As per the description of this photo, it shows the Swiss Alps. A 2010 article by ‘Dedoimedo.com’ features this photo as a wallpaper on a computer. All these photos are wider versions of the viral photo, which do not contain the moon in the background
This makes it clear that this photo was edited by cropping it and adding a moon in the sky using digital image manipulation tools. This edited photo is being falsely shared as a real photo taken at the Kailash Manasarovar.
To sum up, an edited photo of the Swiss Alps is falsely being shared as a real photo captured at the Kailash Manasarovar located in Tibet.