Carotid arteries in the giraffe were removed and their structural organization studied with light microscopy. It has been shown that the carotid artery has a largely muscular structure in the adult except for the carotid baroreceptor area located at the carotid‐occipital junction. The fetus carotid has an elastic structure in its caudal portion and a musculo‐elastic structure in its cranial portion. It is proposed here that the muscular structure of the carotid arterial system constitutes part of the structural mechanism