The external carotid artery arises from the third aortic arch during embryonic development. It supplies structures in the front of the neck and face. It gives off 8 branches including the superior thyroid, lingual, and facial arteries. The superior thyroid artery supplies the thyroid gland. The lingual artery has three parts and supplies structures of the tongue. Ligation of the lingual artery is done by exposing it in the digastric triangle after dividing the hyoglossus muscle.