10 creepiest lakes on our planet

Thousands of lost lives, mysterious inhabitants, poisonous waters - it's all about the terrible reservoirs of our planet. Even cute-looking lakes with clear water sometimes pose a great threat to those who decide to swim in it or even settle with a tent on the shore. We have selected the ten most terrible lakes of our planet.

1. Nyos (Cameroon)

2. Blue Lake (Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia)

Blue karst abyss in Kabardino-Balkaria. Outside, not a single river flows into the lake, it is fed by underground sources. The blue color of the lake is due to the high content of hydrogen sulfide in the water. The creepiness of this lake is given by the fact that no one has been able to figure out its depth. The fact is that the bottom consists of an extensive system of caves. Researchers have not yet been able to figure out what the lowest point of this karst lake is. It is believed that under Blue Lake is the world's largest system of underwater caves.

3. Natron (Tanzania)

Lake Natron in Tanzania not only kills its inhabitants, but also mummifies their bodies. On the shores of the lake there are mummified flamingos, small birds, bats. The most terrible thing is that the victims freeze in their natural poses with their heads up. It was like they froze for a moment and stayed that way forever. The water in the lake is bright red because of the microorganisms living in it, closer to the shore it is already orange, and in some places it is of a normal color. Evaporation of the lake scares away large predators, and the absence of natural enemies attracts a huge number of birds and small animals. They live on the banks of the Natron, multiply, and after death they are mummified. A large amount of hydrogen contained in water and increased alkalinity contribute to the release of soda, salt and lime. They do not allow the remains of the inhabitants of the lake to decompose.

4. Brosno (Tver region, Russia)

Not so far from Moscow, in the Tver region, there is Lake Brosno, in which, according to local residents, an ancient lizard lives. Like the famous Nessie, who gained worldwide fame. As in the case of the inhabitant of the Scottish lake, the Brosnen monster was often seen, but no one managed to take a single clear picture. Studies of the reservoir did not lead to anything concrete. Scientists suggest that the origin of the legends about the ancient monster was an unusually large depth for a small lake and decomposition processes at the bottom, which sometimes lead to the formation of huge hydrogen sulfide bubbles. The escaping gas can easily capsize a small boat, which can be mistaken for a monster attack.

5. Michigan (USA)

Lake Michigan is one of the five great lakes scattered across the United States and Canada. Few people know that this reservoir has destroyed hundreds of lives. They did not see an ancient monster here, the water here is far from dead, but nevertheless the lake is very dangerous. It's all about unpredictable undercurrents. They carry a huge risk for those who come to swim on the shores of Michigan, and there are many of them in the warm season. Undercurrents carry people away from the shore, and if a person has fallen into his power, then it is almost impossible to cope with him. In autumn, the lake becomes especially dangerous. Due to spontaneous currents on the surface of the water, huge waves arise, from which sailors are the first to suffer.

6. Dead Lake (Kazakhstan)

The lake with a terrible name is located in Kazakhstan. Local residents have long been trying to bypass it, considering the reservoir cursed. Here, anyone will tell you some scary stories about the mysterious disappearances of people, and not even necessarily in the lake itself. According to locals, there are countless drowned people at the bottom. Moreover, all the missing are visiting tourists who do not know anything about the notoriety of the Dead Lake. By the way, this name does not come from mysterious disappearances, but because of the unusual properties of water. There is no life in the lake. No fish, no frogs, nothing. In addition, the water remains extremely cold even in the hot season, and the size of the lake does not decrease. And this is at a time when other reservoirs in this region dry up almost twice from the heat.

7. Lake of death (Italy)

We know about Sicily thanks to the famous Sicilian mafia and the volcano Etna located on the island. But there is another (no less dangerous) attraction - the Lake of Death, the water of which contains a high concentration of sulfuric acid. Life here is impossible by definition. Any organism that enters the local water dies within minutes. According to rumors, the Italian mafia used this lake to destroy unwanted people. The bodies of those who rejected an Offer You Can't Refuse now form part of the Lake of Death. True or not, no one can say, because the water has dissolved all the evidence.

8. Karachay (Russia)

Lake Karachay in the Urals is considered one of the most polluted in the world. Staying on the shore of the lake for a couple of hours is enough to get hundreds of x-rays of radiation and die a painful death. The once-living lake was destroyed in the fifties, when it began to be used as a repository for liquid radioactive waste. Now the water level has dropped dramatically, exposing vast contaminated areas of the lake. The state annually allocates large funds to reduce the level of radiation in the reservoir. In the coming years, it is planned to completely fill it up, but this does not solve the problem of groundwater contamination.

An unusual lake is located next to the Red Sea, on the Sinai Peninsula. It is separated from the sea by a thin strip of petrified shell rock. The flora and fauna of this lake is very simple, but the temperature is quite amazing. In the upper layers, the water temperature is + 16 ° C for almost the entire year, and at a depth of 6 and more meters it ranges from +48°C in winter to +60°C in summer. Therefore, all animals, fish and organisms live closer to the surface. In addition, the layers of water differ in the level of salt content. Salinity at the top is 42-43 ppm, and near the bottom this value is twice as much. On Earth, of course, there are other lakes with high temperature and salinity, but none of them has such an unusual vertical distribution of these parameters.

The warmest reservoir in the zone of eternal frost is located in Antarctica, its ice thickness is 4 meters. This is Lake Vanda, which has fresh water directly under the ice, and at a depth it is already salty. Even in the very cold, when the air temperature reaches -50-70°C, the water keeps the temperature not lower than +6°C, and at the bottom (at a depth of 70 meters) - +25-28°C, as if in some kind of southern sea . The most amazing thing is that there are no hot springs at the bottom of this sea. This phenomenon seems to be due to the fact that Wanda is a giant thermos. Its purest water, which is free of microorganisms, is heated by the penetration of the sun's rays through the thickness of the ice. The warmest are the deep layers of water, which, due to their density and salinity, do not mix with water, which is located on the surface.

In the Republic of Ghana, in the tropical African forests, 30 km from the city of Kumasi, there is one of the most beautiful lakes - Bosumtwi. It is the most unpredictable body of water on the entire globe. The shape of Bosumtwi is presented right around, as if someone specially drew a circle here with a compass and dug a hole 400 meters deep and 7 km in diameter. The water in it is bluish in color, along the banks there are jungles, which often part, revealing entire glades with small settlements. Several small mountain rivers flow into Bosumtwi, but not a single river originates from it. In this regard, the water level in the lake is constantly rising, thereby flooding the villages located on its shores. However, what shocks people more is that this lake is endowed with an explosive temper. As a rule, it is very calm, silent, but it can suddenly explode at any moment. In its depths, a huge bubble with air seems to burst, as a result of which a myriad of water is thrown up, the surface of the lake begins to boil and rage. After that, it calms down again.

As a result of these explosions, a lot of fish die, which the indigenous people subsequently collect with nets. Researchers believe that the reason for these phenomena is that there are deposits at the bottom of the lake, in which the decomposition of organic substances is carried out, accompanied by the release of gas. This gas accumulates up to a certain limit, and then it explodes inside the water column.

For geographers, Lake Bosumtwi is mysterious and enigmatic. Some argue that it was formed as a result of a huge meteorite falling on our planet, while others think that this is an explosion of antimatter, which left no traces in the form of debris and fragments. The most plausible version is that Bosumtwi was formed as a result of volcanic activity. It is likely that the lake is located on the site of a destroyed volcano cone that existed in the distant past.

100 great records of the elements [with illustrations] Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich

Most mysterious lakes

The most mysterious lakes

Oddly enough, but in the folklore of the peoples of the world there is almost no mention of enchanted, enchanted or sacred streams and rivers, with the exception of the Jordan and the Ganges. But there are so many legends about mysterious and creepy, dangerous and frankly evil lakes and ponds in oral folk art that you can’t count them.

THE MAGIC WORLD OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

Belief in the existence of enchanted lakes and ponds has long been a subject of study for folklorists. However, there is no doubt that the well-known fact that there are indeed enough reservoirs in the world that have some incomprehensible natural properties and, thanks to them, become the focus or source of paranormal activity. UFOs are allegedly often observed in and around some lakes, outlandish creatures are found in others, and still others are considered strange for no particular real or imagined reason.

Several of these strange lakes lurks in the mysterious and almost impassable Andes. Not everyone knows that this majestic mountain range has a younger brother, a much more modest and nondescript range called the Cordillera Azur (Blue Mountains). It stretches parallel to the Andes and is replete with cold reservoirs - lakes and lagoons, around which mainly live South American Indians who speak the Quechua language. These places are so beautiful that from time immemorial painters have come here for inspiration, and now photographers have joined them, although the Cordillera Azur is still one of the most inaccessible mountainous countries on the planet.

There, at an almost transcendental height, in the wilderness and deserted, lies the "strange" Lake Gaipo. According to rumors, several years ago it was firmly chosen by a wide variety of UFOs. Several researchers who ventured into this godforsaken place, found that the rumors were confirmed. Local Indians said that paranormal phenomena are observed here regularly, but they are brightest at six in the morning and from three to four in the afternoon. At this time of the day, the Indians repeatedly saw some luminous objects falling into the lake or, conversely, taking off from the water. The shape of these unknown luminous objects is striking in its variety: balls, ovals, rectangles, rings. They freely penetrate the surface of the water, hang and slowly move a few centimeters from it, and then either rush into the sky with lightning speed, or sedately and leisurely creep up along the slopes of the mountains framing Gaipo. And since in the horizon local residents there is no place for such a concept as interplanetary or even more so interstellar contacts, the Indians consider the observed phenomena to be the machinations of witches and sorcerers.

However, this kind of strange phenomena are observed not only in deaf and hard-to-reach places. The attention of researchers is attracted, for example, by the Al Chichika lagoon, located near the city of Veracruz (Mexico). It is small - just over three kilometers across, but amazingly deep - more than six hundred meters. This reservoir was reputed to be enchanted long before the appearance of European conquerors on its shores and gave shelter to the Mexican variety of water elves, known as "chaneque", and other evil spirits.

The researchers who visited those places noted various anomalies already on the approaches to the lagoon. Batteries ran low in electrical appliances, videotape became unusable, radio signals stopped in the LW, MW, HF and VHF bands. All this made it possible to put forward a hypothesis about some electromagnetic disturbances created by unknown sources located in the lagoon or close to it.

In 1998, biologist Arturo del Moral decided to thoroughly investigate the reservoir and faced the same obstacles as his predecessors. Moreover, the members of the Moral expedition heard strange sounds made at night by the water column, and they had the impression that something was floating there.

Moral managed to speak with one of the residents of the nearby town of Pueblo del Seco, and he said that in March 1996, around ten o'clock in the evening, he saw a dazzling yellow glow emanating from the water. Not caring in the least about his own safety, the fearless city dweller ran to the very edge of the water and, to his surprise, saw “something huge and luminous. This thing emerged from the water, hovered a meter or two above the lagoon, and then flew off into the night sky.

Other locals told Moral that the light phenomena in the lagoon have a periodicity: in the spring they are observed more often, especially at night. Moral even managed to capture these phenomena on film. They are very beautiful: luminous clusters hang over the surface of the lagoon near the coast and emit white or red flashes. This spectacle is breathtaking. No wonder the pioneer of Ufology, Maurice Jessup, was very fond of visiting the shores of the Al-Chichika lagoon. He even called it the Perste crater, struck by the similarity of the lagoon to the craters on the Moon and the strange similarity of the terrain to the lunar surface.

In one of his books, Jessup described in detail the "transient light phenomena" observed in some lunar craters (for example, in Plato's crater; on a full moon they can be seen through ordinary binoculars). Probably, the scientist believed that the lights in the lunar craters could be explained by more deeply studying the light phenomena in the craters of the earth.

KILLER LAKES

In October 1994, Americans were shocked by the news of a terrible crime. Susan Smith, a young mother from Union, North Carolina, deliberately let her car roll off the boat dock into John D. Long Lake. Strapped into the back seat, Susan's sons drowned. Their mother received a life sentence for murder. Nearly two years later, another car crashed into the same lake from the same pier, containing three adults and four children. At the same time, the car spontaneously swept between the monuments to Michael and Alex Smith, Susan's young sons. The scene was like a scene from a horror movie. All seven passengers of the jeep drowned, one of the eyewitnesses tried to save them, but choked and also died. The investigation found that the car was on the handbrake.

According to the local residents, the misfortunes occurred for one single reason: Lake John D. Long is enchanted. Of course, the judicial authorities do not take such explanations seriously and are not going to reconsider the case of Susan Smith. But lakes in which people die under mysterious circumstances do exist, and a very lengthy section of "magical" folklore and literature about the supernatural is devoted to them.

One of the most infamous killer lakes is called Whitney. It is located north of the town of Waco in the US state of Texas and seems to outnumber Lake John D. Long. For many years now, all sorts of cars have been rolling down the wharf bridges in Whitney, and the number of drowned people here has been steadily increasing. Police divers found several dozen cars on the muddy bottom of the lake, but never found human remains. Many of the cars lying in the lake simply should not have rolled there: their parking brakes were on, as was the case with Susan Smith's car in North Carolina. Worthy of mention is the fact that during the "parade of aliens" (another massive "invasion" of UFOs observed around the world) in 1974-1975 in Calvert, on the shores of Lake Whitney, two UFOs landed, leaving scorched bald spots on the ground.

The second largest country in the world - Canada - is also rich in dead places and, in particular, lakes, which are very notorious. In June 1966, an elderly couple and their teenage son went fishing on Anion Lake, located in an abandoned quarry thirty-three kilometers north of the city Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Arriving at the place and not finding a single living soul there, the fishermen were delighted at first, but soon they became terrified. Suddenly there was pitch darkness. The frightening silence was only occasionally broken by a strange grinding sound, which, according to one of the few witnesses, was accompanied by "a sharp, suffocating smell of steel being processed with an emery wheel." And then, to the horror of the parents, their fifteen-year-old son suddenly disappeared.

The father and mother called the boy for a long time, but they did not wait for an answer. When the mysterious haze that enveloped the lake in broad daylight dissipated, the parents saw their son, who appeared out of nowhere and, terribly worried, said that he had seen "some kind of round plane." The boy ran to him, but did not remember what happened next. Soon, the memory loss turned into a mental disorder, and the boy was placed in a mental hospital, but he could not be cured.

VELIKOOZERSKIY TRIANGLE

In addition to relatively small lakes, in the waters and surroundings of which all sorts of devilry is going on, there are also huge lakes that look more like seas. All sorts of things happen in them too. The clearest example of this is the American Great Lakes, the giant freshwater reservoirs that separate the Canadian province of Ontario from the United States. A lot has been written about the mysterious phenomena associated with them, and Jay Gurley devoted a separate book to this topic, The Great Lake Triangle.

Many amazing and mysterious events that take place here, according to Gurley, are explained by “the action of some destructive force, so powerful and swift that it destroys mercilessly anyone who dares to penetrate here (although this does not prevent the Great Lakes from being navigable, and navigation there very lively. Note. ed.). And no one has yet offered an explanation for this power and swiftness. Or maybe the power and swiftness of this mysterious force is somehow connected with UFOs?

In March 1998, the Center for the Study of UFOs carefully investigated reports of the appearance of unidentified flying objects near the Perry nuclear power plant on the shores of one of the Great Lakes of Erie. On March 4, an unnamed woman was driving along the coast in Eastlake, Ohio. Suddenly she saw "an object resembling an airship, at both ends of which bright lights were burning." This object made a pretzel in the air, darted back and forth, as befits a classic UFO, and did not show the slightest desire to fly away.

Having reached the house, the woman told her husband about what she saw and persuaded him to go to the nearest beach to look at the marvel. When they arrived on shore, the UFO was still maneuvering over the lake. It was winter. Erie was frozen, but the ice under the UFO cracked and broke. This time, eyewitnesses were able to determine the approximate size of the object. It was "larger than a football field". The observers got the impression that the "airship" was waiting for the return of some small flying objects sent for reconnaissance.

Soon the guess was confirmed: the "airship" landed on the ice-bound surface of the lake and began to take these scouts on board, and then the object disappeared from sight. Perhaps he went through the thickness of the ice and plunged to the bottom, where the UFO base was located. Or maybe the crew was just tired of the idle curiosity of earthly onlookers?

ASPHALT LAKE

The gods punish those who try to break the unwritten laws given from above. So, for example, it happened to the Chaima Indians living on the island of Trinidad, which nestled in the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast of South America. Once the Indian village was located on the shores of the crystal clear Peach Lake. Now…

Once the gods of the forest gave the people of the Chaima tribe an unusual bird - a hummingbird. This tiny creature, whose colorful plumage changes its shade depending on the angle of incidence of the sun's rays on it, was, according to the plan of the gods, to decorate the lives of people, soften their hearts and cheer their souls. After all, it was not for nothing that the gods created pichugs beautiful, like revived flowers. In addition, this bird, the size of a fly, was distinguished by amazing courage: with strong blows of its beak, it could knock down a snake crawling to its nest from a tree. Remembering the courage of this tiny creature, protecting his home from enemies, the Indians, if necessary, had to fearlessly engage in battle with the enemy.

However, it so happened that, at the behest of evil spirits, black thoughts were born in the heads of the Chima. Looking at how a tiny bird, hovering over flowers, feasts on nectar, they thought: if this creature drinks the sweet essence of a flower, then what should it taste like? Well, isn't it interesting to have a sacred bird baked in banana leaves for lunch? No sooner said than done. Having caught a lot of birds with a net woven from grass, the Indians tried to arrange a feast. However, nothing came of this - their prey turned out to be too small and fragile, the delicacy turned out to be useless. And the gods, offended by such an attitude towards their gift, decided to punish the Chima. The next morning, after a shameful meal, people saw that the blue waters of their lake had turned into sticky brown mud.

Such is the legend of the Chaima Indians, who to this day live in the vicinity of Peach Lake. This lake, located on the island of Trinidad near the village of La Brea, is filled with ... asphalt! The area of ​​the pit with a semi-liquid black mass, which consists of 40 percent bitumen, 30 percent clay and 30 percent salt water, is 45 hectares. There are even small islands covered with vegetation on the lake. Rainwater accumulates in the recesses between the viscous asphalt waves, and bituminous oils shimmer on it with all the colors of the rainbow, vaguely resembling the plumage of a hummingbird, with which it all allegedly began.

For a hundred years now, hundreds of tons of natural asphalt have been mined here every year, but it does not become less.

Surface amazing lake in some places it is so hard that you can walk on it, but it’s better not to do this, after all, the depth of the bubbling brown-black cauldron is 82 meters, and in which case it will be as difficult for a person to get out of it as a fly caught in jam. True, after some time, the drowned man, dragged to the bottom, will again be on the surface, since the asphalt is in constant slow motion. But, of course, this will not please anyone.

The legend about the origin of Peach Lake does not satisfy scientists, they are still arguing about where it came from. Many believe that the accumulation of natural asphalt was formed in the crater of a dormant volcano. Oil, little by little coming from the bowels of the earth, mixed with volcanic ash and eventually formed an asphalt boiler.

According to another version, the asphalt lake was once at the bottom of the sea, and about 50 million years ago the bodies of small marine animals sank to the bottom, turning into oil there, and then, under the influence of processes in the earth's crust, this oil was displaced to the surface and thickened under the action of sun.

Peach Lake is the largest, but not the only asphalt lake in the world. They are in California, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and other places.

ominous lakes

Probably many of you have met geographical map names that mention colors: Black, White, Yellow, Red Sea, Belukha Mountain and others. But there are especially many so-called colored lakes on our Earth. And these lakes really have the most different, unusual shades of water: red, crimson, blue-green, blue, yellow, white and even black. And scattered colorful lakes around the globe!

There is, for example, in the Carpathian Mountains near the town of Svalyava, at an altitude of 700 meters above sea level, Lake Sinyak. Sulfur compounds dissolved in it give the water an intense blue color. Many similar lakes are also located in the mountains of the Caucasus, but the Gek-Gel Lake (“Blue Lake”), located in Azerbaijan in the Asgun Gorge, at an altitude of 1576 meters, is considered the queen of blue lakes.

Most of all in the world of White Lakes. Only in Russia there are about twenty of them. At first glance, there is nothing unusual in such lakes. But as soon as the wind starts to make waves, the mirror-like water surface is covered with white lambs. Perhaps that's where the name comes from.

But on the island of Kunashir - one of Kuril Islands- there is a milky-white lake, and ... boiling. It is filled with a solution of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, hot volcanic gases rise from the bottom of it all the time, which heat the “water” to a boil.

In Western Siberia and Central Asia, there are many lakes with a purple-red color. During sunset, they change their color a little and become like bowls filled with molten gold.

There are truly unique raspberry lakes near Astrakhan, which are named so not only for their color, but also ... for the smell, which is very reminiscent of the smell of ripe raspberries. By the way, the salt extracted from these lakes retains a persistent aroma of raspberries or violets and was once highly valued at the royal court.

Another Raspberry Lake, located in the south of Siberia in the Kulunda steppe, attracts not only with its beauties. In the water of this lake, saturated with magnesium salts and soda, stones are constantly formed and grow (to the delight of the local population, which widely uses this extraordinary building material).

Lakes with red water are also found in the Italian Alps, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in Western Europe, in Bolivia, and Japan.

By the way, there is a unique two-colored lake on the Japanese island of Kyushu. One half of it turned yellow due to sulfur impurities, and the other half became pink due to iron oxides.

Three colored lakes lie in the crater of the Keli Mutu volcano on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Two of them are painted in different shades of green, and the third is black and red. The internal forces of the earth and ... chemistry are to blame for this. The lakes were formed in different craters of the volcano, rich in various minerals. All three lakes have romantic names. Tivoye Ata Polo means "Lake of Enchanted People". Tivoye Noea Moeri Kos Fay is translated as "Lake of young men and girls", the third - Tivoye Ata Mboepoe - "Lake of drowned hopes".

The name Sarykul, which means "yellow lake", is carried by many lakes. The largest of them is located in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. The water in this lake resembles highly diluted coffee in its color due to the fact that many particles of clay are dissolved in it as a result of constant erosion of the banks.

There are many black lakes on Earth. The color of the water in them is explained not only by the presence of peat. For example, in the "most-most" black lake in the world - Lake Kahinaidaakh, located in Yakutia, the water is a kind of solution of soot, ash and soot. The phenomenon is explained by the fact that this lake is located in a depression where a fire raged several millennia ago (coal burned there for several years). Later, the fire was flooded with water.

But in Algeria, not far from the city of Sidi Bel Abbes, in the picturesque Atlas Mountains, the basin of the lake is filled not with water, but with the most real ... ink. Two rivers flowing into the ink lake carry iron salts and the remains of various vegetation, which, mixing with each other, turn the lake into a huge inkwell.

BRONTIDS, OR SOUNDING LAKES

In the spring of 2002, a group of French researchers on inflatable boats explored one of the southern bays of the African Lake Victoria, where, according to local residents, a large animal unknown to science appeared.

The hydrophones lowered into the water recorded strange loud sounds, as if a giant was beating a giant anvil with a hammer. These sounds arose an hour or two after sunrise and stopped shortly before sunset, sometimes they stopped for a long time and reappeared after five to seven days.

However, the history of this phenomenon dates back several centuries, and the sounding lakes themselves are found on all continents. On the territory of Eurasia, the most famous "talking" lake is Ladoga. Often, fishermen who have gone 2-3 kilometers from the shore hear a mysterious rumble, rolling, like a distant echo of a thunderstorm. When the sky is covered with clouds, these mysterious sounds (brontides) often come across newcomers on the lake - both "motor boats" and yachtsmen, who immediately direct their ships to the shore.

By the way, in various literary sources you can find distorted versions of this term, but it directly goes back to the Italian word "brontidi", meaning sounds that are observed in a number of coastal regions of the Mediterranean.

Much less often on Ladoga, another type of brontides is observed - a long sound, similar to the sound of a broken bass string. It is even rarer to hear two or three such sounds in a row. And some water tourists, who have settled for the night in the numerous skerries of the northwestern part of Ladoga, suddenly wake up from the sound of the wheels of a rapidly approaching train, although, of course, there is no train nearby.

At the beginning of 1890, the American professor S.A. Forbes visited Lake Shoshone in Yellowstone National Park to study invertebrates. In his report, he made the following entry: “In this place, in the early quiet morning, we heard the mysterious sounds for which the lake is famous. They were like the trembling of a harp string, which someone touched at the top of the trees. It was also like the tinkling of telegraph wires, and sometimes like low, melodious voices talking high above us. The sound originated somewhere far away, approaching and getting louder, and then receding and disappearing in another direction. Sometimes it seemed that he wandered aimlessly around us. In each case, the phenomenon lasted from a few seconds to half a minute. Usually these sounds can be heard on a calm, clear morning shortly before sunrise, at this time of day the sounds are louder and clearer. But once I heard them at noon when the breeze was blowing.

Forbes' colleague, Professor Edwin Linton, while working on nearby Yellowstone Lake, heard similar sounds. They seemed to be some kind of metallic vibrations that arose directly above their heads, and then moved to the southwest. On average, this phenomenon was observed for about 30 seconds. Sometimes the sounds resembled the howling of the wind, although there was complete calm all around.

In the same place, explorer Hugh M. Smith in 1919 heard something like the distant hum of a huge bell, repeated at intervals of about ten minutes. It is curious that strange sounds, reminiscent of the sound of an organ, were also observed by Smith during the movement of the canoe in which the members of the expedition were.

In Australia, starting in 1870, Wilga's "weeping waterhole" became famous near Ruthven Station. One day, two sheep shearers spent the night not far from her. However, they did not manage to sleep: in the middle of the night, a quiet cry was suddenly heard, which became louder and louder. Then it was replaced, according to witnesses, by diabolical otherworldly sounds, "which are beyond the power of the human voice." The sounds were growing. It began to seem to the shearers that their eardrums were about to burst, a wild fear literally fettered them, preventing them from leaving the accursed place. Then the howl became quieter and gradually turned into a soft whining. When all was quiet, the shearers mounted their horses and galloped away.

Sounds similar to the Ladoga brontides and reminiscent of distant thunder peals are also observed on the coast of the North Sea, mainly on quiet foggy days. They are known to the locals under the unpronounceable name "mistpoeferra". The same peals in the Ganges delta are called "barisal cannons". A similar phenomenon in the state of New York is consonantly called the "guns of Seneca Lake."

Researcher Albert J. Ingalls writes of enigmatic sounds: "Their direction is indeterminate, and, like the beginning of a rainbow, they are always 'somewhere else'."

In the Connecticut River valley, this phenomenon is called the "roar of Mudus" (after the name of the city), and in Haiti it is called "gouff-free." In the Philippines, locals consider unusual sounds to be the peculiar voice of a distant sea and are sure that they are produced by waves hitting the shore or the walls of grottoes. They also believe that these mysterious sounds are closely related to weather changes and usually herald the arrival of a typhoon.

In 1870, correspondents of the journal Nature undertook an investigation into the so-called "Greytown sounds" that are heard in coastal lakes and on the coast of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Trinidad. These were strange metallic vibrating musical sounds, and with a characteristic rhythm. Two additional, but inconsistent factors were also noted: sounds are more often heard on metal ships, but only at night. And researcher S. Kingsley heard the sounds “that a locomotive rumbles in the distance when it releases steam” (that is, very similar to some Ladoga brontides).

With all the extensive statistics of observations of such a phenomenon over the past two centuries, no acceptable explanation has been found for it, and those who speak out are sometimes simply naive. In geophysics, there is a whole field of science called atmospheric acoustics. There is also the acoustics of the ocean, but, alas, there are no acoustics of the lakes. In one story by an Armenian writer, schoolchildren, together with a teacher, explored the mysterious sounds emitted by a high-mountain lake and which the locals attributed to the roar of an underwater deity. So, the guys found a hole into which the waters of the lake periodically rushed, making frightening sounds at the same time. This is practically all that I managed to read about the studies of the “voices of the lakes”. By the way, about the same explanation of the "devilish sounds" of Wilg's "water hole" is expressed for the Australian phenomenon.

A more or less acceptable explanation is given for the sounding lakes of Yellowstone. national park. Seismic activity is very high there, geysers periodically operate nearby, connected with lakes, apparently, with a common water layer. When they work, these musical sounds appear, apparently.

Well, as for the Ladoga Brontides, the reader will have to be content with a very mean assumption that, perhaps, they are associated with the peculiarity of the underwater currents and the complex topography of the lake bottom.

BLOOD BAIT

Lake Tovel, located near the Italian city of Trento, may soon become a place of pilgrimage for tourists, since, according to an ancient legend, the water in it can turn into blood.

According to legend, during one of the internecine wars of the gloomy Middle Ages, a large detachment of knights from the fortress of Trezenya was surrounded and defeated by an army from the neighboring city of Tuenno. As the legend says, after a hot fight in the lake "there was more blood than water." Since then, the water in it began to sometimes turn into blood. As a rule, this happened on the eve of another cruel internecine strife. The last time, however, this happened in the dry summer of 1964 and was in no way connected with the war on the peninsula.

Indescribable horror seized the people then. Some in a panic fled headlong away from the lake, others, on the contrary, threw themselves into the water and drowned, others lost their minds from fear ... But the local peasants, embittered by the drought, were not going to drown or go crazy. They almost completely scooped out the ominous lake, using water to water their allotments and "bloody" all the nearby lands. This phenomenon of nature was scientifically substantiated by a botanist from Trento, an associate professor at the universities of Padua and Camerino, Vittorio Marchesoni. He found that the culprit was a unicellular algae containing a high concentration of carotenoids in its plasma. Under certain conditions, it is able to multiply rapidly - up to 4 thousand cells per 1 cubic meter. cm (the water turns red at the same time) and just as rapidly die off, sinking to the bottom and covering it with a thick purple carpet.

For several years now, a research team led by Alessandro dal Piazza, a leading researcher at the Trent Museum of Natural History, has been trying to determine the most favorable conditions for the reproduction of algae. If scientists still manage to solve this problem and it will be possible to artificially cause the effect of a “bloody” lake, these places will be in for a real invasion of tourists. From the book 100 great records of the elements author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich

The most mysterious lakes Oddly enough, but in the folklore of the peoples of the world there is almost no mention of enchanted, enchanted or sacred streams and rivers, with the exception of the Jordan and the Ganges. But the legends about the mysterious and creepy, dangerous and frankly evil lakes and ponds in

Which planet in the solar system has the largest mountains and which has the deepest depressions? In both of these "nominations" the record holder in the solar system is Mars. On this planet is the largest mountain in the solar system - the extinct volcano Olympus. He has

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From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

Mysterious rivers On our planet, there are rivers that do not flow anywhere at all. Such drainless rivers flow in Kazakhstan and Central Asia - Zeravshan, Chu, Murgab, Sarysu, Small and Big Uzen. Some rivers are lost among the desert sands, others disappear completely.

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"Mysterious prints" Fold a sheet of white paper in half, give it to the child and offer to paint one half of the sheet with thick paint. Then ask him to fold a sheet of paper in half along the fold and iron it with his hand. Then invite the child to unfold their sheet and

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These mysterious animals The ancient Egyptians believed that certain animals could embody cosmic and divine energies. The twelve animals of the Zodiac represent a closed cycle of energies. The symbolism of the beast is associated with the idea of ​​kingdom, power and blind might.

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Where do the largest and most venomous snakes live? There is a saying: "Fear has big eyes." The same can be said about all the legends that exist about snakes. So, they say that huge snakes live somewhere, up to 20 meters or more. But no one really

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Which of the wonders of the world is the most mysterious? The Egyptian pyramids are the oldest of the seven wonders of the world and the only one that has survived to this day. Scientists also consider them the most mysterious of all miracles and have been trying to unravel many of them for many centuries.

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What lakes are the best? All lakes are not the same. Each of them has its own peculiarity. One is extraordinarily beautiful, another has a lot of fish, and the third is famous for something else. But there are lakes that differ from all others and are, for some reason,

There are hundreds of mysterious lakes in the world, which are associated with mysterious stories, anomalous phenomena, they are shrouded in fascinating myths and legends like a shroud.

The fear of local residents of such lakes, which are notorious, was expressed even in their names: Devil's Lake, Dead Lake, Shaitan and others.

Let's take a short tour of some of them.

Sasha Mitrahovich 28.02.2016 10:19

Lake Smerdyache located in the Shatursky district of the Moscow region. Once crystal clear, the water in it has a pronounced red-brown color. The lake is an almost perfect circle with a diameter of approximately 250 meters. It got its name from the characteristic smell of hydrogen sulfide, which suddenly disappeared about 25 years ago. But once this smell led to the fact that a person next to a pond could faint.

However, local old-timers explain the origin of the name in a different way: Smerdyachye - not from the word "stink", but from the phrase "death of the devil". According to local legends, once upon a time there was a chapel on the shaft near the lake. One day, the ground suddenly shook, and the chapel, in which the deacon was located, fell into the lake and immediately went under water.

Another mystery is the sudden change in the depth of the reservoir. In 1985, its highest mark was 20 meters, and after 15 years, measurements showed the maximum distance from the surface to the bottom of 31 meters.

In 2002, a large scientific expedition was organized on Smerdyache. Specialists of the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry. IN AND. Vernadsky collected enough evidence to assert that the lake is of meteorite origin. The collected coastal soil samples contained materials of local sedimentary rocks melted upon impact. At the same time, the time of the fall of the Shatura meteorite was determined - about 10,000 years ago.

Sasha Mitrahovich 28.02.2016 10:21

Another mysterious body of water called Chertok(Devil's Lake) is located in the Shkeltovsky parish of the Aglon region of Latvia. The lake is small and very deep. People have never lived near it, the nearest villages are two to three kilometers away. In the press, Chertok is called the “bottomless lake of horror”, because, according to the stories of local residents, it cannot be crossed without risk to life, although it is only a few tens of meters from coast to coast. Moreover, according to beliefs, the Devil's Lake has no bottom at all, so the bodies of drowned people are never found in it.

The water here, for no apparent reason, changes color from transparent blue to almost black - despite the fact that there are practically no clouds in the sky at this time, and the presence of algae in the reservoir is minimal. For this feature, the lake received a second name - Devil's Eye.

The President of the Latvian Academy of Parapsychology, Valery Paramonov, is convinced that the reservoir is an anomalous zone that affects the human psyche. According to him, a powerful energy beam hits from the bottom of the lake, which is capable of terrifying a person who finds himself on the shore.

Scientific studies have established that at the bottom of Devil's Lake accumulates an inert radioactive gas, radon, which is seven times heavier than air and easily dissolves in water. According to scientists, the lake was formed from the fall of a cosmic body.

This is confirmed by the studies of several daredevil divers who saw melted rock in the depths. There is also a version that Chertok is connected underground with the rather distant Aglon Lake, so drowned people disappear in deep underground channels.

Devil's Lake is located next to the highway Aglona - Kraslava, and tourists often settle down to rest near its shores. However, after some time they leave, trying to get rid of the fear that has suddenly surging. Many of them went to the doctor after visiting the Devil's Lake zone. Because of this, in 2005, local authorities ordered to remove a road sign with information about the presence of a nearby reservoir in order not to draw undue attention to this natural object.

Sasha Mitrahovich 28.02.2016 10:23

In the area of ​​the village of Gerasimovka in the Taldykurgan region of Kazakhstan, there is a small (100 meters long and 60 wide) dead lake.

For unknown reasons, even on a hot summer day, the lake does not dry up, and the water in it remains icy. Algae do not grow in the reservoir, there are no fish, there are no aquatic insects, there are no mosquitoes and flies on the shore.

It is impossible to stay in the water of the Dead Lake for a long time. A diver, even with a full tank of air, can withstand a dive for no more than three minutes, after which, for some unknown reason, he begins to suffocate and is forced to urgently rise to the surface.

Every year people drown in the Dead - mostly visitors who do not listen to the advice of local residents or simply do not know anything about the mysterious properties of the lake. What is surprising: drowned people do not float to the surface after a few days, as is usually the case, but stand vertically at the bottom, like candles.

In addition, incredible events happen every now and then near the Dead Lake: people disappear, and later they are found. At the same time, they find themselves in unexpected places, sometimes quite far from the lake or their home. Some can't even remember their own name.

There is an assumption that there is a crevice at the bottom of the lake, from which a toxic gas is released, which is a poison to all living things. But no scientific studies of the reservoir have yet been carried out.

Sasha Mitrahovich 28.02.2016 10:25

In the Kirov region of Russia, near the city of Urzhum, there is Lake Shaitan, having the shape of a regular oval, with an area of ​​​​about two hectares. From time to time, the water in this lake seethes, and fountains from four to ten meters high are thrown to the surface. According to local beliefs, these are the tricks of an evil spirit living in the lake.

Scientific studies explain the appearance of such fountains by the fact that the lake is of karst origin and is distinguished by siphon water circulation. Under its bottom there is a second aquifer containing pressure artesian waters. Between these two horizons there is a connection through vertical karst wells (ponors). Settling silt and peat create plugs in the ponds, and the pressure of artesian waters pushes them out, resulting in a fountain outburst of water.

The second unique feature of the lake is small floating islands overgrown with shrubs and small trees. Such islands are formed by water ejections and are detached sections of wetlands. The largest of them can withstand the weight of three or four people. In normal times, up to twenty of them can be counted on the surface of the lake.

Sasha Mitrahovich 28.02.2016 10:27

Another lake with the same name - Satan- located in the Muromtsevsky district of the Omsk region near the village of Okunevo. Its water is famous for its healing properties, even curing some forms of cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Placed in an ordinary container, it can stand for years, while retaining a fresh taste and smell.

Experts do not exclude that Lake Shaitan, as well as five other lakes near it, appeared as a result of the fall of a huge meteorite. Hidden deep in the bowels of the earth, it still radiates colossal energy. Numerous anomalous phenomena occurring in these places speak in favor of the cosmic origin of Lake Shaitan, in particular, the regular occurrence of luminous balls and rectangles above the surface of the water.

There is a popular legend among the locals that the temple of the Indian deity Hanuman, Satra, is hidden at the bottom of the lake. According to the legend described in the epic Ramayana, the giant Hanuman, the king of monkeys, helped Rama fight the forces of evil and for this he received the Siberian expanses as a gift, where he erected his city - Aku-Nego. It is he who is now deep under water, hidden from the eyes of people by a layer of silt and sand.

The legend about the Hindu temple at the bottom of the lake is closely connected with another legend - about a cosmic crystal. It is believed that this relic, given to people by alien beings, was the main shrine of the Satra temple and is still in it. According to legend, the crystal stores complete information about the entire history of earthly civilization and contains a clue to the salvation of mankind.

Another feature anomalous zone- Huge, almost meter-long footprints of unknown creatures have been found more than once near the lake. There are even written testimonies of eyewitnesses who saw the huge inhabitants of the lake with their own eyes.

The lake is famous for the fact that people, trying to get to it, often stray, their compasses and navigation devices fail. There is a documented case when a group of pilgrims went to Lake Shaitan, strictly checking the compass. The journey was supposed to take no more than an hour. After three hours of travel, the pilgrims became worried. In the end, after seven hours, not seeing any signs of the lake, they decided to return, went back the same way - and after 20 minutes they were in the place where they started their journey.

Sasha Mitrahovich 28.02.2016 10:34

The story happened a couple of years ago. We decided to get out in a crowd of 3 people, to culturally celebrate the night of Ivan Kupala on one of the lakes, which are rich in the region where I now live.

The region is not completely deaf, but the lake we have chosen is located at a sufficient distance from civilization, in a forest, surrounded by a swamp. The lake itself is practically round, and if you stand with your back to the road that leads to this lake from the last signs of civilization, then there are two roads around the lake itself.

On the right, it’s good enough for cars to drive through, and on the left, it’s barely passable for extreme pedestrians with deep puddles, snake holes and the threat of falling into the swamp that surrounds this lake from three sides in case of careless movement. On the opposite side of the lake, the roads merge into one again and go somewhere further, along an embankment through a swamp, towards the next lake, and maybe some signs of civilization that we did not get to.

A nook was chosen as a place for the celebration, fenced on both sides with bushes so as not to shine too much in case other companies were there.

We got to the place along a pedestrian, to put it mildly, rough road, because we were slightly afraid that some drunken company would decide to ride along the shore with a breeze and, without noticing, would run into us. We walked with lanterns, since the site, despite the summer night, is still too dark in the forest not to stumble, and, having counted all the ledges of the embankment with a ridge, still plunge into the swamp. We arrived, surprised that besides us, it seems, no one else went to such a cold and such a distance. They began to sort out supplies, prepare a fire, as from somewhere to the left, a splash of water and a woman's laughter were clearly heard.

- Who is this?

V. perked up, who, after the time when my wife and I got lost in three pines, was most afraid that we would rush into the night, or that the forester would come and, quite obviously, give us a portion of real slaps in the face. He was not even reassured by the fact that we would have a small fire, located in accordance with all the rules, and there were bottles of water nearby.

- Mermaids. We won’t go swimming today,” I answered, as if automatically thinking.

And in fact, the site, who? We passed by that place five minutes ago. And if there was another company, we would definitely have heard them, we would have seen the fire or the light from the lanterns. The bushes are not so dense that it cannot be seen or heard. And the lake itself is small enough to clearly see the light from the lantern even on its opposite shore, if only this light were.

The splashing of water and laughter meanwhile continued. Forgetting about the fire for a while, they shone their lanterns on the water, saw circles on the water, shrugged their shoulders, well, you never know, the fish splashed, hardly anyone would go swimming in such a cold. Where does women's laughter come from? Or maybe the girls are sitting in the dark and telling funny stories. Do not go to them now?

They turned off the lanterns, and, no longer paying attention to the renewed laughter and splashing of water, they finally lit the site, strung bread on sticks, we sit, we freeze, we regret that we did not take the barbecue and meat with us. We soon realized that we were hearing something else besides the silvery-voiced laughter of women and the noisy splashing of water. Someone sang. , without words. Again a female voice, this time from the left and behind at the same time, clearly from the side of the swamp. But it's not clear where exactly. And it seems not loud, but enough for us to hear the singing without interrupting the conversation.

- Who's that?

- Definitely not a forester. Swamp?

Shut up, listen. That's right, singing. And it's unlike anything we've heard before. It doesn't look like any tape or digital recording. And what company in a sober, yes even drunk, mind, will settle down in a swamp and turn on music there? Yes, and strange music for an idle company, one melody that the site performs one female voice for half an hour? We weren't sure exactly how long it had been before we paid attention to her. I wanted to go take a look, but I was dissuaded by the fact that in the dark, even with a lantern, I would definitely fall into the swamp, and I would have to be looked for with a forester and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and at the same time explain what the hell we were doing here at night.

For some reason, it became quite uncomfortable to sit, and we got quite cold, we had to put out the fire, collect our belongings and garbage, and move towards the house. By the way, when they passed by the place where the splash of water and women's laughter were heard, they shone lanterns in that direction. The shore was empty, only circles diverged along the water surface. So we've been wondering since then, what was it? But the singing accompanied us to the very road that led away from the site of the lake.

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