Deserts are huge plains, where there is only sand under your feet, and over your head there is only an endlessly hot sun. It does not rain often here, oases are very rare. Desert areas are characterized by sharp drops of night and daytime temperatures, endless sands, moving dunes, mirages.
At all times, the deserts were considered the most mysterious places on Earth, which is not surprising, because it is with them that many mysterious disappearances and unexplained phenomena are associated. Of course, skeptics can explain them as mirages or hallucinations caused by sunstroke.
However, such explanations seem inconclusive when it comes to disappearances. There are many such cases, some of them occurred in antiquity, others in our time.
For example, the mysterious Taklamakan Desert stretches in the northwest of China. Translated into Russian, its name means "abandoned area". But some sources offer a different translation: "If you go, you won't come back."
Cases are known when rich caravans with all the drivers, animals, guards and goods disappeared without a trace in the sands of Taklamakan. Of course, the disappearance of the sandstorm, which caused the death of the caravan, or the fact that the drivers lost their way, can be explained, but this is unlikely, since no remains of the caravans were found.
Is it possible that the robbers attacked the caravan and took away all the cattle, taking rich goods? I guess, yes. But where did the people leading the caravan go? If they were all killed, the remains would have been found. However, the military detachments sent in search did not find the bodies of those killed.
It can be assumed that all the travelers traveling with the caravan surrendered without a fight and were captured. But in this case, a ransom would be demanded for them, which did not happen. In addition, if the goods were stolen, then sooner or later, even if not a dozen years later, they would try to sell them.
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However, the missing goods, even those of great value, did not appear on the markets. But the caravans transported really valuable things, for example, blades of Damascus steel. Each such blade was engraved with a brand - a kind of signature of the master who created it. Such a weapon was in abundance and, if it fell into the hands of someone, sooner or later it would be noticed. But people, animals, and expensive goods all disappeared without a trace in the sands of Takla-Makan.
Disappearances in this mysterious desert continue to this day. The Chinese Vice President of the Xinjiang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peng Jiamu, went missing in its sands. In June 1980, he and a group of geologists went on an expedition to study Lake Lobnor, located in the eastern part of the Takla-Makan Desert.
Throughout his life, he took part in various geological exploration 15 times, including in deserts, and had vast experience. In this regard, it is all the more strange that the usual expedition through Takla-Makan ended tragically for him. According to the official version, he disappeared without a trace while trying to find water.
Searches were conducted for quite a long time, the desert was examined from the air, the military and police were looking for Peng Jiamu, first near Lake Lop Nor, then in remote parts of the desert. In total, several hundred square kilometers of sands were examined, but neither the remains of the researcher nor any equipment was found.
Later, almost twenty years later, in 1998, a whole group of people disappeared without a trace in the same area. Several people separated from the drillers' camp in order to take soil samples on the shores of the same Lobnor Lake. They went to the lake in a special off-road vehicle with a drilling station installed on it. By evening, the geologists were expected in the camp, but they did not return, and in the morning a search for the missing expedition was organized.
The search continued for several days, but did not yield any results. Neither people nor a machine with a drilling rig (which is a fairly tall structure and can be seen in the desert from a distance of tens of kilometers) could not be found.
Fa Meiling, a famous Chinese ufologist, proposed his theory of disappearances in the sands of the mysterious desert. For many years he worked on the problems of the area, compared the circumstances of the disappearances in Taklamakan with disappearances in other areas, and came to interesting and unexpected conclusions.
The fact is that the soil, hidden under the sands of the Taklamakan Desert, is dotted with deep vertical channels. Such channels are seen in many areas of the globe: in Siberia, India, South Africa, etc.
These channels are called kimberlite pipes (after the name of the city of Kimberley in Africa, where they were first discovered), or explosion pipes. They were formed in ancient geological eras as a result of the breakthrough of magma and gases through the earth's crust. The pipes are filled with rock, mainly kimberlite or volcanic fragments, and sometimes they contain up to 10% of diamonds.
Fa Meiling suggested that under the Taklamakan Desert and in some other parts of the world there are similar kimberlite pipes, filled not with rock, but with sand.
Sand is not the same everywhere. Grains of sand vary in size and shape, they are distinguished by up to 40 species. They are most often irregular in shape with sharp edges and many corners. Such grains of sand seem to hold on to each other and form a dense mass.
It is thanks to this that the surface of the desert is quite stable. However, there are grains of sand of the correct round and oval shape. Such a mass is more mobile, especially if at least a little moisture gets into it. Then the grains of sand can no longer withstand the pressure, and any object on the surface quickly sinks.
According to Fa Meiling, not only water, but also vibration from, for example, a drilling rig can turn such sands into quicksand. Thus, according to his theory, geologists, together with a car and equipment, were sucked into the sand. In this case, they, in all likelihood, will never be found, because the depth of the kimberlite pipe can reach several tens of kilometers.
Unfortunately, Fa Meiling's theory cannot explain all the disappearances in the desert, because not always the disappearances of people were associated with any technical work that could cause vibration. Although, it is worth noting that, as a ufologist, Fa Meiling does not deny that aliens from other planets may be involved in the disappearance of people.
The theory of aliens from outer space who have ever visited the deserts finds its confirmation on the African continent. There, on the territory of the state of Namibia, in the Namib desert, images of mysterious circles were discovered. Their origin remained unclear.
Images of circles of various diameters (from one and a half to several tens of meters) stretch for several tens of kilometers. The soil here is rocky and very dense, so it is unlikely that the appearance of circles is associated with any special natural phenomena or with human activities.
Mysterious circles in the Namib desert
Scientists have put forward several versions of the appearance of mysterious circles: these are gluttonous insects, and radiation, and poisonous plants. However, after a long study, none of the proposed versions has ever been confirmed.
Ufologists confidently claim that aliens left mysterious traces. But, as you know, the activities of ufologists are not recognized by official science, and therefore their opinion is not listened to.
But adherents of the hypothesis of aliens visiting Earth are constantly looking for new evidence. Drawings of the Nazca desert in Peru (South America) are one such evidence. The drawings, made, as it is assumed, about 2 thousand years ago, are so large that they can only be seen from an airplane or from a nearby mountain at certain times of the year and day.
They were discovered at the beginning of the 20th century. military pilots. These are images of a bird, a spider, a monkey, flowers, as well as spirals, triangles and straight lines. All images are oriented to the cardinal points. Around the time of the creation of the drawings in this area, according to historians, there was an ancient civilization. This is indicated by the remains of residential buildings and irrigation canals, found burials.
Scientists are sure that the drawings were made by people and believe that they are somehow connected with the cult of the tribe, but why they were made remains unclear, because they were almost impossible to see.
In this regard, the version of ufologists seems to be much more likely: they believe that the drawings are a kind of runways for alien ships and were not made by Indians, but by the same aliens from a height using super-powerful lasers.
In addition to mysterious drawings, the Nazca desert keeps many other mysteries. Some of its areas are considered anomalous. So, some travelers, while in the desert, noted malfunctions in the work of the compass and other equipment.
They say that sometimes in the desert, for some inexplicable reason, it is impossible to take a picture - instead of images on the film, you can see only a blurred spot. However, on another day, in the same place, under similar weather conditions and using the same camera, excellent pictures were easily taken.
There is another version of the mysterious disappearances in the deserts of the Earth - time travel. It is possible that people, finding themselves in the anomalous zone, fell into a kind of time trap, being transported many years forward or backward, or, even worse, fell into a kind of time loop, from where they could not find a way out.
This theory is supported by eyewitness accounts who allegedly met such travelers from the past or future. So, for example, in the same Taklamakan desert, caravans have been seen more than once, wandering over the endless sands. There is a known case when a whole group of tourists met a rich caravan. The line of pack animals, accompanied by the drivers, passed only a few tens of meters from the eyewitnesses.
The people accompanying the caravan were dressed as they dressed in this area 200-300 years ago. They did not react in any way to the cries and greetings of tourists, and after a few minutes they disappeared into thin air.
Later, at the place where the caravan had just passed, not even a trace in the sand was found. It is possible that the travelers accidentally met one of those caravans that disappeared without a trace in the past. In all likelihood, this is an example of chronomyrage.
Similar incidents continue to occur in almost all parts of the world. So, in the north of Mexico, south of the city of Ciudad Quaris, located almost on the border of Mexico and the United States, the so-called Zone of Silence is distinguished in the desert area. The zone is officially recognized as anomalous; scientists from America, Mexico, Brazil and other countries are studying it.
In the past, when the climate of this area was less severe, descendants of the Maya Indians lived here. It is impossible to find water in the desert these days, and people left it. Small settlements can be found only on the outskirts of the desert.
According to the stories of local residents, in the "zone of silence" there were more than once strange personalities, perhaps aliens from the past or the future. Thus, one day two journalists who came to the anomalous zone to collect material met three allegedly local residents. They called themselves shepherds and said they were looking for goats here that had strayed from the flock.
The journalists were somewhat surprised, as they did not expect to meet people on the territory of the anomalous zone. But the shepherds "proved" that they live nearby by showing journalists the direction to the nearest village. When the travelers reached the village, it turned out that there were no shepherds in the village and none of the local residents went to the anomalous zone.
Together with the guides, the journalists went to the meeting place with the amazing travelers, but no traces of people or animals were found there.
An equally amazing story was told by a rancher located on the border of the zone of silence. Three guests came to him - strangers speaking with a strange accent. The travelers behaved very politely and asked permission to take some water from the well. They did not answer the questions, only when the rancher asked: "Where are you from?" - they pointed to the sky.
Were these people time travelers or aliens from other planets? Who knows. But the facts - amazing stories and anomalous phenomena - support the most incredible guesses.
Meanwhile, people in the desert have disappeared at all times. And it is not surprising that this happened in antiquity or the Middle Ages, when they had neither navigation nor means of communication. However, unexplained cases continued to occur in the 20th century.
So, for example, in 1924 in the south-west of Iraq in the Syrian desert a case of disappearance of two British pilots was registered. The pilots made an emergency landing and disappeared without a trace. A rescue expedition was organized, and the location of the plane was soon discovered.
Rescuers also noticed traces of people exiting the plane, but the footprints were suddenly cut off. Moreover, there were no quicksands in this area. Where and how the pilots disappeared is still not clear.
Perhaps they got into the zone of one of the kimberlite pipes, which was described above, and possibly into an anomalous time zone, through which they moved at another time. Probably, some of the travelers will still see them wandering in the desert as a chronomime.