At all times, travelers were attracted by mysterious and mysterious places, one of which is the Barsakelmes tract. We will tell you about historical facts and incredible myths of the Barsakelmes tract.
Barsakelmes, translated from Kazakh, means “if you go, you won't come back,” which is associated with rumors and legends. The tract is located 180 kilometers southwest of the city of Aralsk, Kyzylorda region. Previously, Barsakelmes was an island, but over time, due to the drying up of the Aral Sea, it became a natural boundary.
The first expedition to the Barsakelmes island
In August 1848, the first scientific expedition to study the Aral Sea arrived on the island of Barsakelmes. Lieutenant Alexei Butakov carried out the first investigations of the island, described the coastline, carried out a survey, described the landscape. Together with the expedition team, the exiled revolutionary poet and artist Taras Shevchenko was sent to the island. But for accusatory anti-popular compositions he was forbidden to write and draw there.
Nevertheless, thanks to good relations with General Vladimir Obruchev and Butakov, he was still lucky enough to write several pictures. To report on the expedition, Taras Shevchenko was instructed to sketch the landscapes of the Aral coast. The artist compiled an album of views of the Barsakelmes Islands, Vozrozhdenie and the shores of the Aral Sea.
Taras Shevchenko * Barsakelmes Island *.
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This violation of the ban cost the general and the lieutenant a reprimand "for oversight in observing private Shevchenko." And the revolutionary himself was exiled to the Novopetrovskoye military fortification in the Caspian.
Later, in 1900, the Soviet zoologist and geographer, president of the Geographical Society of the USSR, Lev Berg, visited Barsakelmes Island. Then he suggested that the highest southwestern cape be named after Alexei Butakov, in memory of the first explorer of the Aral Sea and the island itself.
However, in their article "History of scientific research in the state natural reserve Barsakelmes (Aral Sea)" Kazakh researchers Bolat Bekniyazov and Zauresh Alimbetova argue that the first island Barsakelmes was mapped in 1831 by scientist Alexei Levshin.
Barsakelmes reserve
In 1929, a hunting farm was created on the Barsakelmes Island. For his work, they brought in saigas, gazelles, gray partridges, European hares, Syrdarya pheasants, and sandstone ground squirrels. And 10 years later, the Barsakelmes Reserve was established. It is considered the first reserve and is the only one in the country located in extreme environmental conditions.
In 1953, kulans were resettled from Turkmenistan to the Barsakelmes island. This animal, which resembles a Przewalski's horse, but was not tamed by man, was listed in the Red Book as an endangered species in the mid-1950s. The area of the reserve is 160,826 hectares.
Photo of the Executive Directorate of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In 2016, the International Coordinating Council of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program included the Barsakelmes Biosphere Reserve in the world network of UNESCO biosphere reserves. It was created on the basis of the reserve. The total area of the reserve is 407,132 hectares.
Flora and fauna
The Barsakelmes tract is home to 12 species of reptiles, 178 species of birds and 27 representatives of the mammalian family. Most of the tract is covered with wormwood - Aral and rod-shaped. In autumn, numerous biyurgun bushes bloom in Barsakelmes. The decorative tulip Borshchov, named after the Russian botanist Ilya Borshov, is listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan.
Lilia Dimeeva / Kazakhstani MAB National Committee.
Poisonous insects and snakes live in Barsakelmes. Three types of scorpions have been registered: variegated, black and Caucasian. The venom of these scorpions is not as dangerous as the lethal injection of other scorpions. The Caucasian scorpion is not dangerous to humans, but an allergic reaction is possible. And the bite of a black scorpion brings unbearable pain. The bite site is numb and the pain does not go away within three days.
Among the venomous snakes are Pallas's snake snake and a snake arrow that feeds on lizards. For example, the skink geckos living in the tract, which are remembered for their big eyes. The arrow-snake first bites its victim, the lizards die of its poison after a few seconds, then the snake wraps around the body. Pallas's muzzle is a poisonous snake, reaching a length of up to seventy centimeters. The snake bite is painful, accompanied by bleeding. The teeth on which the poison is located are located very deep in the mouth of the snake, and therefore, when an adult bites, it does not manage to use them. For children and animals, the bite of the Pallas muzzle is more dangerous.
Of the insects, two species are listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan, these are the dark-winged grasshopper and the white-headed butterfly. Endangered bird species include the Dalmatian Pelican and the Little Egret, which are also listed in the Red Book.
At the bottom of the dried Aral Sea, or rather in the Barsakelmes area, in 2000 the mausoleums of Kerderi I, Kerderi II, as well as the Aral-Asar settlement were found. These structures were located on one of the branches of the Great Silk Road. Archaeological sites date back approximately to the XI-XIV centuries. The height of the Kerderi I mausoleum is 2.3 meters. It was built of baked bricks and then lined with decorative tiles. The structure is surrounded by burials. The mausoleum of Kerderi II is located 25 kilometers from it.
Myths and fictional stories about Barsakelmes
This area has long fascinated the imagination. Some stories were invented by some on purpose, while others not on purpose, relying on the stories of grandparents.
Tales about the island of Barsakelmes, including the mysterious disappearances of people, were launched in the mid-1980s by then a medical student Sergei Lukyanenko. Now he is a well-known science fiction writer, author of a series of books about the Watch. He admitted this in 2002 in the article “Koblandy-batyr and Barsa-Kelmes”.
According to the story about the batyr Kobylanda, he stayed on the island for three days, and when he returned home, he found out that he had been gone for 33 years. Such tales of space-time traps envelop the island at different times and different interpretations.
There is a story that at the beginning of the 19th century, several Kazakh families in search of the best, having gathered their livestock, decided to go to the island on the ice. There were rumors that saxaul was growing on the island and herds of saigas were living. For a while, there was no news from the families. A little later, people found only their remains, the island was deserted. Probably, the reason was that on the island, with the arrival of hot weather, problems with fresh water began, and the families did not have the opportunity to swim across the sea.
And in 1935, a topographic expedition disappeared on the island. Allegedly, the researchers fell into a strange fog and disappeared, and returned three months later. They claimed that they had been away for only three days and that they had been surveying the northern part of the island during that time.
There is also a story about prisoners who escaped from prison and ended up on the island of Barsakelmes. They thought they had only been on the island for a couple of years, but when they returned home, they found out that they had been gone for several decades.
Other myths told that fishermen who went to the fish-rich waters of the Aral Sea often did not return. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the fishing small boats could not withstand a severe storm. And the survivors were killed by poisonous insects and snakes.
Ufologists (researchers of anomalous phenomena, in particular those dealing with the phenomenon) believe that Barsakelmes Island is under the influence of a powerful geoactive zone. Because of this, all anomalous phenomena occur, in particular, these temporary traps. And some conspiracy theorists believe that Barsakelmes was a specialized training ground where secret research was once carried out.
On the basis of myths and legends, a children's book "The Adventures of Batu and His Friends in the Country of Barsakelmes", written by journalist Zira Naurzbaeva and writer Lilia Kalaus, was created.
The island of Barsakelmes itself often became the main scene of various novels. In the novel "Forty-first" of 1924 by the Soviet prose writer Boris Lavrenev, the events take place in this place. The theme of the dying Aral Sea in his novel-trilogy called "Barsakelmes" was revealed by the Uzbek writer Dzhonrid Abdullakhanov. The island is also mentioned in the motion picture "Dreams of an Idiot" in 1993, based on the novel "The Golden Calf" by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov: the underground millionaire Koreiko escapes to the island of Barsai-Helmes.
