In the foothills of the Himalayas, in the north of India, there is a mysterious gorge, where no mortal has set foot for more than a century. The locals are horrified at the mere mention of this place and will never agree to be the guides of those adventurers who seek to get there.
Yes, this, however, is prohibited by the Indian authorities, who keep the coordinates of the gorge, which is called the Valley of the Seven Deaths, secret. Several dozen daredevils managed to get into this terrible place, and most of them did not return from there alive …
Dead Man's Mysterious Notebook - Shadows of the Valley of the Seven Deaths
In the spring of 1856. a Sikh hunter who was hunting in the mountains was caught in a storm. Black clouds covered the entire sky and brought down a thick veil of rain to the ground. The age-old trees crackled under the gusts of the frenzied wind. Lightning flashed almost continuously, and the thunderclaps were like artillery cannonade. Fleeing from the raging elements, the hunter hid in a small cave on a mountain slope …
Looking around, he came across an unpleasant neighborhood - a human skeleton in decayed military uniform. Next to the remains, the hunter saw an officer's bag and, opening it, found a pair of flintlock pistols, other military supplies and a notebook with a calico cover. The Sikh, who could not read, decided to grab the deceased's notes, along with other things, in order to show them later to someone who was literate.
However, pressing matters and worries drove his find out of the hunter's memory. The notebook lay in an unclaimed hut for almost half a century. It is surprising that it survived at all and was not used for any economic needs - for some reason, the Higher Powers saved it for subsequent generations …
In the end, the calico-bound notebook came to the adventurer Graham Dickford, who was keen on searching for untold Indian treasures. Dickford was able to make out the faded notes on old paper and established that this diary belonged to the captain of the British colonial forces, Richard Butterfield. As commandant of a provincial garrison, Butterfield once heard a local legend about the Valley of the Seven Deaths. The legend literally shook the captain's imagination.
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The Legend of the Valley of the Seven Deaths
Once upon a time, this place was the capital of the possessions of a certain powerful raja. He had seven sons, heroes. It was believed that the army they led was invincible. The brothers won many brilliant victories, conquering all the surrounding tribes and peoples. And so immense pride settled in their hearts, and the brothers blinded by it dared to challenge God Shiva himself, who leads the heavenly army.
The angry Shiva sent a fiery arrow from the sky, which incinerated both the madmen themselves and their army. After that, the formidable god threw a fireball on the capital of the rajah - and it flashed brighter than a thousand suns. There was a terrible blow, from which the whole earth shook, and the city fell into a huge crater. Later, a mountain lake arose in its place. According to legend, in the depths of this reservoir are hidden innumerable riches of the great raja …
In search of the Valley of the Seven Deaths
Captain Butterfield was a mix of romanticism and practicality. He decided to find a mythical valley in order to take possession of an ancient treasure. Together with ten soldiers from his garrison, the captain headed for the mountains. His expedition spent many days in an unsuccessful search. Not a single person who met on their way knew anything about the mysterious valley.
But it is not in vain that they say: he who seeks will always find. One day the detachment reached a deep gorge, which was squeezed by stone walls on both sides. It gradually expanded, and as a result, the travelers found themselves in a spacious valley. The deep blue water of a round lake splashed in front of them, and on the other side people saw some ancient ruins. It was impossible to get to the ruins by land - sheer cliffs that rose right at the water's edge interfered. The travelers decided to put together rafts (the shore was overgrown with forest on their side) in order to safely cross the lake. Night was approaching, therefore it was decided to do this the next morning. Having set up camp, the travelers had supper and went to bed. For the night, as usual, sentries were posted.
The next morning, awakening from a sound sleep, Captain Butterfield left the tent and saw that all his soldiers had disappeared without a trace. At the same time, a fire burned and food was cooked in a pot. There were tents and all the equipment on site. And instead of people, the captain found only their uniforms, neatly folded on the shore. It looked like the soldiers, having undressed, threw themselves into the water.
Butterfield approached the lake - and recoiled in horror: from the blue depths, a truly devilish face looked at him with burning eyes, whose hypnotic gaze imperiously beckoned to him. With great difficulty, Richard averted his gaze from the terrible face and fled …
Every minute the poor captain felt worse and worse: his head was spinning, his mind was turbid, his insides and skin seemed to be burning with fire. On his way there was a cave, into which Butterfield crawled and soon died there. After him there was only a diary, where the captain wrote down all the information about the course of his expedition, including the last days of his life …
New victims of the Valley of the Seven Deaths
Graham Dickford deciphered the old diary and quite accurately located the legendary valley. He set out to take possession of the treasure at any cost and convinced several friends to join him. The mad adventurer was neither embarrassed nor frightened by the tragic story of Captain Butterfield and his men. In 1902. a new expedition of treasure hunters went to the mountains and … disappeared.
After some time, an extremely ragged man with a crazy look appeared in one of the local villages. He had a fever, scabs from terrible burns covered his skin, and the hair on his head fell out in tufts. The ragamuffin muttered something about the friends whom the evil spirits had killed in the hated valley. This man turned out to be Graham Dickford. Unsurprisingly, he was considered insane and hid in the hospital. However, even there he frightened the staff with incoherent stories about a huge flying fire, about a ghost killing with a gaze, about some night shadows … Three days later, the unfortunate man died in terrible agony.
Then the authorities did not investigate this amazing incident. However, in 1906. the government was forced to equip a scientific expedition to the accursed valley. This was insisted on by a senior relative of a missing member of Dickford's squad.
The expedition collected impressive information. It turns out that the lost mountain gorge is simply teeming with poisonous snakes, and some of their species live only in this place.
Once one of the members of the group lit a match - an ordinary match, and at that moment there was a monstrous roar, pulsating tongues of flame swept from one to the other end of the valley. People who got in their way received terrible and lasting burns.
In an attempt to escape the attack of the rushing lights, the two men rushed down to the edge of the lake, but lost their balance and fell to the ground. When the lights disappeared as suddenly as they appeared, the rest of the group rushed to help the victims. But it was too late: they were dead. And all the others, going down to the lake, felt dizziness and a sudden deterioration in health.
All expeditions to the Valley of the Seven Deaths end disastrously
In 1911. another expeditionary force was equipped at the fateful place. And this time the valley fully justified its gloomy name. Of the seven members of the group, she immediately killed five. Two survivors later said that their comrades went down to the water and suddenly began to spin at an incredible speed in place, after which they fell dead.
The survivors experienced such a wild horror that they rushed away, not seeing anything in front of them. With great difficulty they, exhausted, hungry, went out to the people. Unfortunately, these poor fellows briefly outlived their dead colleagues.
The last attempt to penetrate the deadly valley was made in 1919. This time, scientists assumed that the cause of all the tragedies was poisonous lake fumes, and took care of personal protective equipment. Wearing special suits and gas masks, they examined part of the gorge and found seventeen skeletons.
Then three explorers with climbing skills decided to reach the ruins on the opposite side of the lake. To do this, they had to climb steep cliffs and walk along their ridge.
It was very difficult to make such a climb in gas masks, and the climbers decided to neglect the means of protection. Three of the brave managed to climb to the top; Standing up to their full height, people began to laugh, joke, wave their hands and shout something to the comrades who remained below. Suddenly all three jumped off the cliff as if on command - and the dark water of the lake closed over them …
This sad event forced the colonial authorities to ban the visit to the ominous valley; this ban was subsequently confirmed by the government of independent India. According to scientists, the gas emitted by the lake with flammable and nerve-paralytic properties has a negative effect on the human body.
There is another hypothesis according to which the lake is a crater from the explosion of a nuclear (or something similar) bomb. The events allegedly took place 25 thousand years ago during the battle of ancient supercivilizations. The Indian Vedas and epics, in particular the Mahabharata, narrate about the "wars of the Gods". By the way, the consequences of these ancient wars, as independent researchers assure, affect humanity today …