Has your imagination let you down? Have you ever been intimidated by a sweatshirt thrown over the back of a chair in a dark room?
If you look at Scotland from space, you can see that the northern part of the country is crossed by a straight line, like a ruled line. As if an unknown giant had cut the island with a knife from Inverness to Fort William. This is the Glanmore Rift Valley, or, in other words, the Great Glann Fault.
These places are very beautiful. Among the forested mountains, there is a chain of narrow (about two kilometers), but very long (total length of about 100 kilometers) lakes: Loch Linné, Loch Lohi, Loch Oikh and, finally, the most eastern and most famous - Loch -Ness.
View of the Glanmore Fault from space.
The Glanmore Rift itself is incredibly ancient; it was formed 400 million years ago! And 200 million years ago, when the Atlantic Ocean began to form, this rift was torn in two. And today one part of it lies in Scotland, but the second, believe it or not, ended up in Canada, on Cape Breton Island.
In general, there are not so many such ancient and well-preserved rift valleys on Earth. And, of course, in such ancient lands there must be something incredible and mysterious.
Promotional video:
WHO IS NESSY?
The main mystery of the Glanmore Fault is the famous Loch Ness. It became famous thanks to the legend of a giant water monster living in it (and in the neighboring river Ness), which received the affectionate name of Nessie.
In 1934, a photograph taken by the London physician Wilson flew around the world, showing a small head on a long snake neck peeking out of the water. Many then seriously considered that a real miraculously preserved dinosaur lived in the lake!
The famous fake photograph of Dr. Wilson.
Armed with underwater robots, scanners, sonars, radars and other modern equipment, scientists combed Loch Ness far and wide, but no monster was ever found. And the doctor Wilson, the author of the most famous photograph of Nessie, eventually admitted that the picture was an ordinary fake.
True, many, especially the owners of hotels and restaurants on the shores of the lake, did not pay any attention to the confession of the hoaxer. After all, if Nessie is not there, then how to lure tourists? In a village with a funny "hobby" name Drum-na-Drohid (in Celtic Druim na Drochaid), residents have even opened a whole "Nessiland" - a museum dedicated to the mysterious monster.
Welcome to Nessieland!
And yet, most people have come to the conclusion that the story of the Loch Ness monster is sheer deception and a bait for the gullible. One writer even came up with the "Loch Ness Bank" with a not entirely literary description: "a bank to which only fuckers carry money." Since scientists in Loch Ness did not find anything, it means that all the conversations and stories are just fictions …
IF SOMEONE IS NOT SOMEONE
… Or not just fiction? After all, the fake photograph of Wilson did not appear by accident! Stories about the mysterious "water beast" in the River Ness and Loch Ness have been known for a very long time, dating back to the Irish chronicles of the 6th century AD. In the folklore of Ireland and Scotland there are many legends about the "kelpie" - the mysterious "water bull", in Celtic "tarbh uisge", or "water horse", in Celtic "eah wisge" (each uisge).
Advertising hoaxes for tourists were of no use to medieval Scottish peasants. And even if now there is nothing in Loch Ness, this does not mean that there has never been anything there!
"If there is no someone somewhere, it means that someone is somewhere, but where is this someone and where could he climb?" - the girl Natasha sang in the cartoon about the brownie Kuzka.
Another fake photo.
Scientists completely agree with Natasha - every legend and myth must have some kind of real roots. You just need to know where to look.
CRYPTOZOOLOGY
The science that studies mysterious and mysterious animals is called cryptozoology (from the Greek words "cryptos" - "secret, hidden" and "zoon" - "animal"). And the specialists who are engaged in this science are called cryptozoologists. This is not an easy task. On the one hand, it seems to be zoology, but on the other, it is a real detector, in which the study of ancient manuscripts and logical reasoning are no less important than observations.
Modern science fiction and science fiction books and cartoons persist in portraying Nessie as a miraculously preserved aquatic dinosaur. Let's say a plesiosaur or an elasmosaurus, with a long neck and diamond-shaped fins.
However, cryptozoologists have questioned this theory.
Elasmosaurus.
First, Elasmosaurs and Plesiosaurs were predators. However, all the old sources mentioning the "lake monster" say the opposite. The "beast" possessed enormous size and strength and, being angry, could attack a person and even kill. However, he never hunted people for food, did not steal sheep and cows. And it is rather difficult to assume that with its huge size it ate only river fish.
Secondly, all ancient descriptions and Celtic legends describe the beast as a "river horse" or "river bull" with hooves on its feet. Pay attention - hooves, not fins! In the "Life of Saint Kummian" (7th century AD), it is told how, by prayer, the holy "river horse" was harnessed to the plow:
“It was necessary to plow a field at the western edge of Loch Ness, where Fort Augustus now stands. But the work was so hard that the monks muttered and refused to do it. Saint Kummian, not wishing to force the monks, retired to his cell and prayed there.
At night, the two monks were ashamed and went out into the field to work until dawn, but the plow was not in place. A huge black horse was harnessed to the plow, which was the famous beast of Loch Ness itself. With the first rays of the sun, he finished the work and returned to the lake, taking with him the monk who first murmured and refused to plow the field."
Thirdly, dinosaurs, like all reptiles, had a rather poor hearing. The lake beast could hear and understand human speech. Here is an excerpt from the Life of Saint Columba (6th century AD):
“The saint and his companions had to cross the Nessus River, but the boat was on the other side. Then the saint ordered one of the companions to follow the boat. But the beast at the bottom of the river heard a splash, with a terrible roar emerged from the waters and, opening its wide mouth, rushed at the swimmer. Then Saint Columba raised his hand and said in the name of the Lord: "You will not move further and will not touch a person, but leave soon!"
Hearing the voice of the saint, the beast trembled with fear and swam away as quickly as if it was being dragged with ropes."
No matter how dreamers superstitious medieval monks were, they could hardly confuse a plesiosaur (which looks like a turtle with a long snake neck) with a "huge horse" or "bull". Most likely, they would call such an animal "river serpent". And it is absolutely impossible to imagine a plesiosaur - an aquatic animal! - going out onto land.
GO HORSE, HORSE!
So, the dinosaur is not suitable for the role of Nessie. Then what kind of beast was it? Cryptozoologists had the following list of "evidence" or, if you prefer, "accept a suspect":
1) eyewitnesses called the Loch Ness beast "river horse" or "river bull";
2) the beast was dark in color, possessed monstrous strength and enormous size;
3) the animal had hooves on its feet;
4) the head of the beast looked like a "horse" and a "frog" one;
5) the beast was not predatory, did not attack goats and sheep;
6) the beast could attack a person, but did not do it for the sake of food;
7) at night the beast went out on land and walked on it.
The famous detective Sherlock Holmes also said: “Drop everything impossible; what remains will be the answer, no matter how incredible it may seem. It turns out that there is an animal on Earth that perfectly fits all the signs we have described!
The Germans call it "Flusspferd", meaning "river horse".
Arabs - "faras annahr", that is, "river horse" again.
The Greeks are again “river horse”, “hippopotamos” (ἱπποπόταμος).
This is a hippo, or an ordinary hippopotamus!
Hippopotamus major.
LET'S LOOK INTO THE PAST
About the large size and enormous strength of the hippopotamus, I think, no one has any objections. The hippopotamus has hooves on its feet, it belongs to the order of artiodactyl mammals. The hippopotamus is a herbivore; however, an angry hippo is extremely dangerous.
It is the hippopotamus that is the most dangerous wild animal in modern Africa (and not a lion or a crocodile, as many believe). The hippopotamus lives in water, but can go out onto land (especially at night).
So there is a coincidence, but there is also a serious problem. Even in kindergarten, everyone knows that hippos (as well as lions, crocodiles and rhinos) live in Africa. And not in Scotland and not in England, and in general, there are no hippos anywhere in Europe!
However, “no” does not always mean “was not”. 400 thousand years ago (in biology and geology, this era is called "Pleistocene"), the familiar Europe was completely different. If we could get there, we would be very surprised. Where the English Channel now carries its waters, there was dry land. The modern White and Baltic Seas did not exist, instead of them there were vast "tundra steppes" - grassy plains. Amazing animals roamed the endless meadows and steppes of Europe at that time: mammoths, woolly rhinos and giant straight-tailed elephants.
Hometerius. Not to be confused with smilodon.
The dominant (that is, the main) predators were cave lions and saber-toothed cats - homotheria, very similar to the famous saber-toothed tigers (smilodons) from South America. Homotheria, however, looked a little smaller ("just" the size of a horse), and their saber-fangs did not grow so long.
MR. MAJOR
At this amazing time, a giant prehistoric hippopotamus, in Latin "hippopotamus major", lived in the rivers of Europe. The modern African hippopotamus is a large animal, but in comparison with the giant European fossil, it seems like a lap dog.
Judging by the skeletal parts found by modern scientists, the length of an adult European hippopotamus could reach 20 meters, like that of a good bus, and a whole school desk with two schoolchildren could easily fit in the open mouth of this monster! Even next to the model of this monster, it becomes a little uncomfortable, but try to imagine such a beast live!
Perhaps the skin of such hippos was covered with wool, like mammoths, but scientists do not know exactly this.
CATASTROPHE
It is believed that giant hippos, like other representatives of the Pleistocene fauna - woolly rhinos, mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, became extinct during the last glaciation. And if we assume that a small population of such animals could survive to our time?
The ancient chronicles unanimously describe the Loch Ness monster as a giant "river horse". However, from around the beginning of the 19th century, descriptions of the "monster" suddenly begin to change. Some said that they saw a "huge slug", others - that it was "a jellyfish that could turn into a woman", and still others described a dinosaur we already knew with a long snake neck.
Greg Harlin. "The eruption of the Tambor volcano."
In 1815, there was a terrible eruption of the Tambora volcano on the island of Sumbawa. Millions of tons of ash got into the atmosphere, and the entire Earth was enveloped in volcanic "fog". The year 1816 went down in the history of our planet as a “year without summer”. Crops of potatoes, wheat and oats have died almost throughout Europe. A huge number of horses died due to lack of food, some researchers say hundreds of thousands. Perhaps it was this natural disaster that became that "last straw" as a result of which the small population of relict European hippos, which miraculously survived in Scotland, became extinct completely. So it was or not, now it will not be possible to say exactly. However, the detective story about the "river horse" from Loch Ness is another confirmation that in fact we know very, very little about the history and nature of our wonderful planet Earth.