There are many natural wonders in the Komi Republic, but, perhaps, the most mysterious and mystical are the huge spherical red stones, called by the locals "Galfeds izyas". They are scattered along the banks of the Izhma River, and some can even be seen in the water. These rounded objects got their name from the local village of Maloe Galovo, which is pronounced "galfed" in the Komi language. The word izyas means stones.
Healing cakes
There are more than a dozen such spheres or "Easter cakes" as the local youth christened them. Many stone balls have cracks and breaks, but some of them are completely intact.
Recently, Galfed stones have become more and more interesting for tourists not only from Russia, but also from abroad. They are believed to energize and heal, so some people come and lie on them for a long time or just touch the sore spot. It happens that visitors leave inscriptions on the stones - their names, names of settlements or pictures. However, the locals do not really believe in the magical or divine power of stones, believing that, having warmed up in the sun for the whole day, "Easter cakes" simply give off their heat, like an ordinary stone stove. For them, these rounded boulders are just a beautiful landscape against which they can take spectacular photographs.
Galfed stone.
Speaking of the photo: in the district museum there is a rare photograph dated 1929. It captures the members of the Ukhta expedition, which stood at the origins of the development of the Pechora Territory and the industrial production of northern Ukhta oil. They pose for a photographer against the background of those very Maloghalo stone balls.
There are many versions of the origin of these strange objects among the people - someone considers them a "gift" of aliens, someone - fossilized eggs of dinosaurs, there is even a belief about a huge giant who scattered giant balls across the Earth. But all these are just legends.
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Broken ball.
According to a local scientist, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences Igor Shumilov, boulders have nothing to do with mysticism. These are ordinary natural mineral bodies of a rounded shape (nodules), which consist of calcium carbonates, iron oxides and sulfides, calcium phosphates, gypsum and manganese compounds. Moreover, by geological standards, these are still quite young formations and they are not of scientific interest. According to the expert, in Maly Galovo they fell out of the rock mass when the river washed away the bank. Nevertheless, Galfady stones have long become a brand of the area and a source of pride for local residents.
Great backdrop for a photo shoot!
Stone twins from Costa Rica
Much more scientifically mysterious are the stone objects scattered over a large area in Costa Rica. These stone balls of a perfectly round shape, having a surprisingly flat surface, were discovered in the middle of the last century by workers during the mass cutting of the impenetrable jungle for plantations. Scientists immediately became interested in the finds. There were more than three hundred balls, and they were all of different sizes - from very small, like children's balls, to multi-ton ones and reaching three meters in diameter. Having looked at the find from a helicopter height, the researchers were surprised to find that the balls are arranged in groups in the form of geometric shapes.
One of the objects of close attention of scientists and tourists.
Historians and archaeologists have every reason to believe that these round objects were made and transferred to this place by man, but how and for what?
There is a version that the stones were located by the ancient Indians in the form of a constellation, which helped astronomically calculate the time of the beginning and end of agricultural work. According to another hypothesis, ancient civilizations, possessing the most powerful military weapons, used stones as nuclei, but this version does not explain their strange location and uneven size. There is even an absolutely incredible assumption: the combinations of balls, they say, are nothing more than a kind of landing strips designed for alien space objects.
What signs did the ancient Indians leave us?
There is no doubt among archaeologists that Costa Rica's stone balls are made by processing and grinding. According to their assumptions, possessing great knowledge in the field of stone processing, the ancient Indians, in order to avoid splitting, annealed the spheres with hot coals, and then poured cold water over them. After trimming, they were sanded with sand or leather.
The stones are surprisingly even and smooth.
But how did the stones get into the thick of the jungle? Researchers cannot answer this yet. Analysis of some spheres showed that they were made of shell rock and limestone, which are found on the banks of the Dikvis River, which flows at a decent distance from the place of their discovery. It is clear that without special transport, it was almost impossible to move multi-ton stone balls.
After the discovery of the stone spheres, local residents began to transport them to different parts of the country, which at the moment makes it difficult to establish their original location. By the way, some local residents now use these "balls" as an element of landscaping lawns and courtyards.
Mysterious spheres now adorn Costa Rica's landscape.
"Potato" in New Zealand
The fishing village of Moeraki in New Zealand is another site for discovering round giant stones. Boulders of almost perfect spherical shape are scattered all over the local sandy beach. Aboriginal people call the stones "potatoes that fell out of the canoes of the gods." Some believe that these are the remains of alien ships. But the official research speaks in favor of the fact that these are geological formations of volcanic origin, formed like balls as a result of cementation of porous fine-grained sedimentary rocks. The age of these stone formations, according to scientists, is estimated at millions of years.
Boulders in New Zealand.
Giant stone balls are found in other parts of the world, for example, in the Arctic and Bosnia. And although only lovers of mysticism believe in their extraterrestrial origin, and geologists give their appearance a completely earthly explanation, the version of "a giant who scattered stone balls on the planet" looks very beautiful, mysterious and continues to excite tourists.
Moeraki coast.