Somewhere in the mountains of northern India, the ominous Valley of the Seven Deaths is lost, which kills anyone who dares to step into its borders. It has not yet been possible to scientifically explain this phenomenon. So the authorities can only close access to dangerous places for treasure hunters and adventurers of all stripes.
Proud Raja
One such adventurer was the British East India Company Captain Richard Buttersfield. In 1772, he was sent by the Governor of Bengal, Warren Hastings, to the governor of Punjab as a military adviser to equip one of the important forts with new weapons and train local gunners.
But the routine duties of the young captain were a burden. Not a day went by that the gold-hungry British did not hear some legend about fabulous riches. One day, Buttersfield met a merchant who said that somewhere far in the mountains of the north there is a valley, to which access is extremely difficult. Where exactly, the merchant told the Englishman rather approximately, since he himself had never been there.
Shiva - the leader of the heavenly host
Once upon a time in this valley was the capital of the powerful rajah, whose fame resounded far beyond the borders of the Punjab. He had seven sons, and so many soldiers that he sent seven strong armies on a campaign every year. Wealth flowed to the raja's castle like a river, since his sons did not know defeat, and he himself - pity for the defeated. But once pride so eclipsed the mind of the ruler that he challenged Shiva himself, the leader of the heavenly army.
The revenge of the angry deity was not long in coming. Shiva struck from heaven with an arrow of flame, incinerating the Raja, his sons and all their army. And then he threw a ball of fire on the city, flashing brighter than a thousand suns. The impact shook the earth, and the huge city turned into a giant funnel. Then a mountain lake was formed in it. Somewhere in its depths, in the ruins of a beautiful palace, are hidden treasures of the great Raja.
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In search of treasures
Buttersfield asked the merchant in more detail about the route and signs that would allow him to find out the desired valley. He picked a dozen soldiers and Sikhs to help him. Everything that he saw and heard along the way, the captain wrote down in a notebook with the punctuality of a true Briton.
For a long time, a small detachment wandered through the mountains, having gone far from the places known to the British. None of the rarely met travelers could answer questions about the mysterious valley, and there were no villages in those places at all.
But in the end, it seemed that luck smiled at the adventurers. By chance, a narrow mountain pass opened up in front of them, which led people into a rather large valley. Part of it was overgrown with dense forest, and in the depths there was a lake filled with blue-black, as if oily water.
It was surrounded on almost all sides by high steep cliffs, only a small part of the coast was a forest edge. And on the opposite bank were ancient ruins. It was impossible to reach them by land, and Buttersfield decided to cross the lake on rafts.
Night was approaching, and they decided to postpone the crossing until morning. The captain posted guards, ordered the change of security, and only after that fell asleep in his tent.
In the morning he woke up in an empty camp. A pot of porridge was bubbling over the fire, the guns were neatly arranged in pyramids. Tools for felling were prepared. The detachment's clothes were neatly folded along the shore. And no more traces - as if 12 people carefully prepared and jumped into the water together.
Buttersfield, apparently, was a thorough man. He described in detail everything he saw in the morning and only then came close to the water's edge. The captain wrote the following lines a few days later, freezing in a cave high in the mountains. Looking into the lake, he saw through the water a face with devilishly glowing eyes and a terrible expression. The Englishman fled in terror, not making out the road. Every hour he got worse, his skin and insides seemed to be on fire, hair, teeth and nails crumbled and fell out. In the end, Buttersfield was completely exhausted, hid in a cave, was able to write a few phrases, and so he died there.
Dead Man's Notebook
In 1902, Buttersfield's notebook, having made a bizarre journey, came to another Briton - the famous adventurer Graham Dickford. He bought it from a Sikh as a rare curiosity along with two antique pistols and a few knickknacks.
The history of the appearance of the notebook is briefly as follows. The father of the Sikh that Dickford turned up was a hunter. One day in 1856 or 1857, in pursuit of a wounded animal, he climbed very far into the mountains. The area was unfamiliar, a thunderstorm began. The Sikh took refuge in a cave, where in the morning he found a skeleton, dressed in the remains of a British uniform. The notebook, pistols and everything else was in the bag of the deceased and safely migrated to the closet of the hunting hut, and then it was sold to a visiting Englishman.
Valley of the seven deaths
After examining the notebook, Dickford came to the conclusion that it was about the Valley of the Seven Deaths, about which he had heard vague legends. With such a clue from Buttersfield, one could try to get there and find the legendary treasures of the Rajah. Dickford gathered a small group of like-minded people, carefully prepared inventory and hit the road.
A few days later, a ragged and burnt European came out to the mountain village. His eyes were mad, and his speech was incomprehensible. He talked about wandering fire, ghosts that kill with a glance, and about the evil spirits that killed his comrades. It was Dickford. He was sent to a hospital, and from there to an insane asylum. Graham frightened the staff there with stories about the ill-fated valley and God's punishment. But, as soon as experienced doctors reached him, the Briton died in terrible agony.
Dickford had rich and influential relatives who convinced the colonial authorities to organize an expedition to find out the reasons for the death of his detachment. In 1906, almost two dozen military and scientists set off on the road. From the very beginning, they recorded ominous phenomena, as if nature itself impeded their progress. An unusually strong wind blowing from the valley seemed to push the travelers back. Lightning struck literally at the feet. The valley itself was inhabited by hordes of poisonous snakes, and some of them were unknown to people.
When one of the soldiers struck a match, flashes of fire ran from end to end along the valley, leaving unhealed ulcers on the skin of those affected by it. Fleeing from the flames, two rushed to the lake, but fell dead, barely reaching the water. Their comrades tried to pull them out, but, approaching the shore, they felt dizziness, nausea and chills. The expedition had to retreat without achieving any results.
In 1911, another detachment of the British visited the cursed valley. This time everything happened swiftly. Five of the seven daredevils went down to the water, but suddenly began to spin at a frantic speed in place, tore at their clothes and hair, and then fell dead. The two remaining, terrified, fled to the mountains. After a few days, they nevertheless went out to the people, but did not last long. The skin of the poor fellows went into huge bloody blisters, and blood was flowing from the throat. As soon as they spoke of the death that had befallen their comrades, both died.
Echo of war?
The members of the next expedition approached their campaign much more seriously. To begin with, they thought: what is destroying those who climbed into the Valley of the Seven Deaths? Scientists have suggested that this is the poisonous fumes of the lake. In 1919, another group set off. Its members were better equipped than their predecessors. Gas masks, chemical protection suits designed to withstand the gas attacks of the First World War, a powerful radio station. At a certain hour, an airplane was supposed to fly over the valley to conduct aerial photography.
Valley of the seven deaths
Technological advances have not helped. The pilot was never able to get the car to the right place. The radio station stopped working on the outskirts of the valley. The devices seemed to have gone crazy.
Gas masks and special suits did their job. Scientists were able to carefully examine the entire accessible part of the valley. There were found the remains of at least 17 people who died in different eras. All members of the expedition were strictly forbidden to go down to the water itself.
But the ruins on the other side of the lake attracted like a magnet. After long disputes, three scientists, good amateur climbers, decided to climb the steep cliffs and go around the lake along the top of the rocky ridge. It would be difficult to perform such exercises in gas masks, moreover, the ridge of the rock was quite high from the water. So the three daredevils set off lightly.
The ascent to the top was successful, and the whole trio moved around the lake. After a while, they stopped, waved their hands to those who remained in the valley, and then … simultaneously jumped into the water.
The expedition was immediately interrupted. Then the colonial authorities completely closed the entire area from people. The authorities of independent India confirmed the ban on visiting this area. Even its location is now strictly hidden from the curious.
Scientists believe the trouble is caused by the flammable nerve gas that the lake gives off. True, then it is not clear why groups of people died in different scenarios.
There is another hypothesis, according to which the lake is a funnel from the explosion of a powerful nuclear charge that occurred about 25 thousand years ago. According to the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, at about that time, the battles of the "war of the Gods" were unfolding in the mountains in the north of Hindustan. Whether it is true or not, we can safely say that in the vicinity of the Valley of the Seven Deaths, no human has set foot for almost 100 years.
Source: "Secrets of the XX century"