Our planet is surrounded by a mixture of vital gases. We call this mixture air or atmosphere. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of people perceive air in a utilitarian way, without thinking that this substance is completely material.
Almost every person knows that there is such a phenomenon as a mirage. But not everyone can explain what it is. Mirage is common, for example in the desert. Who has not heard the stories of how caravans of travelers on the horizon stumble upon a large lake. And when tired travelers, chasing camels, try to accelerate their pace to reach the desired oasis, a little time passes and suddenly the distant and ghostly lake disappears. It disappears. This is precisely the mirage.
It is said that such amazing things happen very often in Africa. At certain times of the year, when the complete absence of wind is recorded, images of a wide variety of animals, sometimes motionless, or even moving, begin to appear in the air. One gets the impression that the animals are either running away from people, or pursuing them themselves. All of them are of a terrible size, frightening to death those who are not yet accustomed to such spectacles.
When they overtake an ignorant person, then surrounding his body as if with a cold fog, they bring him to horror. Travelers are incredibly afraid of such phenomena, while the locals have not paid any attention to them for a long time.
Castles, islands and even whole cities have been observed in the world by thousands and thousands of people at different times and on different continents. The heavenly city of Jerusalem was seen in the sky on the island of Patmos in the second century of our chronology by the author of the "Apocalypse" John the Theologian.
Unexpected and completely outlandish visions caused by the play of light in the atmosphere in ancient people only strengthened their belief in the existence of supernatural forces. Ignorant and superstitious, they considered mirages to be tricks of the air spirits who mock weary travelers.
In some cases, when a fantastic beautiful picture began to be reflected in the air, people thought they were seeing a reflection of heavenly paradise.
Many oriental tales tell about the evil fairy Morgana, who loves to tease people very much. It was she who showed tired travelers, lost in the sultry desert, first the city, then the trees and the lake, which disappeared without a trace, as soon as people approached them closer. According to legend in the Breton epic, the fairy Morgana was the half-sister of the famous King Arthur. When Lancelot rejected her, she settled in a castle at the bottom of the sea and, in revenge, began to deceive the sailors with various ghostly visions. Hence the habit of calling the changing mirages "fata - morgana" came from.
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Mirages - these most mysterious phenomena are still difficult for scientists to explain, not yet making unambiguous statements about the appearance of visions. In their opinion, due to the inhomogeneous mixing of hot and cold air in the air, the refraction of light becomes nonlinear, which is why the air lens effect occurs.
The Fata Morgana was first spotted on April 3, 1900 by the defenders of Bloemfontein. In the sky, they saw the ranks and battle formations of soldiers as in the British army, and so clearly that they even managed to make out the buttons on their red uniforms. This, according to the chroniclers, was taken as a bad sign. And the next day, the British actually managed to capture the capital of the Orange Republic.
In 1902, the American scientist Robert Wood, who was nicknamed "the sorcerer of the physical laboratory" with good reason, was able to photograph two boys who peacefully "wandered" through the waters of the Chesapeake Bay … maneuvering between yachts. At the same time, the height of the boys in these photographs clearly exceeded three meters. What it is - it has not yet been possible to explain, although the overwhelming majority of versions leaning towards a mirage.
Undoubtedly, the “Flying Dutchmen”, which are still met by sailors, are also referred to as “Fata Morgan”.
Many have read about the incident that happened to the British transport ship "Vendor" on December 10, 1941 at eleven in the morning. A burning ship was seen on the horizon by a British transport team in the Maldives region. "Vendor" hurried to the rescue of the frigate in distress, but did not have time: just an hour later, he fell on its side and sank. Nevertheless, the captain of "Vendor" decided to approach the alleged place of the wreck of the unfortunate ship, but what he saw, or rather, did not see, shocked him. Despite careful searches, no debris or spots of fuel oil were found. Returning to the port of destination in one of the Indian cities of India, the captain learned that at the same moment when the entire crew of the Vendor watched the tragedy, a cruiser called the Ripals was actually sinking.which was attacked by Japanese torpedo bombers in the area of the island of Ceylon. At that time, the distance between these ships was more than nine hundred kilometers …
Some researchers believe that mirages come to us from the past. And as proof, they cite an example that happened recently on the island of Crete, when thousands of locals and tourists observed a strange phenomenon: in an early foggy morning, a huge battle canvas appeared over the sea near the castle of Frank Castello. Almost everyone could clearly hear the screams, groans and clanging of weapons. A mysterious mirage slowly moved from the sea.
Researchers call this phenomenon chronomirages. Historians confirm: a bloody battle between Greeks and Turks took place on this place one hundred and fifty years ago.
The origin of chronomirages has not yet been explored, but some believe that they and UFOs have the same nature - these are images transported in time. Thus, numerous eyewitnesses observe in the air, as on a TV screen, events occurring in the past or in the future.
So far, researchers are only collecting facts, which, as you know, are stubborn things, even if they are inexplicable. And the scientific explanations given by some are far from convincing.
With the development of modern technologies, a hypothesis arose that the space in which humanity lives is not the only one in the Universe. There are other spaces that we - humans - cannot see, but they also consist of matter and have their own forms of life.
Based on this, some researchers believe that a mirage is a passage through which phenomena that take place in other spaces are manifested in ours. That is, it is the existence of other spaces that sometimes "accidentally" shows itself in this space in the form of mirages, allowing people to see them.
According to some researchers, chronomirages can not only be observed, but, if you are lucky, and get "inside them"! For example, in Crimea, four local residents became not only witnesses, but at the same time participants of another similar phenomenon.
The son with his father and two acquaintances were driving in a Zhiguli along the road in the suburbs of Sevastopol. Suddenly, the car crossed the road German "tigers". Father and son got out of the car quite calmly, without surprise looking at the tank column, hoping to see the director, filming equipment, crowd scenes next to them … But to their surprise, they did not find anything of the kind.
Genuine horror gripped the four when one of the German tanks turned right on the Zhiguli. Crimeans, in their opinion, were saved by an excellent reaction: they jumped into the car and, turning around, very quickly drove in the opposite direction, and the "tiger" chased after them for some time.
And yet, what does science say about this? She explains air mirages as follows: it is known that air density changes as the temperature changes. In the desert, for example, where mirages are most often observed, even sand and stones give their warmth to the "lower" air on a hot day. As a result, it becomes denser.
When a ray of light from distant objects goes to the observer, it passes through the air layers with different densities. As a result, it is strongly curved towards denser layers. According to scientists, in some cases, the refraction of light, observed in the atmosphere, like a curved mirror, gives such a distorted image of very distant objects that absolutely fantastic pictures begin to appear in the air.
However, the world of air is still under-explored. It is still filled with unexplained phenomena that boggle our imaginations.
And it is not known which is more correct, to study the secrets of the air to the end, or to leave room for a miracle? It seems that many of us will prefer the latter …