The mysteries of the Black Sea still remain unsolved. Secrets of nature and past civilizations, reflected in myths and legends. One of such places on Earth is the Black Sea and the Black Sea basin. For many millennia, it served as a natural waterway for many civilizations.
The ancient Greeks called it simply the Sea, and later the Inhospitable Sea, since its shores were inhabited by peoples who did not harbor friendly feelings towards them. After the Greeks fortified on its shores, they began to call it the Hospitable Sea.
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Along with ancient mysteries, the Black Sea holds many secrets of strange natural phenomena, disappearances of ships and people, and evidence of the habitation of strange creatures and animals.
The most popular mystery of the Black Sea is associated with the history of Atlantis, which lurks somewhere above the sea and the biblical Flood. The history of Atlantis can be traced back to the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato, who described it in 360 BC.
Atlantis, according to his description, was an island powerful civilization in the Atlantic Ocean, larger than the territory of modern Libya and Turkey combined. Atlantis conquered large areas of the continent, including Western Europe and Africa.
It was ruled by the king, the heir to the god Poseidon, and his reign lasted until his attempt to invade Greece, after which Atlantis died as a result of a natural disaster in one day and night.
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Although it is believed that Atlantis was a pure allegory in Plato's description, nevertheless, its location and controversy about this do not subside to this day. One of the reasons for this is Plato's detailed description of not only the cities of Atlantis of its culture, but geography and nature.
Moreover, many authors find similarities with real places on Earth and place it either in the North Sea, or off the coast of the British Isles, the Mediterranean Sea, Indonesia, off the coast of Africa, the Caribbean Sea, and even in Antarctica and Japan.
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One of the popular theories is the one that presents Atlantis as a Minoan civilization that actually existed on the islands of Crete and Santorini and died as a result of a volcanic eruption and the giant tsunami that followed.
Another theory that has received a lot of support is the story of Atlantis being in the Black Sea and lost in a flood of 5600 BC. Moreover, the supporters of this theory are based on real evidence of the existence of this event in the history of this region.
This theory is called the Black Sea Dilution hypothesis. It was put forward by two Columbia University marine geologists, William Ryan and Voltaire Pitman, based on the study of geological and climatic data.
According to their hypothesis, the Black Sea, many thousands of years ago, was a huge freshwater lake whose waters were diluted with water that broke through from the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas through the Bosphorus.
And although many do not agree with the rate of flooding, they nevertheless confirm this event. German historians Siegfried and Christina Schoppe believe that Plato's statement about the finding of Atlantis behind the Pillars of Hercules, i.e. in the Atlantic beyond the Strait of Gibraltar is not true.
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They believe that the Pillars of Hercules is an area on the shores of the Bosphorus, and Atlantis itself is located in the Black Sea near the coast of Sinop or Trabzon, Turkey.
Marine archaeologist Robert Ballad found evidence at the bottom of the sea to support this hypothesis. Ballads are known as the man who found the site of the sinking of the Titanic in 1985.
His team, working off the coast of Turkey using an autonomous deep-sea vehicle, discovered an ancient coastline and the remains of living quarters at a depth of 120. He does not claim that this is evidence for the existence of Atlantis, but confirms the theory of coastal flooding. In addition, the great flood is often mentioned in the legends and traditions of the peoples inhabiting this region.
There are more modern riddles on the Black Sea. So, the Snake Island has been known since the 13th century for its phenomenon of the disappearance of ships.
The area of about 8-13 square kilometers in the area of the island has been known to the Turks and Russians since the Middle Ages as the site of a giant whirlpool and sea vortex, in which flocks of birds, boats and small ships perished.
The Turks called it the Vortex of Death, and the Russians called it the White Whirlwind. Fishermen have always bypassed the area and considered it enchanted.
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Whether he is or not, there is no direct evidence, but the fact that the courts have long disappeared in this area is a fact.
In May 1944, a destroyer of the USSR Navy disappeared in the region 70 km south of the Crimean coast. Moreover, in the daytime and in normal weather. His disappearance was observed from another vessel. As witnesses noted, the destroyer was suddenly surrounded by a black thick foggy cloud, to which green lightning flashed and no one saw him after that.
In 1990, a Greek passenger plane disappeared in the area under ideal weather conditions. One of the versions explaining the incidents is a wandering magnetic anomaly, which causes a violation of the instruments. Later this phenomenon was called the Black Sea Triangle by analogy with the Bermuda Triangle or the Black Sea Vortex.
The strangest incident occurred with a Russian offshore drilling platform in 1991. Once communication with her was interrupted by a boat sent for investigation, she found her drifting 50 km from the drilling site. All 80 workers disappeared, leaving behind untouched lunch and belongings.
Not without strange creatures. As Paul Stone Hill wrote in his book UFOs in the waters of the USSR, the diver Borovikov off the coast of Anapa saw three strange creatures similar to a mermaid or a strange seal with a fish tail, large eyes and white skin under water. They surrounded him, but did him no harm and disappeared as suddenly as they appeared.
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Stories about the existence of a network of underground cities and tunnels in Turkey date back to the First World War. Such an area does exist in the region of Cappadocia, and historians claim that during the Roman Empire, the first Christians found refuge here.
However, until now, no one knows where these tunnels go. They are said to extend as far as Romania. Shepherds during the Ottoman Empire drove flocks of sheep through these tunnels all the way to Turkey.
During the First War, the military authorities walled up many passages to prevent them from being used for maneuvering by troops.
In the days of Ceausescu, the Romanian authorities were well aware of these tunnels and forbade the population to even approach us.
In 1980, Romanian military builders working on the construction of the Danube-Black Sea Canal stumbled upon a secret entrance to one of the tunnels in the Murfatlar cemetery area, and the Romanians began to use it for secret travel to Bulgaria.
It is still not known who and for what purpose built these tunnels of the city, although they existed before the arrival of the first Christians and Romans. There are a lot of rumors and versions on this score and the truth, as always, is somewhere in between