In the north of India, in the foothills of the Himalayas, there is one mysterious gorge. For more than a hundred years no human has set foot there.
One mention of him causes superstitious horror among local residents. For no other treasure in the world will they agree to be the guides of adventurers seeking to get there.
Yes, this is prohibited. Indian authorities are keeping secret the coordinates of this gorge, called the Valley of the Seven Deaths. Of the several dozen people who managed to visit this cursed place, none survived.
Dead Man's Notebook
In the spring of 1856, a Sikh hunter who was hunting in the mountains was overtaken by a storm. The whole sky was covered with black clouds, which brought down a continuous veil of rain on the ground. Under the gusts of a hurricane wind, age-old trees crackled. Arrows of lightning shot from the skies almost continuously, the thunderclaps resembled an artillery cannonade. Fleeing from the bad weather, the hunter took refuge in a small cave on the mountainside.
Looking around, he found an unpleasant neighborhood - a skeleton in rags of a military uniform. Next to him lay an officer's bag, and in it, along with a pair of flintlock pistols and other military supplies, a calico-bound notebook. The hunter did not know how to read, but nevertheless he took the dead man's notes along with the rest of the property, hoping later to show them to some literate person.
And then, in the midst of pressing matters, I completely forgot about my find. The notebook lay in the Sikh's hut for almost half a century. It was only by a miracle that they did not let her go to various household needs.
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But one day, somehow, she fell into the hands of the adventurer Graham Dickford, who was keen on searching for the untold treasures of India. With difficulty disassembling the faded notes on half-rotted paper, this adventurer found that before him was the diary of the captain of the British colonial forces, Richard Butterfield. As commandant of a small provincial garrison, he heard from the locals the legend of the Valley of the Seven Deaths.
In the footsteps of the legend
Once upon a time there was the capital of the possessions of the powerful rajah, who had seven sons, heroes. The army led by them was considered invincible. They won many glorious victories and conquered all the surrounding peoples and tribes.
And immeasurable pride entered the hearts of the brothers, and, blinded by it, they challenged Shiva himself - the leader of the heavenly army.
The angry god shot a fiery arrow from heaven, incinerating the brothers and all their army. And then he threw a ball of fire on the city, flashing brighter than a thousand suns.
There was a terrible blow that shook the whole earth, and the capital fell into a giant funnel. Subsequently, a mountain lake was formed at this place. Somewhere in its depths are hidden treasures of the great raja.
In Butterfield, the spirit of romanticism got along well with a practical vein. He decided to find the legendary valley and take possession of the ancient treasure. Taking a dozen soldiers from his garrison, he set off for the mountains. The expedition spent many days in a fruitless search.
No one they met along the way had heard of such a valley. Yet persistence in achieving the goal led to good luck. Once the detachment found itself in a deep gorge, squeezed on both sides by stone walls. Gradually it expanded, and finally the travelers came out into a spacious valley.
The waves of a round lake with deep blue water splashed in front of them, and on the opposite bank were some ancient ruins. High steep cliffs, rising at the very edge of the water, did not allow getting to them by land. It was decided to put together rafts, since the shore on the side of the people was overgrown with forest, and to swim across the lake. As night was approaching, they decided to take up the matter the next morning. We set up camp, had supper, and went to bed, setting up sentries.
At night, the captain slept soundly. And the next morning, leaving the tent, he found that all his companions had disappeared without a trace. A fire was burning, a brew was bubbling in the pot, all the tents and equipment were in place - and not a soul! Only piles of neatly folded uniforms on the beach. Apparently the soldiers undressed and rushed into the lake.
The captain went to the very edge of the water - and recoiled in horror. It seemed that from the depths a devilish face with burning eyes was looking at him, and his gaze was hypnotizing, beckoning to him. With difficulty looking away, Richard, not remembering himself, rushed away.
Every hour he was getting worse: his head was spinning, his consciousness was clouded, his skin and insides were burning with fire. Already losing consciousness, he crawled into a cave, where he died. But there were entries in the diary, which Butterfield kept carefully and in detail from the first day of the expedition.
Modern victims of ancient wars
By deciphering the diary, Graham Dickford was able to locate the Valley of the Seven Deaths with great precision. He decided at all costs to take possession of the rajah's treasures and persuaded several friends to take part in the expedition. In 1902, the treasure hunters went to the mountains and disappeared. After a while, a ragged man with a mad gaze came out to the mountain village.
He was in a fever, his skin was covered with scabs from terrible burns, the hair on his head and in his beard fell out in tufts.
He muttered something about friends killed by evil spirits in the cursed valley. Naturally, Graham Dickford - and it was him - was considered insane and was admitted to the hospital. But even there he frightened the medical staff with incoherent speeches about a large flying fire, shadows in the night, a ghost that kills with a glance … Three days later, the patient died in terrible agony.
The authorities did not even think to investigate this strange incident. Only a few years later, in 1906, the government, at the insistence of a high-ranking relative of one of the missing members of Dickford's expedition, was forced to equip a scientific expedition to the enchanted valley.
She has collected impressive information. It turns out that this gorge, lost in the mountains, is teeming with dangerous poisonous snakes, some species of which are found only there.
And once one of the expedition members lit a match - and suddenly there was a terrible roar, pulsating tongues of flame began to rush from end to end of the valley, leaving terrible non-healing burns on the skin of people in their path.
Fleeing from the attack of the wandering lights, two rushed down to the very edge of the lake - and, losing their balance, fell to the ground. The lights disappeared as suddenly as they appeared, and the members of the expedition rushed to the aid of their comrades. But it was too late: they showed no signs of life. And the rest, who went down to the lake, experienced dizziness, a sharp deterioration in health.
In 1911, another expedition was sent to the Valley of the Seven Deaths. This time, this place fully lived up to its ominous name. It immediately killed five of the seven participants. Two survivors later said that their comrades went down to the lake. Suddenly they began spinning at a breakneck speed, and then fell down dead.
And the survivors were attacked by such horror that they rushed away, not making out the road. With great difficulty, they, exhausted, starving, managed to go out to the people. But they, too, briefly outlived their dead comrades.
The last expedition to the ominous valley took place in 1919. This time, scientists, suggesting that the poisonous fumes of the lake were to blame for all the troubles, took personal protective equipment with them. Putting on gas masks and special suits, they examined the accessible part of the gorge, finding 17 skeletons. Then three explorers with mountaineering skills decided to get close to the ruins on the other side of the lake, climbing the steep cliffs and walking along their ridge.
Since it would be difficult to make such a climb wearing gas masks, climbers decided to do without them. Climbing to the top, they stood up to their full height. Their mood was high: they were laughing, joking, waving their hands, shouting something to the comrades who remained below. And then all three suddenly jumped off a steep cliff, and the waters of the lake closed over them.
After that, the colonial authorities imposed a ban on visiting the Valley of the Seven Deaths, which was confirmed by the government of independent India. Scientists suggested that the reason for such a negative effect on the human body is the gas released from the lake with nerve-paralytic and flammable properties.
There is a hypothesis that this lake is a crater from the explosion of a powerful nuclear bomb during the war of ancient supercivilizations that happened 25 thousand years ago. Information about these "wars of the Gods" is contained in the Indian Vedas and epics, in particular, in the Mahabharata. The consequences of these ancient battles affect people to this day.
Victor MEDNIKOV