Human activities are mainly associated with land. That is why everything related to water raises many questions and assumptions. Water is a completely different world, sometimes incomprehensible and very often inaccessible. The creatures that live in the depths of the seas and oceans are so unlike those who live on land that they can cause not only surprise, but very often fear.
In ancient times, people were convinced that water is fraught with danger. All these fears and speculations are reflected in legends and myths.
Despite the fact that a person managed to descend into the Mariana Trench, which is considered the deepest place on the planet, nevertheless, he knows practically nothing about the terrible and terrible monsters that live at the bottom of the ocean. Sailors often referred to sea monsters in their stories, which dragged large ships under water. On old maps you can see images of giant octopuses, newts, snakes and whales. The myths that talk about sea monsters are found in almost all peoples who dealt with water. And almost all descriptions indicate that the monsters had lion's mouths, huge tentacles and glowing eyes.
With the beginning of the development of navigation, when people began to travel across continents, gradually the fear of water disappeared, but stories about sea monsters still arose. Over time, such stories became less and less, but even in the modern world, in an age of scientific progress, such stories sometimes occur.
It should be noted that, as a rule, a wide variety of creatures were mentioned in ancient legends. But scientists cannot answer the question whether they actually existed. Some researchers are sure that most of these stories are memories of pterodactyls, dinosaurs and plesiosaurs, which managed to survive until the appearance of man.
Probably one of the most famous ancient sea monsters is Leviathan. This monster can be found in the Old Testament. His description is a mixture of fear and delight. This is a beautiful, proud creature that is at the same time associated with Satan and inspires fear.
This image appeared in the book of Job, and it turned out to be so vivid that the name Leviathan became a household name. A similar character breathing fire can be found in many books, films and songs, and even in computer games.
Scientists say that it cannot be ruled out that Leviathan actually existed, since such legends could not be born from scratch, something should have provoked the creators of the Bible to create such an image, some kind of prototype. On the other hand, everything that is written in Holy Scripture cannot be taken literally, because its authors preferred an allegory. The authors did not have to meet such a monster in real life - it is quite possible that the image of this terrible monster was taken only as an illustration of a certain phenomenon. But the image appeared for a reason, so it could have been preceded by meetings with large lizards.
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Could it be that the prehistoric monsters that lived in the seas and oceans managed to survive until the appearance of man on the planet and were noticed by him? Such a development of events cannot be ruled out at all. Scientists have not yet been able to establish the cause of the extinction of the ancient giant dinosaurs, therefore, to exclude the fact that some of them survived and bred. It could also be sea monsters that, at great depths, could survive the cataclysms that resulted in the death of ancient dinosaurs.
Science does not know what is happening in the depths of the world's oceans, so it cannot be ruled out that ancient lizards may exist now. They may well occasionally appear on the surface, from time to time meeting with a person. It is also likely that mutants could appear in the depths of the sea, which are equally similar to ancient lizards and modern animals. This, at least, can explain the origin of the legends about creatures of enormous stature that emerge from the depths of the sea and which are called "sea monks".
In medieval legends, there are stories of creatures resembling mermaids. They had a fishtail instead of legs and hands instead of fins. They are often seen on the northern European coasts. The German theologian Megenberg told the legend about the "sea monks" who went to the seashore. These creatures danced, attracting the attention of people. The dance was so beautiful and bewitching that people lost their guard and came very close to these creatures. The "monks" grabbed the unwary and ate them in front of the others. And in the last century on the territory of Denmark, they even managed to find the corpse of a "sea monk". His height was 15 meters. The remains of the creature were sent to Copenhagen, where a sensational statement was made: this creature is an ordinary cuttlefish with ten tentacles.
However, scientists do not exclude that during the Middle Ages some species of sharks or representatives of walruses could be mistaken for "monks". True, in this case, it is not entirely clear how they could arrange dances on land. Cuttlefish do not have enough strength to drag an adult under water, sharks do not leave the water and react only to the smell of blood, and walruses do not attack people. Therefore, it is quite possible that the legends are talking about some animals unknown to modern science.
Another species of sea monsters became known in 1522, when the Dutch scientist Oddemansa spoke of gigantic snakes that lived deep under water. These monsters rarely came across to people - in one place they were seen only once every ten years for three centuries. However, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the number of reported cases has increased dramatically - in one year, this creature appeared to sailors as many as 28 times. Scientists cannot say what this activity was associated with, but they suggest that sea creatures simply did not like the presence of ships in the sea.
Already in the last century, these monsters have become less active, although now there are more than enough stories about giant snakes. The most interesting thing is that none of the eyewitnesses managed to take a picture of the mysterious creature. Therefore, it is possible to leave an idea of how giant snakes actually looked, only according to the stories of sailors.
At the same time, scientists say that in the ocean waters in the Triassic period, there were Tanistopheus lizards, which had a short body and a very long neck. According to paleontologists, these creatures lived on land, but soon moved to the depths of the sea. This lizard may well be mistaken for a gigantic snake, if we assume that these creatures could survive to our time.
History has preserved legends about Alexander the Great diving into the depths of the sea in a glass barrel. Allegedly, he saw a huge monster at the bottom, which floated around the barrel for three days and three nights. Of course, one can argue about the veracity and original story given. Moreover, there are a lot of similar legends in ancient texts. So, in particular, the ancient texts contain the legend that the Assyrian king Sargan II saw a giant snake. The Roman legionaries were attacked by a terrible monster, they used a catapult and killed the monster. Later, he was skinned and transported to Rome to show to the general public. The length of the trophy reached 20 steps.
There are references to mysterious sea monsters in Chinese sources. So, in one of the manuscripts dating back to the twelfth century, you can find a story about the existence of a certain dragon. According to the author of the text, he saw the skeleton of this creature in the court pantry. Fins, limbs, trunk and tail were intact, only the horns were cut off. Outwardly, the skeleton was very similar to dragons, the images of which existed at that time.
The Central African tribe of pygmies still has legends about the terrible monster "Mokele-mbembe". According to eyewitnesses, this is a cross between a dragon and an elephant. On the territory of Zambia, according to legends, there is also a creature that resembles a dinosaur, which the local population calls the "eater of hippos." This creature has a neck and head like a giant lizard. And the famous hunter Jordan even had to meet him. As the hunter notes, this creature has a hippopotamus torso covered with bone scales, a crocodile's head. Interestingly, Jordan's guides fully corroborated his story.
But the head of one of the scientific expeditions, Marcellen Anyhana, even managed to film a mysterious animal. It happened on Lake Tele. Three hundred meters from the shore in the water, the scientist saw a snake head on a massive neck. This creature "posed" for about 10 minutes, after which it disappeared into the water. As Anyanya notes, this animal looks very much like a brontosaurus, a gigantic herbivore that became extinct about 70 million years ago.
A relatively recently created in Germany deep-sea vehicle "Highfish" nearly died after meeting with one of the sea monsters. The device sank in the Mariana Trench to a depth of about 7 kilometers, but later could not rise to the surface. Then the hydronauts turned on the thermal imager to see what was interfering with the apparatus and were shocked by what they saw: a monster resembling a lizard clung to the body of the apparatus. Fortunately, such an opportunity was foreseen in advance: with the help of an electric gun with a large current charge, it was possible to get rid of the monster.
There are a lot of similar stories. To explain what these creatures are, and where they came from, modern science cannot yet. From this it follows that there are many more mysteries and secrets in the ocean that scientists have yet to unravel. Modern science strives for the stars, while the depths of the sea keep no less mysteries than outer space. Deep sea diving will be full of surprises for a very long time. But, perhaps, someday these secrets will still be solved.
