At an altitude of about 5,029 m in the Indian state of Uttarakhand is one of the most terrifying places on our planet. Hundreds of human remains have been found on the shores of the Roopkund glacial lake. Thanks to this terrible find, the mysterious body of water became known as the Lake of Skeletons.
The skeleton lake was first found during the Second World War. In 1942, the caretaker of a local nature reserve found a glacial lake, the shores of which were covered with human bones. According to the original version, the remains may have belonged to Japanese soldiers. However, after study, this version was rejected. Some researchers believed that the remains belonged to the army of General Zorawar Singh of Kashmir, which in 1841 disappeared without a trace in the Himalayas, returning from the Tibetan battle. To confirm this hypothesis, it was necessary to conduct laboratory tests.
In the 60s, an examination was carried out, which established the age of the bones. It turned out that people who died on the shore of the lake lived in the 7th-8th century AD. In 2004, a new study was conducted by a team of scientists that showed that head injuries caused by small, rounded objects were the cause of deaths near Lake Roopunkd.
It is known that for a long time Lake Roopkund was uninhabited, but once every 12 years, followers of the cult of Nanda Devi came to it for rituals. Perhaps the dead were pilgrims caught in a very strange hail. Due to the rarefied air and low temperatures in this region, their remains are so well preserved.
Interestingly, one of the folk songs of the Himalayan women describes a goddess who was angry with the people who invaded her mountain abode, and sent a deadly rain on them in the form of stones "hard as iron."