In the South African Museum of Cape Town you can contemplate the famous painting by Ron Hapstadt "Irises of the Dragon Mountains." On it - lilac and yellow flowers as tall as a person. They say the artist painted them from life on the shores of Green Lake. He was lucky - he returned from there safe and sound. However, these picturesque lands have long enjoyed a bad reputation and are considered dangerous for people …
The mountain range with a height of about 1 km above sea level is "squeezed" between two reservoirs: from the south - Lion Lake, and from the north - Zelenoye. The latter is named so because the water in it contains an admixture of copper sulfate and has a surprisingly beautiful emerald hue. In the center of the massif there is a small valley, along the bottom of which a stream flows. The local population christened it the Valley of Fear.
Often, the "bad" places look lifeless, there is no grass growing, no birds singing, no beasts are seen … Here, on the mountain meadows, the lush relict vegetation pleasing to the eye, many mushrooms and berries are preserved. Wild animals are found here - foxes and roe deer, as well as several species of rodents. Only the trunks of the growing spruce trees are curved in a strange way: the trees resemble curving snakes, by the way, they are also found here in abundance.
A mysterious imprint resembling a monkey's head is visible on a rock about 90 m high hanging over Green Lake. Legend has it that once there was a fight between the good spirit Aikum and the evil demon Ranum - a monster with a monkey head, a human body and a lion's tail. Aikum managed to defeat Ranum, and he burned his head with a ray of the sun.
Since then, the trace of Ranum's head remained on the rock, and the rock itself became known as the Monkey Head. It is popular with tourists. Previously, many of them tried to climb it. But after, in 1980, two experienced climbers, having reached the summit, fell off while descending, the peak is considered cursed, and climbers no longer attempt to conquer it.
But it's not just climbers who are at risk. In the spring of 1987, a tourist group of five disappeared in the Valley of Fear. They were found dead in tents on the banks of the Bystry Creek. People were lying in sleeping bags, everyone's eyes were closed, their hands were folded across their chests, as if someone had taken care of paying the dead back … An autopsy showed that all five of them had heart failure. At first, they assumed that something had scared them. But the faces of the dead remained completely calm.
Two years later - another tragedy. This time a group of eight people died. It turned out that the tourists had hired a Zulu guide. But he flatly refused to go down to the Valley of Fear. He warned the whites that "the spirit of the dungeon went hunting" and "you can't go there." Alas, the Europeans did not listen to him … The examination showed that they … were poisoned by mushrooms!
These tragic incidents did not deter tourists from the "lost" place. In 1992, a couple of newlyweds arrived here from France on their honeymoon. Soon their dead bodies were found on the bank of the stream. The clothes disappeared somewhere, they were not even in the tent. The boy and the girl lay on their backs with their eyes closed, arms crossed over their chest. This time the cause of death was the bite of a poisonous snake …
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Are there too many oddities and coincidences? Well, let's say the death of climbers can still be an accident. But the death of tourists ?! In the first case, no traces of the toxic substance were found in the bodies of the deceased. Poison was found in the second and third … Something does not add up …
According to one of the versions, a certain creature lives in the Valley of Fear, possibly living here since prehistoric times, which is hostile to those who encroach on its territory. It injects intruders with a poison that has hypnotic properties. After some time, the poison dissolves in the body, leaving no traces …
Another hypothesis says that a meteorite exploded in these parts during the Ice Age. Lakes Lion and Zelenoe were formed at the site of the fall of the largest debris. And who knows how matter from outer space affects people?