The Egyptian darkness, which lasted three days, is mentioned in the Old Testament as one of the miracles performed by the prophet Moses. However, this phenomenon was observed later, including in our time. In general, the history of mankind remembers several cases when an inexplicable pitch darkness fell to the ground. In ancient times, this phenomenon was perceived as God's punishment, today it is referred to as anomalous phenomena. However, even today, despite all the achievements of science, no one has been able to give it a reasonable explanation.
London darkness
If we talk about modern times, then the first documentary data about the sudden darkness reigned refer to the beginning of the 20th century. On April 2, 1904, the subway station in Wimbledon (London area) suddenly plunged into impenetrable darkness. It is clear that this event caused a lot of confusion among passengers and station staff. The darkness lasted for several minutes, and then just as suddenly dissipated. The public demanded an explanation from the authorities.
The scandal could not be hushed up, too many people witnessed the strange event. And the city authorities turned to scientists for help. A few days later, an experiment was carried out at the site of the surprising incident. Hastily summoned specialists tried to simulate the situation in order to find an explanation for what happened. However, it was not possible to recreate the same darkness, since the participants in the experiment distinguished silhouettes of objects and people in the artificial darkness that had come. And the darkness that enveloped the station on April 2 was truly impenetrable.
Not finding a reasonable interpretation of this, scientists suggested that some gas escaping from the depths of the earth caused temporary blindness of people who were in an insufficiently ventilated room. However, this version turned out to be untenable, since the medical examination did not reveal any traces in the witnesses of the event, indicating damage to the eyes. And the question, as they say, remained open …
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American darkness
Several years later, "Egyptian darkness" covered the American city of Louisville, located in the state of Kentucky. It happened on March 7, 1911. about 16 hours. At that time, over 50 thousand people lived in the city, and therefore it was impossible to ignore this fact, present it as falsification or self-deception.
It is interesting that, talking about their feelings, the inhabitants of Louisville mentioned in particular about the distortions of space. The darkness itself also seemed tangible to many: the air seemed to be condensed, and it was necessary to move in it with some effort, as if under water.
And one more very curious detail. Finding themselves in absolute darkness, Louisville smokers, naturally, began to get matches. Later they said that they heard the matches they had lit, how the flames burned their fingers, but there was no light!
The darkness subsided in an hour. The frightened townspeople rushed to restore order, which had been broken during that hour. People who dared to move in complete darkness found themselves quite far from the places where they were originally located.
After some time, life in Louisville went into its usual rut, but the townspeople for a long time kept the memory of the inexplicable descent of the outrageous darkness on them …
French darkness
Another amazing property of this phenomenon was discovered on July 16, 1957. in the French city of Arles. The victim of the anomaly this time was a 54-year-old woman who worked as a nanny. As usual, around noon Madame Genet took the child for a walk. In the city park, she put a stroller with a sleeping baby under a tree and sat on a bench next to her. Subsequently, the woman said that the light dimmed completely suddenly, as if the electricity was turned off at once. At the same moment, the awakened child cried. Pulling the stroller to her, Madame Genet found the baby by touch and hugged him to her, trying to calm him down …
So she sat for about a quarter of an hour - and suddenly the darkness disappeared, but for some reason there was evening in the park instead of a sunny noon!.. Having put the child in the carriage, the woman hurried home, where she found her employers in tears. It turned out that the nanny and the child had been absent for three whole days! During this time, the police and volunteers turned the city upside down, but did not find any traces of the disappeared …
Since Madame Jeunet was known as a responsible, serious and balanced person, her amazing story was believed. In addition, the supply of diapers for the baby was intact, the bottle of milk was full, and other signs indicated that he had recently left home.
They could not explain what happened even now, but a new fact appeared: in addition to all the already known properties, pitch darkness affects the passage of time.
Tajikistan darkness
The next time this quality was demonstrated in 1979. in the foothills of the Gissar ridge. Four climbers camped here on a cloudless warm evening. They had already set up their tent and began to make a fire, when suddenly impenetrable darkness fell on the people. Fortunately, all four climbers were at that moment nearby and managed to grab hands. Friends screamed, but they did not hear themselves. The impression was that everyone was covered with a black soundproof cap …
The strange blackout lasted, according to the sensations of people, for about five minutes, after which the darkness abruptly subsided. In the eyes of friends hit not in the evening bright sun, the clock was about noon. When, having gone down, the climbers arrived at the main camp, they were amazed to learn that they had been absent for more than a day and a half and the rescue teams were looking for them in the surrounding mountains …
Attempts to explain the mysterious darkness
Modern science is unable to explain the phenomenon of absolute darkness, however, thanks to the collected facts, we can talk about certain patterns. The absence of light is almost always accompanied by temporal and spatial disturbances. As you know, light waves are electromagnetic oscillations. Since the Earth is surrounded by a powerful electromagnetic field, it is possible that the part of the light spectrum that we see turns into a state that the human eye does not catch.
However, the reasons for such a violation are not clear, just as the distortions of space and time at this moment are not clear to scientists. That is, the so-called Egyptian darkness is a phenomenon that defies study. So far, one can only observe it and build various hypotheses. The only thing that scientists advise is that in this case you should not do anything, much less try to move. Judging by the latest data, the darkness does not last long, at least for those who are in it …