Cape Ryty is one of the most mysterious places on Lake Baikal. They say that there are such plants here that cannot be found in the entire Siberian taiga. Irkutsk ufologists assure that they have equipped their UFO bases here. They say that the radiation background is off scale here. Now there is still talk that the helicopter fell in July is also no coincidence
The view from Ryty is stunning - a long cape protrudes deep into Lake Baikal, cut by the gorge of the Rita River. The dry branches of the river give the impression that the cape is dug up by narrow winding ravines directed to Baikal, hence the name Ryty.
And for all the splendor, not a soul. There are no settlements here, single boats, without touching the shore, pass by, roads do not reach this place, there is not even a path along the coast. Local captains can tell a lot of stories about how, opposite this cape, equipment breaks down with enviable constancy and for no reason and devices play pranks.
Local residents have many legends about Ryty. One of them was told by the Olkhon shaman Valentin Khagdaev. Once there was a dispute about shamanic power between the Evenk, Yakut and Buryat clans. For the great battle from each clan came out a shaman and a hero. However, in this fight, no one defeated anyone. But the battle awakened the spirit of the ruler of Northern Baikal, Ukher-Noyon, who was buried here, and a terrible mudflow rolled down onto the fertile plain, mixing the whole earth with huge stones. It used to be a tradition to go to the cape every three years to conduct a special ritual of sacrifice to the spirit of Ukher Noyon, so that he would have mercy. Only the shaman was allowed to reach the sanctuary. Shamans prayed in a "black" (moonless) night on an inverted black cauldron. But the tradition was broken, and now the spirit takes revenge on all people who visit this area.
Another legend was told by Alexander Burmeister, better known as the Ice Captain - there was supposedly a city on the cape. Once in winter, from the ice through binoculars, Alexander clearly saw an artificial stone wall. And on the photographs printed afterwards, “curvatures” of space were found that could not be attributed to defects in film or photographic printing. Mystic? Perhaps, but in the area of Cape Ryty, as the staff of the Baikal-Lensky Reserve explained to us, no one has ever conducted archaeological research.
But there is a place similar to the English Stonehenge (some scientists believe that there is a world system of similar structures and they were supposedly built by Atlanteans or early Aryans). According to legend, local tours were built by kurykans, who, by the way, believed that the gates to the world of the dead were opening in Baikal.
However, many of Ryty's riddles have a scientific explanation.
- Why is nature preserved here in its original form? - asks Viktor Stepanenko, head of the environmental education department of the Baikal-Lensky reserve. “The locals have always considered it a sacred place. For a long time it was impossible to hunt there, pick flowers. Only winter grazing was allowed. Therefore, now on the cape there are preserved plants that have long disappeared from the face of other Baikal steppes. Biologists conducted research and found out that there is no podzol in the soil, that is, at the top of the Ryty larch cape never burned - such a natural reserve turned out. Although once the whole taiga was engulfed in flames.
As for radiation and uranium deposits, the employees of Sosnovgeologia are firmly convinced that these are fantasies. “There are no uranium deposits at Cape Ryty,” said Alexander Myasnikov, Honored Geologist of the Russian Federation, Professor of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. - This I can say for sure. The last time I visited Cape Ryty was in the summer of 2000 (in general, I have been working in those places for 40 years). Systematically carried out measurements of the background radiation of bedrocks, soil, bottom sediments. I did not find increased values of radiation. But there are manifestations of ore inclusions of copper and polymetals”.
And the completely mysterious spirits of Ryty have nothing to do with the crashed Mi-2 helicopter.
“The helicopter did not reach the cape,” says Viktor Stepanenko. - In general, planes have fallen on Baikal more than once, especially in the 70s. An-2 fell in the upper reaches of the Kirenga, still not found. On Pankuche there is a plane that fell during the war. An-24 went under the ice near Cape Solontsovy.
According to an unofficial version, ascending air currents constantly circulate over Cape Ryty, generated by a large temperature difference - over Lake Baikal and over the Ryty rocks. Those who swam nearby probably saw that it was calm on Baikal, and in the area of the cape the wind was much stronger. The helicopter just got into this stream, could not stand the technical characteristics (the equipment is already a bit old).
And yet Ryty still has secrets - both UFOs that appear periodically, and naughty equipment …