There are legends and myths in Yakutia that ancient rafts made from very thick logs, from tree species that do not grow in these parts, lie at heights in various mountainous regions. They were found by both local residents and hunters, and even the explorer of Yakutia, Baron Wrangel, mentioned in 1820 about the petrified skeleton of a supposedly huge ship that the natives found in Verkhoyanye.
In 2012, there was even talk of enthusiasts about finding one of these rafts in those places. The matter did not go further than conversations. How did these floating devices end up high in the Yakut rocks? Facts from the Bible and other sacred books of world religions about the Flood come to mind. And it makes sense. But let's leave the development of the hypothesis to scientists, consider only the facts.
The legendary raft of "Yakut Noah" may be found in August 2014. The instructor-guide, who is also the head of the Yakut travel company "NordStream", Mikhail Ivanovich Mestnikov, told me about this quite casually. He has already planned an expedition to find such a raft in the mountains, even confidently named the dates - from 21 to 31 August. And he is confident that the raft will be found.
The raft is located 300-400 meters above the river level. Four thick logs, each of which cannot be grasped with two hands, are skillfully tied to each other in the old way: by preheated sige rods over a fire - a talon thicker than a man's wrist. The grooves and special slots for rods in the logs are worked very carefully.
The raft is located in rocks where trees of this thickness do not grow. In early April 2014, Mikhail Mestnikov met with a man who discovered this raft more than 50 years ago.
At this time, a team of search engines is being recruited. This group already has a specialist - the Yakut scientist Vladimir Popov, who is engaged in ancient finds; he plans to take a piece of wood cut off from this raft for a comprehensive analysis. It is possible that several more people of his profession can join the group.
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Find history
This raft was first spotted in 1959. It was discovered by four local residents, among them was Afanasy Stepanovich Germogenov (now he is about 80 years old), who determined that this raft was very old. The raft is not so far away - just 4 kilometers from the village of Teryut, not far from the road. Locals came to him by accident. Afanasy Stepanovich tried to get information about the find to various authorities, but this did not interest anyone.
Last year in the fall, an old man persuaded his younger relatives to go to the raft. But it started snowing early, and the trip was postponed for a year. In April of this year, Afanasy Stepanovich promised to set a mark in advance in the place where the raft is located so that search engines could see it from afar.
Groups of M. I. Mestnikov passed many water routes of Yakutia, including the most difficult: Eastern Khandyga, Indigirka, Erikit, Bolshoi Nimnyr, Timpton, Chulman. Huge experience has been accumulated in organizing winter tours to Oymyakon, Magadan, multi-day expeditions during extreme frosts, and in many of them Mestnikov's friends were pioneers. So the confidence in the success of this expedition is one hundred percent.
What the Bible says
The ancient myths of many peoples speak of the Flood, that only a few survived this catastrophe. The similarity of biblical stories and folk legends is simply amazing, something similar is in the Yakut epic.
The Bible tells us that the Flood occurred by the will of God. But God's intervention in the fate of the inhabitants of the Earth does not mean the absence of real physical, geological reasons. There is an assumption that the flood was triggered by the fall of a huge asteroid that launched the tectonic processes of the Earth. But in the Book of Genesis we do not find this fact.
It says: “… in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the great abyss were opened, and the windows of heaven were opened; and it rained on the earth forty days and forty nights”(Gen. 7: 11-12); "And the flood lasted on the earth forty days [and forty nights], and the water multiplied …" (Gen. 7: 17); “The water grew stronger on the earth for one hundred and fifty days” (Genesis 7: 24).
Some scholars believe that rain was not the main source of the flood. "Sources of the great abyss" - emissions of water from the depths. The latest scientific evidence confirms that there is still a huge amount of water in the Earth's mantle.
Be that as it may, the Bible tells of a great flood that covered the entire land in a short time. What should be the reaction of people in the face of death? Of course, save yourself! Knit rafts and save yourself. It doesn't matter where the cruel element throws this raft, just to save the children, the family! Someone succeeded …
The river is the ridge of the dinosaur
- I have my own version, - says Mikhail Ivanovich Mestnikov, - which may well explain the possibility of flooding this area of Indigirka. Those who passed the empty part of the Indigirka probably noticed that in this area the river makes its way through the Chersky mountain system - through the Porozhny ridge.
The river, 400 meters wide, narrows twice after entering these mountains. She, as if enraged, turns into a seething stream. Water, hitting the rocks, returns back to the center and stands up in the middle of the river. From the outside, it resembles the ridge of a dinosaur. Waves in these places reach heights of over 3 meters. Only after 60 kilometers the river, having made its way through a narrow canyon through a mountain ridge, comes out to the plain.
We passed this section in 2010. In the area of the canyon, our group made an eight-day hike to the mountains. On that trip, I noticed several remnants of glaciers that were in the immediate vicinity of the river.
About the search engine version
- About 2.5 thousand years ago, a significant cooling of the climate began, - continues Mikhail Ivanovich, - the Arctic islands were covered with glaciers, in the countries of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions at the turn of the eras, the climate was colder and wetter than now.
In the Alps in the 1st millennium BC, the glaciers sank lower. They blocked mountain passes with ice and destroyed high-lying villages. It was during this era that glaciers in the Caucasus sharply intensified and expanded. But by the end of the 1st millennium BC, climate warming began again, and mountain glaciers in the Alps, the Caucasus, Scandinavia and Iceland retreated.
It is believed that Yana and Indigirka were the center of Siberian glaciation. If we proceed from the fact that at the moment this region is the coldest in our half of the planet, then one can imagine what powerful glaciers were formed at that time.
Indigirka
Remember, in 2002, a glacier disappeared in the Karmadon Gorge? The group of Sergei Bodrov, who was filming the film at that time, died there. In total, more than a hundred people died in that tragedy. Their bodies are still under a multi-meter layer of ice and stones.
Now imagine that a huge glacier, having rolled down from the mountains, blocks the river bed in the area of the Porozhny ridge, forming a huge natural dam several hundred meters high. Ahead is a glacier, blocking the path of the river, around the mountain … The water began to rise rapidly, and people living above the ridge began to move into the mountains.
Why did not this incident remain in the memory of people, for example, the Evens, who now live here? But it is possible that the Evens settled in these places after the retreat of the glaciers. L. Gumilev wrote that when the climate cooled down, glaciers descended from the mountains to the plains and people were basically forced to retreat to the south. After warming and melting of glaciers, people returned back.
With the last warming of the climate, the Evens came to these lands. That is, they could not know what had happened in these parts before them.
About Venice and the safety of rafts
Why didn't the trees from which the Yakut raft was made rotten? Perhaps the people who built it knew some secret of wood processing. The civilization that left writings on the Lena rocks also existed before this glaciation. Scientists believe that these drawings are 2-4 thousand years old. The Maltan writings of Oymyakon are located relatively close to the place where the raft was found. Experts still have not figured out the composition of the paint used on these scribbles.
The people who owned the method of transmitting information through writing, even with the help of rock runic signs, probably also had other knowledge that disappeared with the departure of this people to the south. This is just one of the versions that can explain the appearance of rafts in the rocks of Yakutia.
And one more thing: the cut larch is “hardened” in water. Venice still stands on Siberian larch. The age of the larch piles is over 500 years. We grow mainly Daurian larch, which is stronger than Siberian. In the suburban areas of Yakutsk, there are solid houses built by exiled eunuchs, from stained larch, i.e. stuck in water for a long time.
Are rafts the same age as mammoths?
There is information that back in 2012, the hunter Yegor Krivoshapkin discovered a similar ancient raft in the mountains of the Verkhoyansk ulus of Yakutia, 200 kilometers from the village of Tabalakh. The raft was made of 5-6 meters long larch. There is also unconfirmed information that the Yakutians - extreme tourist Yegor Makarov and cameraman Yuri Berezhnee - have already handed over a piece of wood from such a raft for examination.
Perhaps the Yakut rafts are the same age as mammoths, but scientists seem to be in no hurry to draw conclusions.
Andrey EFREMOV