There are hundreds of lakes in the world, with which mysterious stories and anomalous phenomena are associated. The fear of local residents of such notorious lakes was expressed even in their names: Devil's Lake, Dead Lake, Shaitan and others. Let's take a short tour of some of them.
Space footprint
Lake Smerdyachye is located in the Shatura district of the Moscow region. Once crystal clear, the water in it has a pronounced red-brown color. The lake is almost a perfect circle with a diameter of about 250 meters. It got its name from the characteristic smell of hydrogen sulfide, which suddenly disappeared about 25 years ago. But once this smell led to the fact that a person who was next to a reservoir could faint.
However, local old-timers explain the origin of the name in a different way: Smerdyachye - not from the word "stink", but from the phrase "a clerk's death." According to local legends, a chapel once stood on a rampart near the lake. One day the earth suddenly shook, and the chapel, in which the clerk was located, fell into the lake and immediately sank under the water.
Another mystery is the sudden change in the depth of the reservoir. In 1985, its highest mark was 20 meters, and after 15 years measurements showed the maximum distance from the surface to the bottom of 31 meters.
In 2002, a large scientific expedition was organized to Smerdyachye. Specialists of the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry named after IN AND. Vernadsky collected enough evidence to assert that the lake is of meteorite origin. The collected samples of the coastal soil contained local sedimentary material melted by impact. At the same time, the time of the fall of the Shatura meteorite was determined - about 10,000 years ago.
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Endless Lake of Terror
Another mysterious body of water called Chertok (Devil's Lake) is located in the Shkeltovsky volost of the Aglona region of Latvia. The lake is small and very deep. People have never lived near it, the nearest villages are two or three kilometers away. In the press, Chertok is called "a bottomless lake of horror", because, according to the stories of local residents, it is impossible to swim across it without risking life, although it is only a few tens of meters from coast to coast. Moreover, according to legends, the Devil's Lake has no bottom at all, so the bodies of drowned people are never found in it.
The water here for no apparent reason changes color from transparent blue to almost black - despite the fact that there are practically no clouds in the sky at this time, and the presence of algae in the reservoir is minimal. For this feature, the lake received a second name - Devil's Eye.
The President of the Latvian Academy of Parapsychology Valeriy Paramonov is convinced that the reservoir is an anomalous zone that affects the human psyche. According to him, a powerful energy beam beats from the bottom of the lake, which can plunge a person who is on the shore into horror.
Scientific research has established that an inert radioactive gas, radon, accumulates at the bottom of the Devil's Lake, which is seven times heavier than air and easily dissolves in water. According to scientists, the lake was formed from the fall of a certain cosmic body.
This is confirmed by the studies of several daredevil divers who saw melted rock in the depths. There is also a version that Chertok is connected underground with a rather distant Aglona Lake, so the drowned people disappear into deep underground channels.
The Devil's Lake is located near the Aglona - Kraslava road, and tourists often settle down to rest near its shores. However, after a while they leave, trying to get rid of the suddenly surging fear. Many of them, after visiting the area of the Devil's Lake, consulted a doctor. Because of this, in 2005 local authorities ordered to remove from the road a road sign with information about the presence of a reservoir nearby - so as not to draw undue attention to this natural object.
The dead stand like candles
Near the village of Gerasimovka in the Taldykurgan region of Kazakhstan there is a small (100 meters long and 60 meters wide) Lake Dead.
For unknown reasons, even on a hot summer day, the lake does not dry up, and the water in it remains icy. Algae do not grow in the reservoir, fish do not live, there are no aquatic insects, there are no mosquitoes and flies on the shore.
You cannot stay in the water of the Dead Lake for a long time. A diver, even with a full tank of air, can withstand a dive for no more than three minutes, after which, for some unknown reason, begins to choke and has to urgently rise to the surface.
Every year, people drown in the Dead Sea - mostly visitors who do not listen to the advice of local residents or simply do not know anything about the mysterious properties of the lake. What is surprising: drowned people do not rise to the surface after a few days, as is usually the case, but stand at the bottom vertically, like candles.
In addition, incredible events occur near the Dead Lake every now and then: people disappear, and later they are. At the same time, they find themselves in unexpected places, sometimes far enough from the lake or their home. Some cannot even remember their own name.
There is an assumption that there is a crevice at the bottom of the lake, from which a toxic gas is released, which is a poison for all living things. But no scientific studies of the reservoir have yet been carried out.
Fountains and floating islands
In the Kirov region of Russia, near the city of Urzhum, there is a lake Shaitan, which has the shape of a regular oval, with an area of about two hectares. From time to time, the water in this lake boils, and fountains from four to ten meters high are thrown onto the surface. According to local beliefs, these are the tricks of an evil spirit living in the lake.
Scientific research explains the appearance of such fountains by the fact that the lake is of karst origin and is distinguished by siphon water circulation. Under its bottom there is a second aquifer containing artesian pressurized waters. There is a connection between these two horizons through vertical karst wells (ponors). The settling silt and peat create plugs in the ponores, and the pressure of artesian waters pushes them out, resulting in a fountain discharge of water.
The second unique feature of the lake is the small floating islands overgrown with bushes and small trees. Such islands are formed by water discharges and are detached sections of swampy shores. The largest of them can withstand the weight of three to four people. In normal times, on the surface of the lake, they can be counted up to twenty.
Extraterrestrial civilization underwater crystal
Another lake with the same name - Shaitan - is located in the Muromtsevsky district of the Omsk region near the village of Okunevo. Its water is famous for its healing properties, even curing some forms of liver cancer and cirrhosis. Placed in a regular container, it can stand for years, while retaining its fresh taste and smell.
Experts do not exclude that Lake Shaitan, as well as five other lakes next to it, appeared as a result of the fall of a huge meteorite. Hidden deep in the bowels of the earth, it still radiates colossal energy. Numerous anomalous phenomena occurring in these places speak in favor of the cosmic origin of Lake Shaitan, in particular, the regular appearance of glowing balls and rectangles above the water surface.
There is a popular legend among locals that the temple of the Indian deity Hanuman - Satra is hidden at the bottom of the lake. According to the legend described in the epic Ramayana, the giant Hanuman, the king of the monkeys, helped Rama to fight the forces of evil and for this he received the Siberian expanses as a gift, where he erected his city - Aku-Nego. It is he who is now deep under water, hidden from people's eyes by a layer of silt and sand.
The legend of the Hindu temple at the bottom of the lake is closely related to another legend - the cosmic crystal. It is believed that this relic, transmitted to people by alien beings, was the main shrine of the Satra temple and is still in it. According to legend, the crystal stores complete information about the entire history of earthly civilization and contains a clue to the salvation of mankind.
Another feature of the anomalous zone is that huge, almost meter-long traces of unknown creatures have been found more than once near the lake. There are even written testimonies of eyewitnesses who saw with their own eyes the huge inhabitants of the lake.
The lake is famous for the fact that people, trying to get to it, often wander, their compasses and navigation devices fail. There is a well-documented case when a group of pilgrims went to Lake Shaitan, strictly checking the compass. The journey ahead should have taken no more than an hour. After three hours of travel, the pilgrims became worried. In the end, seven hours later, not seeing any signs of the lake, they decided to return, went back the same way - and after 20 minutes they were in the place where they started their journey.
As you can see, some lakes not only enjoy a bad reputation, but also keep many mysterious and inexplicable mysteries. One may or may not believe in legends - but they are never born from scratch …
Victor SVETLANIN