This is how the name of this island is translated from the Turkic - Barsakelmes. A piece of land in the Aral Sea has long been notorious: a prehistoric pangolin was seen here, a UFO landing and anomalous disturbances in the course of time were observed. Until recently, it was not easy to get to the dangerous island - it was 180 km away from the Kazakh city of Aralsk. Recently, the Aral Sea has become very shallow, the island has turned into a peninsula, and lovers of anomalous phenomena have become frequent visitors there.
ARAL LEGENDS
The pioneer right belongs to the Russian hydrographer Alexei Butakov. In the summer of 1848, the schooner "Konstantin" was taken from Orenburg to a fortification near the mouth of the Syr Darya River, and then an expedition led by Butakov went to the Aral Sea. For 56 days, the schooner walked around the entire sea area, Butakov and his team members made depth measurements, collected minerals, described all the objects. In addition to reconnoitering the entire sea and finding a coal deposit, Aleksey Ivanovich discovered and photographed several islands, including Barsakelmes. The locals tried to bypass this island, according to them, his visit threatens with great trouble, including a meeting with the shaitan, whom the aborigines feared more than death. The future luminary of Ukrainian poetry, and at that time exiled Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko,admitted to the schooner as an artist, he was not afraid of ill fame and made the first sketches of the landscapes of Barsakelmes. Watercolor and pencil drawings have survived and are now in Kiev. Apart from sparse vegetation, low dull mountains and endless sea expanses, there is nothing more noticeable on them. The great Kobzar did not record light pillars, flying lizards and plates. The Russian mystic Nicholas Roerich (who, by the way, has never been to the island) turned out to be much more eloquent. In his usual manner in his book "The Heart of Asia", he told many legends about this land area. In particular, he spoke about how several Kazakh families moved to Barsakelmes at the end of the 19th century. After living on it for several months, people disappeared without a trace. Watercolor and pencil drawings have survived and are now in Kiev. Apart from sparse vegetation, low dull mountains and endless sea expanses, there is nothing more noticeable on them. The great Kobzar did not record light pillars, flying lizards and plates. The Russian mystic Nicholas Roerich (who, by the way, has never been to the island) turned out to be much more eloquent. In his usual manner in his book "The Heart of Asia", he told many legends about this land area. In particular, he spoke about how several Kazakh families moved to Barsakelmes at the end of the 19th century. After living on it for several months, people disappeared without a trace. Watercolor and pencil drawings have survived and are now in Kiev. Apart from sparse vegetation, low dull mountains and endless sea expanses, there is nothing more noticeable on them. The great Kobzar did not record light pillars, flying lizards and plates. The Russian mystic Nicholas Roerich (who, by the way, has never been to the island) turned out to be much more eloquent. In his usual manner in his book "The Heart of Asia", he told many legends about this land area. In particular, he spoke about how several Kazakh families moved to Barsakelmes at the end of the 19th century. After living on it for several months, people disappeared without a trace.the great Kobzar did not record flying lizards and saucers. The Russian mystic Nicholas Roerich (who, by the way, has never been to the island) turned out to be much more eloquent. In his usual manner in his book "The Heart of Asia", he told many legends about this land area. In particular, he spoke about how several Kazakh families moved to Barsakelmes at the end of the 19th century. After living on it for several months, people disappeared without a trace.the great Kobzar did not record flying lizards and saucers. The Russian mystic Nicholas Roerich (who, by the way, has never been to the island) turned out to be much more eloquent. In his usual manner in his book "The Heart of Asia", he told many legends about this land area. In particular, he spoke about how several Kazakh families moved to Barsakelmes at the end of the 19th century. After living on it for several months, people disappeared without a trace.
WHITE CLOUD AND PSEUDO SUN
Since then, the myths and legends about Barsakelmes have only multiplied, but not all of them had real grounds, but more on that later.
You go and you won't come back. It was this topic that most often figured in popular beliefs. Perhaps this is due to the fact that not all fishermen who sailed to the island for their catch returned back. This is due to the power and strength of the insidious Aral Sea, which the fragile boats of poor fishermen could not always resist. There is a curious legend about the hero Kuran from the village of Kaskulan. Kuran arrived on the island not alone, but with his comrades. They were pleasantly surprised by the abundance of birds and predators. But instead of shooting the game, Kuran ran into a dragon who lived on the island and ate human flesh. The hero fell in a fight with the almighty monster, and his comrades, meanwhile, retreated, unable to cope with the island monster.
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The story of the adventures of Batyr Kuran could have been classified as unsubstantiated tales, if not for the incident told by the old fisherman Baydzhanov from the village of Muynak. The father and grandfather of this respected aksakal repeatedly swam to the island and each time ran into … the shaitan. The demonic offspring sometimes took on a human form, but more often they resembled a lizard, or the same dragon. The size of the outlandish creature reached the size of a calf, it had large wings with which it rose into the air, as well as a long beak. The father and grandfather of the aforementioned fisherman, as proof of their words, presented a huge tooth to the villagers. After their death, the tooth went to the fisherman Baydzhanov, but he did not want to part with it when scientists from the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences wanted to transfer the curiosity for examination.
For a long time, Barsakelmes served as a shelter for escaped prisoners from different places - from Khorezm, Siberia, Astrakhan. After a while, the fugitives who had sat on the island returned to the "mainland", where they were surprised to find that the time of their absence was counted not in months, but in years. The relatives who managed to grow old at that time did not recognize their relatives. So the island was also considered a temporary hole.
Further more. Eyewitnesses testified that Barsakelmes took a fancy to UFOs. In the autumn of 1949, a schooner anchored off the coast of the island. Fishermen tired of swimming dreamed of making a fire on the island, preparing food, tea, rest, but their plans were interrupted by a strange phenomenon that they had never seen before. A huge white cloud rested on the ground. Curiosity took its toll, and two of the four fishermen decided to approach an incomprehensible object. Probably, this should not have been done: the men disappeared without a trace. The rest chose to return to the schooner, from where they sent a radiogram about the strange incident. The mystery of the cloud was never revealed, nor were their comrades found. According to ufologists, it was about an alien ship. Afterwards, something like this repeatedly appeared on the island: either a disk with rays that shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow, or a pillar of fire,similar to the beam emanating from the searchlight. Sometimes a no less strange atmospheric phenomenon appeared over the island - three suns or three moons. Some have witnessed visual or auditory hallucinations when military objects, such as dugouts, warehouses, or the roar of airplanes suddenly appeared in the middle of the island. Perhaps the latter had real grounds: they say that under Soviet rule, the island was closed to the public and was used for secret experiments.the latter had real grounds: it is said that under Soviet rule the island was closed to the public and was used for secret experiments.the latter had real grounds: they say that under Soviet rule the island was closed to the public and was used for secret experiments.
LUCKY DRAW
If you believe the historical information, the Bolsheviks drew attention to Barsakelmes back in 1929, deciding to create a hunting farm there. The cultivation of gazelles, saigas, European hares, gray partridges, and Syrdarya pheasants was chosen as a priority area of activity. Unlike humans, animals, especially saigas, kulans and gazelles, felt quite comfortable on the island - largely thanks to sources of drinking water, and in 1939 a national reserve was established there. The land area surrounded on all sides by the sea has become one of the most inaccessible reserves in the country. Maybe that's why the stories were born that there were allegedly secret tests of biological weapons. Scientists working in a closed research institute allegedly infected human hair with deadly viruses,after which they were split into pieces less than a micron in size. The prisoners brought to the island did not even know that experiments were being carried out on them. In addition to experiments with hair, some kind of gas was sprayed over the settlements of prisoners from planes. In addition, special work was carried out in a closed menagerie on guinea pigs, rats, horses and monkeys. Historical information testifies to the fact that in the middle of the last century, Turkmen kulans were brought to Barsakelmes, meanwhile, information passed from mouth to mouth says that there, under the guise of a reserve, they set up a testing ground where they tested classified military equipment. Needless to say, a piece of land isolated from the rest of the world has given rise to many speculations. However, nature itself has dotted the i's. The Aral Sea began to grow shallow, and the "isolation policy" suffered a fiasco. Now, if you wish, you can get to Barsakelmes by land and see for yourself that there is nothing mysterious there.
But why did the island give rise to so many mysteries? This is the rare case when the genius of the writer revealed to the world a whole bunch of hoaxes. The author of the ingenious prank is the famous science fiction writer Sergei Lukyanenko. Several years ago, the creator of "Dozorov" frankly confessed to the swindle: "The story … was completely sucked out of the thumb. Independently of each other, more and more generations were included in the drawing. And if we don't put an end to Barsa-Kelmes now, then our grandchildren will organize expeditions to the unfortunate island. So I confess. Sinful. " The writer has split, but the flow of those wishing to see with their own eyes the anomaly of Barsakelmes does not decrease.
Vlad ROGOV