Sea monsters. Monsters of the world. Mysterious places on the planet where monsters live Legends and myths of sea monsters

Briefly about the article: Who can really be sure what is hiding there, in the many kilometers of ocean depths? Are all the stories about huge sea monsters fiction, or do the most natural monsters live right next to us? Look for answers on the pages of the World of Fantasy.

Troubled waters

Monsters of the deep sea

Understand death? Certainly. This is when the monsters finally get to you.

Stephen King, "Salimov's Lot"

Water is the best place for miracles. It's like a completely different world. Another universe is right at our fingertips. The creatures living in the ocean are completely different from those on earth and look like real aliens in comparison. Biblical monsters emerged from the “eternal sea,” and the giant Leviathan also lived there. People have already visited the Mariana Trench - the deepest place on the planet - but they still know very little about the inhabitants of those unimaginable depths that even Everest would not reach if we decided to turn it over into the water.

Nowadays, people no longer feel a mystical horror of the sea and treat it exclusively as a consumer (for example, about 90% of toilets in Hong Kong run on sea water). However, just a hundred years ago, terrible rumors about ships being dragged to the bottom by giant octopuses still circulated in port taverns, and science fiction writers populated the oceans with mystical creatures from other dimensions.

At the bottom

Remember what ancient nautical maps looked like. Whales, dolphins, newts, snakes and shells “swimmed” in the oceans. Stories about monsters inhabiting the expanses of water appeared almost before navigation itself and have successfully survived to this day. Deep monsters, hungry for human flesh, can be found in any culture that has had contact with the sea. Ancient authors described encounters with these creatures in rather vague terms, mentioning glowing eyes, a lion's mouth, horns, fur and other attributes of the classic “prefabricated creature” characteristic of those times.

When travel to other continents ceased to be as sensational as the current flights to the moon, stories of “deadly dangers” lost the flavor of heroic tales and began to resemble the truth. In 1734, the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede, a man of common sense and not prone to exaggeration, wrote about his voyage to Greenland:

The number of evidence of encounters with sea monsters in our time has sharply decreased, but even they are quite enough to make one wonder where such unanimity comes from? Most often described as a serpentine body large sizes(about 10-20 meters, which cannot be compared with old stories about sea ​​dragons), or some kind of amorphous mass armed with tentacles.

It is interesting that the majority of such observations fall on the lot of fishermen or people of “land” professions who accidentally find themselves at sea. And those who work closely with underwater world(submarine crews, oceanographers and even divers) encounter the mysteries of nature extremely rarely.

It is generally accepted that some (but not the most significant) part of such stories is an ordinary hoax, and the rest is a mistake or an optical illusion. Anyone who has been on the high seas understands how difficult it can sometimes be to identify a particular animal. Incessant excitement, natural optical distortions and significant observation distances - it is in such an environment that “monsters” are born. A writhing sea snake is likely to be algae, and the slimy carcass of a giant octopus is likely to be an ordinary seal.

One could put an end to this here, but literally last years It’s as if nature had mercy on scientists and gave them irrefutable evidence of the existence of one of the most popular sea monsters.

Kraken

Kraken - legendary sea ​​miracle a creature supposedly living off the coast of Iceland and Norway. There is no consensus regarding his appearance. He could equally well be an octopus or a squid. The Danish bishop Erik Pontoppidan first spoke about the Kraken in 1752, describing it as a giant “crab fish” that easily drags ships to the bottom.

According to the bishop, the Kraken had the size of a small island and was dangerous for ships not so much because of its predatory habits as because of the speed of its descent into the depths of the sea - by diving, it could create an extremely strong whirlpool. As the Kraken rested at the bottom, large schools of fish swarmed around, attracted by its excrement. Pontoppidan also wrote that fishermen sometimes took risks and spread their nets directly over the monster’s lair, because this provided them with an excellent catch. On this occasion they even had a saying: “You must have fished on the Kraken.”

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Kraken, with the help of self-taught zoologists, turned into a giant octopus, but at the same time it was attributed the lifestyle of a cuttlefish or squid (most octopuses live at the bottom, squids live in the water column). Even the world famous naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the Kraken in the classification of real living organisms (the book “System of Nature”) as a cephalopod, but later changed his mind and removed all mentions of it.

Some attributed it to the Kraken maritime disasters, and his relatives - giant octopuses under the general name "luska" - were allegedly found in the Caribbean Sea (it is not surprising that the heroes of the film "Pirates Caribbean Sea 2" you will have to fight with a huge octopus). It was even called the “monk of the sea,” although the original term referred to a creature that washed up on the shores of Denmark in 1546 - a fish that, according to contemporaries, was “strikingly similar to a monk.”

Beer snack

And then the fairy tale became reality. In 1861, the French ship Alekton brought a piece of giant squid ashore. Over the next two decades, remains of similar creatures began to be found along the northern coast of Europe (it was later determined that changes in temperature conditions seas that drove these creatures to the surface). Fishermen also began to notice that the skin of some of the sperm whales they caught had strange markings - as if from very large tentacles.

In the 20th century, there was a real hunt for the once legendary Kraken, but either too young individuals (about 5 meters in length) or half-digested fragments of adults were found in fishing nets and in the stomachs of sperm whales. Luck smiled on researchers only in the 21st century.

Japanese oceanographers Kubodera and Mori spent two years trying to find the elusive Kraken by tracking the migration routes of sperm whales (these whales often hunt giant squid). On September 30, 2004, they arrived on a five-ton fishing boat near Ogasawara Island (600 miles south of Tokyo). Their tools were simple - a long steel cable with bait, a camera and a flash.

At a depth of 900 meters it finally took the bait. The giant squid, about 10 meters long, grabbed the bait, got entangled in its tentacle and spent four hours trying to free itself. During this time, several hundred photographs were taken, confirming the extremely aggressive character this creature.

It has not yet been possible to catch live giant squids (architeuthis). However, dead, well-preserved specimens are already available to the general public. In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium put on public display a seven-meter-long Architeuthis frozen into a huge piece of ice (the monster was purchased for 100 thousand Australian dollars). Earlier this year, London's Natural History Museum showed off a nine-metre specimen preserved in formaldehyde.

Can giant squid sink ships? Judge for yourself. It can reach a length of over 10 meters (evidence of twenty-meter individuals is not confirmed by anything). Females are usually larger. Since approximately half the body length is made up of tentacles, the weight of this mollusk is measured at only a few hundred kilograms. This is clearly not enough for a large vessel (especially considering that the giant squid, like its small relatives, is completely helpless outside the water), however, taking into account the predatory habits of this creature, it can be assumed that Architeuthis poses a theoretical danger to swimmers.

Cinematic octopuses (“Rise from the Deep” or “Pirates of the Caribbean 2”) are able to playfully pierce the hull of ships with their tentacles. In practice, this is naturally impossible - the absence of a skeleton does not allow cephalopods deliver a "surgical strike". They can only act on tearing and stretching. IN natural environment habitat, giant squids are quite strong - at least they do not surrender to sperm whales without a fight - but, fortunately, they rarely rise to the surface. However, small squids are capable of jumping out of the water to a height of up to 7 meters, so it is not worth making clear conclusions about the “combat” qualities of Architeuthis.

The eyes of the giant squid are among the largest of all living creatures on the planet - over 30 centimeters in diameter. The powerful suckers of the tentacles (up to 5 centimeters in diameter) are supplemented with sharp “teeth” that help hold the victim.

Recently it was classified even more close-up view giant squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). Outwardly, they are slightly different from architeuthis (larger in size, with short tentacles studded with hooks instead of “teeth”), but they are found much less frequently, and only in the northern seas and at depths of about 2 kilometers. In the 1970s, a Soviet trawler caught one young specimen, and in 2003 another was found. In both cases, the length of the squid did not exceed 6 meters, but scientists calculated that an adult specimen of this species grows to at least 14 meters.

To summarize, as of 2006, the legendary Kraken you can safely identify the squid. Octopuses or cuttlefish comparable in size to the mollusks described above have not yet been found. If you go on vacation at the seaside, be on the lookout.

Hairy snakes

Giant sea serpents appeared in historical chronicles much earlier than the Kraken (around the 13th century), however, unlike him, they are still considered fictional. The Swedish priest and writer Olaf the Great (1490-1557) in his work “History of the Northern Peoples” gave the following description of the sea serpent:

In modern times, the most famous encounter with a sea serpent occurred almost 150 years ago. On an August day in 1848, the crew of the British ship Daedalus, heading to the island of St. Helena, observed a twenty-meter aquatic reptile with a luxurious mane of hair on its neck. It was unlikely that this was a mass hallucination, so the London Times immediately burst out with a sensational article about the “find of the century.” Since then, sea snakes have been seen more than once, but not a single reliable evidence of their existence has been obtained.

Among all the candidates for the “position” of the sea serpent, the belt fish (Regalecus glesne) is most suitable. This is a rather rare creature that lives in tropical seas, is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest (up to 11 meters) bonefish in the world.

In appearance, the fish belt really looks like a snake. Its weight can reach 300 kilograms. The meat is jelly-like and inedible. The anterior rays of the dorsal fin are elongated and form a “plume” above the head, which from a distance can be mistaken for a tuft of hair. The belt fish lives at great depths (from 50 to 700 meters), but sometimes floats to the surface. Its unique feature is that it swims in an upright position, head up. Take a look at the photo. What might you think when you see this strange creature in the water?

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If the ancients did not lie about the Kraken, then maybe we should pay more attention to other legends? After all, there are “giant versions” of familiar aquatic creatures! The American lobster grows up to 1 meter in length and 20 kilograms in weight. The limb span of the Japanese spider crab reaches 4 meters. And the jellyfish Cyanea capillata is generally the longest living creature on the planet - its bell can be 2.5 meters in diameter, and its thin tentacles extend up to 30 meters.

In 1997, US Navy hydrophone stations tracking submarines off the coast of South America detected a very strange sound in the ocean, undoubtedly made by a living creature. The source could not be identified, however, judging by its acoustic power, none of the marine animals known today could “gurgle” so loudly.

Sensational reports of unprecedented sea monsters splash out on the pages of newspapers and magazines from time to time. Occasionally they are illustrated with photographs. But the mysterious creatures apparently do not like to be photographed - the photographs always turn out blurry and foggy. It was much easier to illustrate similar works in the past. To be convinced of this, just look at the map of the northern seas compiled in 1572 by Antoine Lafrery. Comments here are obviously unnecessary.

But here is a message dating back to the end of the 19th century. French researcher M. Guerr writes: “In July 1897, the gunboat Avalanche met two snakes 20 meters long and 2-3 meters thick in Along Bay. A cannon shot from a distance of 600 meters forced them to disappear under water. February 15, 1898 the same ship and in the same place met the snakes again; a shot followed from a distance of 300 meters, and the ship full speed went forward, trying to overtake the animals. At the moment when the ship was completely approaching them, one of the monsters dived under the gunboat and emerged behind it. You can imagine the confusion the crew was in at that moment. Nine days later, off the same coast, the Avalanche again encountered two such animals. The hunt lasted 35 minutes, but its only result was the coincidence of all observations."

There is a lot that is unclear in this story. Firstly, why did only the crew of a single gunboat see the snakes each time, while the crews of other ships did not see the snakes? Secondly, it is difficult to explain the monsters' commitment to a permanent place. Finally, thirdly, their invulnerability is absolutely amazing. A military vessel fires artillery at a target at a minimum distance, but there are no results. Having found no explanation for the above facts, M. Geerr points out that “the story about this incident was regarded by the highest authority as a collective hallucination.”

The Dutch scientist Oddemans collected all the information about giant sea ​​snakes. According to him, the first documented meeting of sailors with a huge sea ​​snake occurred in 1522. Over the next three centuries, snakes were seen by sailors on average once every ten years - by 1802, 28 cases were recorded. But in the 19th century, encounters with sea monsters sharply increased: between 1802 and 1890 they were seen 134 times! They came across both in the past and this century. Despite frequent encounters with sea snakes, no one has yet been able to clearly photograph or film them. Mysterious sea monsters are equally successful in escaping from artillery fire and from the lens aimed at them.

Since the monsters refuse to pose, we have to describe them appearance from passing observations, often based on information not received from the observer himself. So, in 1926, a certain monster was spotted at night off the coast of Madagascar. The French scientist J. Petit reports this in his book “Fishing in Madagascar”. The animal glowed with a bright but unstable light, which flared up and then faded away. It seemed that this light, which could be compared to a sea searchlight, was emitted by a body rotating around its axis. According to the natives, this animal appears very rarely. Its length is 20-25 meters, its body is wide and flat (which means in this case we are not talking about a snake!), covered with a hard lamellar shell. The veto has a tail like a shrimp, and its mouth is on its belly. The head glows and emits flames as the monster rises to the surface of the sea.

There was no consensus among local residents regarding the presence of limbs: some claimed that the “master of the sea” was legless, while others believed that he had limbs similar to “whale flippers.” It is extremely rare for a person to be able to touch a mysterious creature, or rather, its remains. So, in 1883, one resident of Annam saw and touched on the shore of Along Bay the decomposed remains of a sea monster that looked like a giant centipede.

In April 1977, the whole world received a sensational message about the discovery of Japanese fishermen from the Tsuyo Maru trawler. While fishing for mackerel near New Zealand, the net brought back the half-decomposed corpse of an unknown animal. The condition of the find was deplorable. The thirteen-meter carcass, weighing about two tons, spread a stench. The fishermen discerned a shapeless body with four limbs (either fins or flippers), a long tail and a small head on a thin neck. The catch was measured, photographed, and then had to be thrown overboard. First, part of the best-preserved limb was separated from the body and placed in a freezer.

Controversy flared up around the find. Based on several poor photographs and descriptions made by fishermen, Professor Yoshinuri Imaitsumi, head of the department of zoology at the Japanese National Science Museum, recognized the caught animal as a plesiosaur - a representative of a long-extinct group of marine reptiles. Plesiosaurs are well known from fossil remains of the Mesozoic era. 100-200 million years ago, like modern seals, they inhabited coastal areas of the sea and could crawl onto sandbanks, where they rested after hunting. Plesiosaurs, like most other reptiles, were distinguished by their powerful skeletal development. Judging by the descriptions of the fishermen from the Tsuyo Maru and photographs, the mysterious animal had no bones. Parisian paleontologist L. Ginzburg believes that Japanese fishermen recovered from the sea the remains of a giant seal, also extinct, but relatively recently - “only” 20 million years ago. The French scientist came to this conviction based on the shape of the head and the structural features of the vertebrae. The latter, however, were never seen by Ginzburg himself or anyone else, because the entire find was thrown overboard.

With such shaky arguments, it takes a lot of courage to insist that the find belongs to plesiosaurs or extinct giant seals. Moreover, there are many skeptical scientists who believe that Japanese fishermen recovered from the sea the half-decomposed corpse of a shark or small whale. But it is still possible to judge the find by the structure of that part of the limb that was left in the freezer. Having studied its structure, experts can easily tell who it belongs to: a fish, a reptile or a mammal. The scientific dispute would be resolved simply, quickly and conclusively. However, the owners of the fin or flipper still remain stubbornly silent on this matter.

Why don't they publish the results of the study? The answer to this may be given by the story of another sensational discovery. Here in front of us is a small newspaper article dated 1904: “Unknown animal.”

"Santiago, June 18. In the province of Magallanes (Chile), an unknown animal was found washed ashore by the waters Pacific Ocean. According to the Chilean newspaper Golpe, it weighs approximately two tons, is six meters long and two meters wide. The two front fins of the animal, the newspaper points out, are very similar to human hands with five fingers and nails; the two rear fins have no fingers. The animal's head is elongated, its mouth has three large fangs. The animal will be examined by Chilean scientists."

The reader has the right to expect that now the veil of mystery will fall, and the world will finally be told all the details about the monster with human hands and three huge teeth in its mouth. Not so! As soon as a Chilean, New Zealand or any other similar marine miracle falls into the hands of scientists, not a trace remains of the myth. In fact, “plesiosaurs” turn out to be either part of the body of a dead whale, or a shark, or a cluster of luminous planktonic organisms, or simply a figment of fantasy and an optical illusion. It is not for nothing that sea monsters do not leave a mark on photographic film and calmly escape from shells and bullets.

Despite the large number of enthusiasts who really want to believe that individual representatives of long-extinct reptiles are still living out their lives in the ocean, not a single reliable information about this has yet been recorded. Even Oddemans’ statistics (over 150 cases of encounters with giant sea snakes) are not supported by any material evidence of the reality of the observations. This is the practical side of the issue of modern sea monsters.

The theory also gives no reason to hope for the reality of their existence today. No species of animal or plant can exist in a single copy or in a small number of individuals. As soon as the number of a species falls below a critical level, it is doomed to extinction. What is this critical value? It is, of course, different for different animals. According to the Red Book, by the end of the 20th century, orangutan monkeys are on the verge of extinction, their total number is 5,000 individuals. Whale and whale fisheries experts believe that with 2,000 blue whales, it is still possible to maintain and even restore the species. Science knows of only one case of an increase in the number of a species, when it decreased to 45 individuals. We are talking about bison. But this required vigorous measures and large expenditures of funds. All animals were placed in nurseries and zoos. Only under these conditions was it possible to increase the bison herd and release some of the animals into protected forests again.

But no one protects or protects sea monsters. Therefore, their number must be equal to at least several thousand individuals of each species. Whether they are snakes, plesiosaurs or other reptiles, or giant seals, they need to periodically rise to the surface to breathe. Why are they so rarely seen? Where do their bodies go after death? Why has the sea not yet thrown up a single bone of these monsters? The answer to this, to the chagrin of lovers of everything unusual, can only be unequivocal. There are no giant sea creatures, other than those known to science, in the ocean. They do not exist, just as they do not exist big Foot. Marine plesiosaurs are as unreal as the famous Loch Ness miracle. But you don't have to be completely disappointed. The ocean still holds many secrets. It is home to many unknown and little-known animals, even more amazing than any fantastic monster or extinct reptile. You can see some of them in the photographs published below.

This unidentified moving object with a diameter of about one and a half meters suddenly appeared in front of the submarine's window at a depth of 770 meters during inspection outer slope one of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The animal's body emitted a greenish light, and its tentacles wriggled vigorously. Isn't it true that it vividly resembles the appearance of a Martian as described by H.G. Wells in his novel "War of the Worlds"? Looking at this fantastic creature, the dive participants involuntarily remembered ancient greek myth about the glorious hero Perseus and the terrible gorgon Medusa, on whose head instead of hair there were moving Poisonous snakes. Studying the photographs showed that this is indeed a jellyfish, which can be classified as a scyphoid. Still like this huge jellyfish They have never been in the hands of scientists; they are not in any museum in the world.

An inhabitant of the Antarctic waters, a large predatory seal - the leopard seal - feeds mainly on penguins. He either quietly approaches the swimming bird and drags it under the water, or noisily pursues it, raising cascades of splashes, and finally overtakes it with the last long throw. Appearance This real sea monster speaks of its far from peaceful inclinations. While working in Antarctica, zoological scuba divers repeatedly experienced the increased attention of leopard seals. Having noticed the scuba diver, the animal immediately rushed towards him and swam around, gradually narrowing the circles, opening its mouth and showing powerful teeth. No means of repelling the leopard seal had any effect - they had to get out onto the ice. The leopard seal moves on ice with difficulty and is therefore not dangerous.

Every year in October and November, on the sixth night after the full moon, the sea is above coral reefs the islands of Samoa are suddenly boiling with the sudden appearance of myriads of worm-like creatures that scurry in all directions. Their abundance makes sea water look like thick noodle soup. Schools of fish gather for a feast and seabirds. Samoans calculate in advance the date of arrival of the palolo - this is how they call the culprits of the sudden transformation sea ​​elements. For many centuries, palolo has served the aborigines as both a delicacy and everyday food. On these nights, they scoop up prey with baskets and nets, immediately on the reef they snack on live seafood, bake them in leaves and store them for future use for the whole year, drying them in the hot tropical sun in the morning. Zoologists know that palolos are modified rear ends of sea polychaete worms. The worms themselves, reaching a length of up to half a meter, cannot be seen, since they live in crevices and caves in the thickness of coral limestone. When spring arrives in Samoa, the worms begin to reproduce. The rear ends of the worms, overflowing with reproductive products, break off and float to the surface, where the walls of their body soon rupture, and the reproductive cells fall into the water and are fertilized there. One can only imagine how many of these huge worms, hidden from human eyes, live in the depths of the reef!

Human activity is mainly related to land. That is why everything related to water raises many questions and assumptions. Water is a completely different world, sometimes incomprehensible and very often inaccessible. The creatures that live in the depths of the seas and oceans are so different from those who live on land that they can cause not only surprise, but very often fear.

In ancient times, people were convinced that water was fraught with danger. All these fears and speculations are reflected in legends and myths.

Despite the fact that man managed to descend into the Mariana Trench, which is considered the most deep place on the planet, however, he knows practically nothing about the terrible and terrible monsters that live at the bottom of the ocean. Sailors often mentioned in their stories about sea monsters that dragged large ships under water. On old maps you can see images of giant octopuses, newts, snakes and whales. Myths that talk about sea monsters are found among almost all peoples who dealt with water. And almost all descriptions indicate that the monsters had lion mouths, tentacles huge size and glowing eyes.

With the beginning of the development of navigation, when people began to travel across continents, the fear of water gradually disappeared, but stories about sea monsters still arose. Over time, such stories became fewer and fewer, but even in the modern world, in the age of scientific progress, such stories are sometimes found.

It should be noted that, as a rule, a wide variety of creatures were mentioned in ancient legends. But scientists cannot answer the question of whether they really existed. Some researchers are confident that most of these stories are memories of pterodactyls, dinosaurs and plesiosaurs that managed to survive until the appearance of man.

Probably one of the most famous ancient sea monsters is Leviathan. Mentions of this monster can be found in the Old Testament. His description is a mixture of fear and delight. This is a beautiful, proud creature, which at the same time is associated with Satan and inspires fear.

This image appeared in the book of Job, and turned out to be so vivid that the name Leviathan became a household name. A similar character breathing fire appears in many books, films and songs, and even in computer games.

Scientists say that it cannot be ruled out that Leviathan actually existed, since such legends could not be born out of nowhere, something must have provoked the creators of the Bible to create such an image, some kind of prototype. On the other hand, everything that is written in the Holy Scriptures cannot be taken literally, because its authors preferred allegory. The authors did not necessarily have to encounter such a monster in real life - it is quite possible that the image of this terrible monster was taken only as an illustration of a certain phenomenon. But the image appeared for a reason, so it could have been preceded by encounters with large lizards.

Could it be that prehistoric monsters who lived in the seas and oceans, managed to survive until the appearance of man on the planet and were noticed by him? Such a development of events cannot be completely ruled out. Scientists have still not been able to establish the reason for the disappearance of the ancient giant lizards, so it is impossible to rule out the possibility that some of them survived and bred offspring. These could also be sea monsters, which enormous depth could have survived the cataclysms that ultimately led to the death of the ancient lizards.

Science does not know what is going on in the depths of the world's oceans, so it cannot be ruled out that ancient lizards may still exist. They may well occasionally appear on the surface, meeting with a person from time to time. It is also likely that mutants could appear in the depths of the sea that are equally similar to ancient lizards and modern animals. This, at least, can explain the origin of the legends about creatures of enormous stature that emerge from the depths of the sea and which are called “sea monks.”

In medieval legends there are stories about creatures that resembled mermaids. They had a fish tail instead of legs and arms instead of fins. They were seen quite often on the northern European coasts. The German theologian Megenberg told a legend about the “sea monks” who went to the seashore. These creatures danced, attracting people's attention. The dance was so beautiful and mesmerizing that people lost their vigilance and came very close to these creatures. The “monks” grabbed the unwary and ate them in front of the others. And in the last century, on the territory of Denmark, it was even possible to discover the corpse of a “sea monk”. His height was 15 meters. The remains of the creature were sent to Copenhagen, where a sensational statement was made: this creature is an ordinary cuttlefish with ten tentacles.

However, scientists do not rule out that during the Middle Ages some species of sharks or representatives of walruses could have been mistaken for “monks.” True, in this case it is not entirely clear how they could organize dances on land. Cuttlefish do not have enough strength to drag an adult under water, sharks do not leave the water and only react to the smell of blood, and walruses do not attack people. Therefore, it is quite possible that the legends are talking about some animals unknown to modern science.

Another type of sea monster became known in 1522, when the Dutch scientist Oddemans spoke about giant snakes that lived deep underwater. These monsters were seen by people quite rarely - they were seen in one place only once every ten years for three centuries. However, with the beginning of the nineteenth century, the number of recorded cases increased sharply - in one year, this creature appeared to sailors as many as 28 times. Scientists cannot say what this activity was associated with, but they suggest that sea ​​creatures I just didn’t like the presence of ships at sea.

Already in the last century, these monsters became less active, although even now there are more than enough stories about giant snakes. The most interesting thing is that none of the eyewitnesses were able to take a picture of the mysterious creature. Therefore, we can only get an idea of ​​what giant snakes really looked like based on the stories of sailors.

At the same time, scientists say that in the ocean waters in the Triassic period there were Tanistopheus lizards, which had a short body and very Long neck. According to paleontologists, these creatures lived on land, but soon moved to the depths of the sea. This lizard could well be mistaken for a snake of gigantic proportions, if we assume that these creatures could survive to our time.

History has preserved legends about Alexander the Great diving into the depths of the sea in a glass barrel. Allegedly, he saw a monster of enormous size at the bottom, which swam around the barrel for three days and three nights. Of course, one can argue about the veracity and originality of this story. Moreover, you can find quite a lot of similar legends in ancient texts. So, in particular, ancient texts contain a legend that the Assyrian king Sargan II saw giant snake. A terrible monster attacked the Roman legionnaires, they used a catapult and killed the monster. It was later skinned and transported to Rome to be shown to the general public. The length of the trophy reached 20 steps.

There are references to mysterious sea monsters in Chinese sources. Thus, in one of the manuscripts dating back to the twelfth century, you can find a story about the existence of a certain dragon. According to the author of the text, he saw the skeleton of this creature in the court storeroom. The fins, limbs, body and tail were completely intact, only the horns were cut off. Externally, the skeleton was very reminiscent of dragons, images of which existed at that time.

The Central African pygmy tribe still has legends about the terrible monster “Mokele-mbembe”. According to eyewitnesses, it is something between a dragon and an elephant. According to legends, on the territory of Zambia there also lives a creature resembling a dinosaur, which local population calls him “the hippopotamus eater.” This creature has a neck and head like a giant lizard. A famous hunter Jordan even got to meet him. As the hunter notes, this creature has the body of a hippopotamus, covered with bone scales, and the head of a crocodile. Interestingly, Jordan's guides fully confirmed his story.

But the leader of one of the scientific expeditions, Marcellin Anyanya, even managed to film the mysterious animal. It happened on Lake Tele. Three hundred meters from the shore in the water, the scientist saw a snake head on a massive neck. This creature “posed” for about 10 minutes, after which it disappeared into the water. As Anyanya notes, in appearance this animal is very similar to a brontosaurus, a giant herbivore that went extinct about 70 million years ago.

The relatively recently created deep-sea vehicle Haifish in Germany almost died after an encounter with one of the sea monsters. The device plunged into the area Mariana Trench to a depth of about 7 kilometers, but later could not rise to the surface. Then the hydronauts turned on the thermal imager to see what was interfering with the device and were shocked by what they saw: a monster resembling a lizard was attached to the body of the device. Fortunately, such an opportunity was provided for in advance: with the help of an electric gun with a large current charge, we managed to get rid of the monster.

There are many similar stories. Modern science cannot yet explain what these creatures are and where they came from. It follows from this that there are still many mysteries and secrets in the ocean that scientists have yet to unravel. Modern science strives for the stars, while depths of the sea They hold no less mysteries than outer space. Deep sea diving will be full of surprises for a very long time. But perhaps someday these mysteries will still be solved.

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Throughout human history, people have been accompanied by myths and legends. Studying them is very interesting for the reason that such stories usually arise on the basis real events. For example, the sea monsters that ancient legends tell about may well turn out to be real plesiosaurs or other sea lizards, albeit somewhat embellished.

Myths and truth

The seas have always attracted people - since ancient times, attempts have been made to conquer this element. However, this has not yet been fully achieved. Modern man knows more about life or lack thereof on other planets than about what is going on at the bottom of the oceans native land. Modern technologies they do not allow us to go down to great depths, so people can only guess what kind of life exists there at the bottom.

The sea sacredly keeps its secrets. Only sometimes do they break through to the surface, and then the surf carries them ashore strange finds, or sailors meet such strange creatures that they then talk for a long time about the meeting. Over time, such stories acquire colorful details, and it is difficult for researchers to separate the truth from the lies, especially considering that no one knows the truth. Legends about sea monsters have existed since ancient times, when people were just beginning to explore the seas.

Most often they talk about giant sea snakes, which may well be descendants of plesiosaurs. A sea monster with a huge mouth may turn out to be giant shark or an ancient lizard. And the existence of giant squids and octopuses does not raise doubts among scientists - modern science has too much evidence that these creatures exist. However, there is not yet a single photograph of such monsters, and the stuffed huge inhabitant the depths of the sea is still just a dream for the world's museums.

Amazing Finds

Fishermen from a small Japanese settlement spent the entire spring of 1977 fishing off the coast of New Zealand. One fine day, their net brought the remains of a half-decomposed animal. The carcass was 13 meters long and weighed about two tons. The corpse had four limbs, a small head on a narrow neck and an elongated tail. Before throwing the foul-smelling remains of the monster overboard, eyewitnesses severed a limb from it and took a couple of photographs. The surviving limb was taken to the zoological laboratory. Scientists have concluded that this is nothing more than a representative of one of the species of prehistoric lizards that lived in the depths of the sea.

Interestingly, the fishermen claimed that the animal had no bones. It is possible that this was a consequence long stay in sea water, where decomposition processes proceed somewhat differently than on land. And L. Ginzburg (a paleontologist from Paris) believes that the sailors caught the corpse of a giant seal in a net. All that is known about this species is that giant seals frolicked in ocean waters 20 million years ago. The paleontologist made his conclusion only on the basis of photographs and a single limb of the animal, so it is possible that it is not true.

In Chile, people were able to see an animal whose appearance defied any explanation. The monster was thrown onto the shore of the Pacific Ocean and that is the only reason that random eyewitnesses were able to describe it. According to their stories, the monster’s fins looked like human hands. The front ones had five fingers with claws, the rear ones had no fingers at all. The skull had an oblong, elongated shape, and there were three huge fangs in the mouth.

The find was immediately nicknamed the “humanoid monster” for its five-fingered fins. Scientists, however, considered that the corpse belonged to sea ​​lizard Triassic times. There is no explanation yet for how this lizard was able to survive to this day.

Giant squids have terrified sailors since the Middle Ages, as evidenced by numerous stories, illustrations and engravings.
It is believed that large squids are animals that live in deep sea ​​waters. Found in 2002 year dead A squid weighing 250 kilograms on the coast of Tasmania has refuted the knowledge of scientists. The length of its tentacles reached 15 meters. After laboratory studies, experts came to the conclusion that this specimen lived at a depth of only 200 meters. It turned out that it was a female who swam into shallow water and accidentally ran aground. Disputes began over myths that spoke of the danger of huge octopuses and cuttlefish sinking ships.

Fragments of huge octopuses and squids have been discovered more than once in the stomachs of whales or on the shores of the seas. In the nineties of the last century, Japanese experts were able to capture a living huge octopus using a special camera emitting infrared light. And in 2006, such a specimen was caught by Japanese researchers.

Real unicorns

It is generally accepted that encounters with sea monsters are dangerous for sailors. But sometimes such meetings turn out to be fatal for monsters. This is what happened with sea cows and sea ​​unicorns. Legends about unicorns came mainly from northern latitudes, from travelers who talked about the existence of an unknown creature with a long horn.

The three-meter-long shoot was credited with magical and healing qualities. Therefore, the hunt for “unicorns” was open. The animals were killed and the tusks were sold in markets. Hunters, blinded by profit, could not even describe the animals - they paid attention only to the huge horns that could be sold profitably.

Surely there are such greedy hunters today. But still modern people the value of rare finds is better understood, and this gives hope that if someone succeeds in discovering a living or dead inhabitant sea ​​depths, still unknown to science, such a find will become known to scientists. And then, perhaps, people will learn more about the depths of the sea and their inhabitants.

Legends about sea monsters - where is truth and where is fiction? Human activity is mainly related to land. That is why everything related to water raises many questions and assumptions. Water is a completely different world, sometimes incomprehensible and very often inaccessible. The creatures that live in the depths of the seas and oceans are so different from those who live on land that they can cause not only surprise, but very often fear. In ancient times, people were convinced that water was fraught with danger. All these fears and speculations are reflected in legends and myths. Despite the fact that man managed to descend into the Mariana Trench, which is considered the deepest place on the planet, he nevertheless knows practically nothing about the terrible and terrible monsters that live at the bottom of the ocean. Sailors often mentioned in their stories about sea monsters that dragged large ships under water. On ancient maps you can see images of giant octopuses, newts, snakes and whales. Myths that talk about sea monsters are found among almost all peoples who dealt with water. And almost all descriptions indicate that the monsters had lion's mouths, enormous tentacles and glowing eyes. With the beginning of the development of navigation, when people began to travel across continents, the fear of water gradually disappeared, but stories about sea monsters still arose. Over time, such stories became fewer and fewer, but even in the modern world, in the age of scientific progress, such stories are sometimes found. It should be noted that, as a rule, a wide variety of creatures were mentioned in ancient legends. But scientists cannot answer the question of whether they really existed. Some researchers are confident that most of these stories are memories of pterodactyls, dinosaurs and plesiosaurs that managed to survive until the appearance of man. Probably one of the most famous ancient sea monsters is Leviathan. Mentions of this monster can be found in the Old Testament. His description is a kind of mixture of fear and delight. This is a beautiful, proud creature, which at the same time is associated with Satan and inspires fear. This image appeared in the book of Job, and turned out to be so vivid that the name Leviathan became a household name. A similar character breathing fire appears in many books, films and songs, and even in computer games. Scientists say that it cannot be ruled out that Leviathan actually existed, since such legends could not be born out of nowhere, something must have provoked the creators of the Bible to create such an image, some kind of prototype. On the other hand, everything that is written in the Holy Scriptures cannot be taken literally, because its authors preferred allegory. The authors did not necessarily have to encounter such a monster in real life - it is quite possible that the image of this terrible monster was taken only as an illustration of a certain phenomenon. But the image appeared for a reason, so it could have been preceded by encounters with large lizards. Could it be that prehistoric monsters that lived in the seas and oceans managed to survive until man appeared on the planet and were noticed by him? Such a development of events cannot be completely ruled out. Scientists have still not been able to establish the reason for the disappearance of the ancient giant lizards, so it is impossible to rule out the possibility that some of them survived and bred offspring. These could also be sea monsters that, at great depths, could survive the cataclysms that ultimately led to the death of the ancient lizards. Science does not know what is going on in the depths of the world's oceans, so it cannot be ruled out that ancient lizards may still exist. They may well occasionally appear on the surface, meeting with a person from time to time. It is also likely that mutants could appear in the depths of the sea that are equally similar to ancient lizards and modern animals. This, at least, can explain the origin of the legends about creatures of enormous stature that emerge from the depths of the sea and which are called “sea monks.” In medieval legends there are stories about creatures that resembled mermaids. They had a fish tail instead of legs and arms instead of fins. They were seen quite often on the northern European coasts. The German theologian Megenberg told a legend about the “sea monks” who went to the seashore. These creatures danced, attracting people's attention. The dance was so beautiful and mesmerizing that people lost their vigilance and came very close to these creatures. The “monks” grabbed the unwary and ate them in front of the others. And in the last century, on the territory of Denmark, it was even possible to discover the corpse of a “sea monk”. His height was 15 meters. The remains of the creature were sent to Copenhagen, where a sensational statement was made: this creature is an ordinary cuttlefish with ten tentacles. However, scientists do not rule out that during the Middle Ages some species of sharks or representatives of walruses could have been mistaken for “monks.” True, in this case it is not entirely clear how they could organize dances on land. Cuttlefish do not have enough strength to drag an adult under water, sharks do not leave the water and only react to the smell of blood, and walruses do not attack people. Therefore, it is quite possible that the legends are talking about some animals unknown to modern science. Another type of sea monster became known in 1522, when the Dutch scientist Oddemans spoke about giant snakes that lived deep underwater. These monsters were seen by people quite rarely - they were seen in one place only once every ten years for three centuries. However, with the beginning of the nineteenth century, the number of recorded cases increased sharply - in one year, this creature appeared to sailors as many as 28 times. Scientists cannot say what caused such activity, but they suggest that sea creatures simply did not like the presence of ships in the sea. Already in the last century, these monsters became less active, although even now there are more than enough stories about giant snakes. The most interesting thing is that none of the eyewitnesses were able to take a picture of the mysterious creature. Therefore, we can only get an idea of ​​what giant snakes really looked like based on the stories of sailors. At the same time, scientists say that in the ocean waters in the Triassic period there were Tanistopheus lizards, which had a short body and a very long neck. According to paleontologists, these creatures lived on land, but soon moved to the depths of the sea. This lizard could well be mistaken for a snake of gigantic proportions, if we assume that these creatures could survive to our time. History has preserved legends about Alexander the Great diving into the depths of the sea in a glass barrel. Allegedly, he saw a monster of enormous size at the bottom, which swam around the barrel for three days and three nights. Of course, one can argue about the veracity and originality of this story. Moreover, you can find quite a lot of similar legends in ancient texts. Thus, in particular, ancient texts contain a legend that the Assyrian king Sargan II saw a giant snake. A terrible monster attacked the Roman legionnaires, they used a catapult and killed the monster. It was later skinned and transported to Rome to be shown to the general public. The length of the trophy reached 20 steps. There are references to mysterious sea monsters in Chinese sources. Thus, in one of the manuscripts dating back to the twelfth century, you can find a story about the existence of a certain dragon. According to the author of the text, he saw the skeleton of this creature in the court storeroom. The fins, limbs, body and tail were completely intact, only the horns were cut off. Externally, the skeleton was very reminiscent of dragons, images of which existed at that time. The Central African pygmy tribe still has legends about the terrible monster “Mokele-mbembe”. According to eyewitnesses, it is something between a dragon and an elephant. In Zambia, according to legend, there also lives a creature resembling a dinosaur, which the local population calls the “hippo eater.” This creature has a neck and head like a giant lizard. And the famous hunter Jordan even had to meet him. As the hunter notes, this creature has the body of a hippopotamus, covered with bone scales, and the head of a crocodile. Interestingly, Jordan's guides fully confirmed his story. But the leader of one of the scientific expeditions, Marcellin Anyanya, even managed to film the mysterious animal. It happened on Lake Tele. Three hundred meters from the shore in the water, the scientist saw a snake head on a massive neck. This creature “posed” for about 10 minutes, after which it disappeared into the water. As Anyanya notes, in appearance this animal is very similar to a brontosaurus, a giant herbivore that went extinct about 70 million years ago. The relatively recently created deep-sea vehicle Haifish in Germany almost died after an encounter with one of the sea monsters. The device sank in the Mariana Trench to a depth of about 7 kilometers, but later could not rise to the surface. Then the hydronauts turned on the thermal imager to see what was interfering with the device and were shocked by what they saw: a monster resembling a lizard was attached to the body of the device. Fortunately, such an opportunity was provided for in advance: with the help of an electric gun with a large current charge, we managed to get rid of the monster. There are many similar stories. Modern science cannot yet explain what these creatures are and where they came from. It follows from this that there are still many mysteries and secrets in the ocean that scientists have yet to unravel. Modern science strives for the stars, while the depths of the sea hold no less mysteries than outer space. Deep sea diving will be full of surprises for a very long time. But perhaps someday these mysteries will still be solved.

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