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The most mysterious lake of Yakutia: Labynkyr. Lake labynkyr in Yakutia and a monster living in the lake Suddenly, right below him, he saw a large lake into which a huge beast resembling a turtle descends from the shore. Osinnikov turned around over the pond to better

Everyone has probably heard about Oymyakon in Yakutia, which is the cold pole of the northern hemisphere. But in fact, it is. This lost World located at an altitude of one kilometer above sea level and 105 kilometers south and up into the mountains from Oymyakon. The mountain plateau is inaccessible. The temperature here sometimes drops below 71 degrees Celsius.

The Yakuts tell many legends about this mysterious lake. And the main thing is that some unknown predator lives in it - "Labynkyr devil" - a relative of the Loch Ness monster. Or rather the whole population. Locals do not dare to go to the lake, as it has a bad reputation.

The Yakuts, as if at the beginning of the 20th century, somehow got the jaw of one inhabitant of the lake, measured it, and reported figures about the size of the whole monster. Its width, in their opinion, is "like a raft of 10 logs", and footprints are meter long.

The lake measures 14 by 4 kilometers. The average depth is just over 50 meters.

In March 1941, the ANT-6 military transport aircraft was returning from a special Arctic expedition. Pilot Ivan Cherevichny and navigator Valentin Akkuratov drove a heavy 4-engine vehicle from the so-called "Pole of Inaccessibility" to the south of Yakutia. Flying over the area with coordinates 62° 30' north latitude and 143° 36' minutes east longitude, the crew drew attention to some incomprehensible objects on the ground, constantly in motion. The route of the polar pilots passed over these places more than once, but neither Cherevichny nor Akkuratov had seen anything like this before. They decided to descend to solve the riddle. When the altimeter showed a mark of 50 meters above the ground, Valentin Akkuratov saw that two huge creatures were rushing across the thick ice of the endless lake. Apparently frightened by the roar of the engine and the shadow of the plane, the monsters dived into the hole, raising a column of water. When the pilots returned to base and spoke about what they saw, they were listened to and did not believe a word. But only the Yakut, who was the commandant there, shook his head meaningfully and said: "This is the Labynkyr devil." No details were obtained from the commandant.

Photo from ykt.ru

On December 14, 1958, a rather strange article appeared in the Youth of Yakutia newspaper. Oymyakonsky district has big lake Labynkyr. The nearest settlement is the village of Tomtor. Its inhabitants speak of a great mysterious monster living in Labynkyr. The Yakuts call this monster the devil. One day he chased a Yakut fisherman. The animal was dark gray in color, with a huge mouth. The fisherman died of fear. The author of the note was ridiculed by colleagues and readers. History was forgotten, but not for long.

After 4 years, another issue of the popular almanac "Around the World" appeared on the newsstands of Soyuzpechat. The circulation was sold out instantly. The journal published the diaries of Viktor Ivanovich Tverdokhlebov, head of the geological party of the East Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The culmination was the lines where the author described a meeting with an unknown relic animal on the shore of that same Yakut lake. The article was very difficult to print, even though it was already the beginning of the 60s, but the editors were afraid of everything in the old way, namely, any new trends or discoveries that go against science. Nevertheless, the publication appeared and made a splash in the Soviet Union.

Photo by Viktor Tverdokhlebov

This happened on July 30, 1953, when Viktor Tverdokhlebov and his partner Boris Bashkatov, collecting firewood for a fire, climbed a hill and noticed some object in the water. Here is what the scientist wrote in his diary: “The object swam and quite quickly. It was something alive, it moved in an arc, first along the lake, and then straight towards us. We saw only a small part of the monster, but a huge massive body was guessed under the water. At the same time, waves were coming from his head, born somewhere under the water. doubt is one of the strongest predators in the world. Such an indomitable, merciless, some kind of meaningful ferocity was felt in his every movement, in his whole appearance. " These lines made the publication sensational. Immediately, Tverdokhlebov's testimony was criticized. The Permafrost Institute stated that eyewitnesses observed just a huge catfish. True catfish does not live in this lake. Naturally, many argued that geologists simply imagined all this. Like, it happens so often with people who find themselves in the north one on one with wildlife. Ichthyologists tried to explain what they saw by the refraction of light in water. But Tverdokhlebov and Bashkatov were experienced researchers and were fully aware of what could be refraction and what could be a mirage.

Tverdokhlebov discovered this animal, described it and its descriptions are worth a lot, because he was, firstly, a real scientist, a geologist, although not a zoologist, but a very educated person, a naturalist. His colleagues also understood antiquities and paleontology, and they realized that in front of them was just an unknown creature that lives in this lake.

"I have often been asked about the monster,

and I spoke much and willingly about the plateau. But often, too often

in matters of colleagues

heard hidden or

obvious mockery or distrust.

I got tired of it in the end

and I stopped talking

about the secrets of the plateau"

from the memoirs of V. Tverdokhlebov

Itself is called nothing more than " lost World". Some believe that this is a legend, a myth that has nothing to do with real history. Others believe in it, believing that this is a different dimension, etc. Is there even a version that this is a mammoth?! Mammoths in Siberia were unthinkable many. A huge number of tusks were previously mined on the New Siberian Islands. And they supposedly switched to an aquatic lifestyle due to frost. Others believe that this is a huge relic pike.

There is a legend among the fishermen of Oymyakon that in the middle of the last century, one of the local residents caught here a pike the size of a crocodile, all covered with thick moss. However, few witnesses pointed to the amphibian image of the monster, which is unacceptable for a pike. The writer and traveler Nikolai Nepomniachtchi believes: "It looks like a kind of water lizard - a plesiosaur 8-10 meters in length with a huge long neck, a small head, flippers and a powerful tail. The animal breeds with eggs and keeps them somewhere in underwater caves."

At the bottom of the lake there is a certain crack, which increases the depth, presumably up to 80 meters. Maybe more? There is a version that, for example, Lake Baikal is generally bottomless and all water bodies of the world are interconnected. The water in Labynkyr, despite severe frosts, freezes very slowly, which remains a mystery to scientists. The river of the same name flows into Labynkyr through an ice non-melting dam. There are three islands on the lake, which have the strange property of disappearing underwater from time to time, but the water level itself remains unchanged.

It turns out that the lake is a very suitable place for an unknown relic animal to live. No jungle in Africa or Latin America can be compared with Labynkyr in terms of the degree of abandonment, alienation and detachment, closeness from the rest of the world.

In the 60-70s of the last century, several expeditions visited Labynkyr, but no one managed to find either the mysterious monster or any of its traces. Over the next 30 years, almost no human foot set foot on the shores of the lake, except for rare fishermen. True, there is still one Yakut - a hermit settled not far away. Olyams (?) was his name, or nickname, or name. Seems to be half crazy. He traded fish for vodka and then told stories about the devil. As if on every full moon he comes out and devours tribute from the hermit. In 1993, Olyams fell seriously ill, fishermen found him in a serious condition and brought him to the hospital. When he recovered his senses, he shouted that he could not be taken away from Labynkyr. He was brought back. He seemed to have seen the devil many times. However, he died a natural death in a dugout, was not eaten.

Another such case is told locals. The Evenk family, wandering in the taiga, drove on the ice in winter on a team and tied the team of deer to a branch frozen into the ice. The branch turned out to be the horn of the Labynkyr devil. The monster broke through the ice and dragged all the people and deer down with it. But some of the Evenki remained alive, because at that moment they retreated and collected branches for a fire on the shore.

Another dramatic story. The nomads were heading to Oymyakon and stopped on the bank of a stream that flows into the lake. While the adults went about their business, no one noticed how the little boy fell into the stream. The flow of water carried the child into the lake. The parents rushed to help. But then the head of a monster suddenly surfaced and swallowed the boy. The angry father made a trap overnight. The devil was caught and killed. The stream where the tragedy occurred was called Children's. The remains of the monster were thrown on the shore. The jaw was later seen by many hunters who had been to the lake. It was said that it is so huge that if you put it like an arch, you can ride a deer through it. It all looks like a legend after all. But the researchers of Kosmopoisk faced the bloodthirstiness of the monster. That's how it was.

It seemed incomprehensible what the animal would eat there, since there is no food base, and how would it survive at such low temperatures? But the Kosmopoisk expedition, led by the well-known Vadim Chernobrov, arrived at the lake in winter and was surprised to find that there was no ice there. The temperature was close to zero. At the same time, the lake was teeming with fish.

Using an echo sounder, the researchers saw a large animal at a depth of several tens of meters, its size was about five meters. On the last night, the monster crawled out of the water and ate the dog. Vadim Chernobrov believes that it is unlikely that the monster was hungry, given the number of fish in the lake. This dog on the very first day, approaching the lake, felt the danger. She lay down to sleep between the tent and the lake. For some reason, the dog did not run away, but at the moment of eating it made a terrible sound. In the morning we saw traces of the monster. What is this predator?

The lake is a gorge, one border is an ice dam that is melting. V. Chernobrov puts forward a version that some relic animals could lie frozen, and with warming thaw and return to life again in aquatic environment. The researcher does not doubt the existence of this creature. Perhaps, Chernobrov believes, there are some other ancient creatures in this refrigerator.

Groups of tourists come there once or twice a year in the summer. They tell different stories. So a group of divers went to Labynkyr to unravel this mystery. From Yakutsk to Labynkyr they hardly reached. They took a shaman with them, as people associated with risk are very superstitious. This applies to divers in full measure. So the shaman performed the ceremony and they plunged. First, we checked the equipment. The second time the divers dived to 20 meters and stayed under water for about an hour. The researchers managed to fix not just some huge mass, but the researchers even heard the voice of this creature. This sound was like nothing else. It was something alive. With the help of echo sounders, the researchers found an underground mine-type formation at the bottom of the lake. They pass both in vertical and horizontal planes and possibly connect Labynkyr with other local lakes. Maybe that's why the monster was not found during the kidneys. But in the neighboring lake, the appearance of a giant animal was also repeatedly observed. And there, too, research was carried out with the help of special underwater equipment. But unfortunately, it was not possible to obtain any clear outlines of the creature.

So who is this Labynkyr devil fellow of Loch Ness? Obviously it's an amphibian. And not unique.

If we turn to the ancient Slavic chronicles, and Siberia until the 3rd-4th millennium BC. inhabited by the Slavs-Aryans even before the arrival of the Mongoloids from the south. So there are descriptions of the so-called "Russian crocodile". More precisely, the word was peel-dil, where dil- horse. Later, this word passed into all languages and returned back to Russian as if foreign. This animal lived in reservoirs of course. Similar to giant salamander. Maybe his descendant lives now?

It is assumed that in the second half of August, egg laying begins at the Labynkyrsky line. During this period, the male rises to shallow depths and protects the litter. And then he perceives any intrusion as a threat and attacks. This could be the cause of the tragic incident with the child. But this is just a hypothesis.

Meanwhile, reports of unknown monsters come from all over the world. In China, there is a similar monster on Lake Kanas. In 1985, students at Xinjiang University saw an unknown large animal on the shore. And here again there were rumors that this monster was dragging away pets. And recently in Sweden, in a lake on the border with Norway, in front of dozens of people, something surfaced. Rumors have been circulating since the beginning of this century. It was said that a certain monster climbs ashore and chases people. After it frightened two girls, the locals decided to prepare a trap. But the monster had safely avoided her all these years. Recently we saw footprints on the shore...

In fact, there are many such mysterious places on the globe. The appearance of some mysterious creatures often. After all, the depths of the oceans are practically not studied, perhaps such monsters appear from there, and water bodies can be interconnected.

In the territory Yakutia there are about a million lakes. No wonder they say that almost every inhabitant of the republic has a separate lake. However, from the total number of reservoirs, only the legendary Labynkyr lake. According to a legend that has been passed down for decades, a certain huge animal lives here, better known as "Labynkyr devil".

Legend of Lake Labynkyr

Lake Labynkyr is located in the Oymyakonsky district in the east of Yakutia. For hundreds of years, local Yakuts have been passing on the legend of the existence in the lake of a certain huge animal, called the "Labynkyrsky Devil", from generation to generation.

It should be noted that people rarely appear in the area of this lake, the nearest village is 150 km away. No road leads here, and the lake itself can only be reached by all-terrain vehicles, horses or a helicopter.

Old-timers believe that the animal has been living in the lake since time immemorial and behaves extremely aggressively. Once, for example, it was chasing a Yakut fisherman, another time it swallowed a dog swimming after a shot game dog. But most often the object of hunting was deer.

The monster is always described as huge, dark gray in color, with such a large head that the distance between its eyes is more than a meter.

In addition, the locals were talking about this creature long before there was talk about the famous Loch Ness Monster from Scotland. It is impossible not to take into account the location of the area: that is, news, especially in the last century, came with a delay. Nevertheless, the Sakha and Evenki themselves sincerely believe in this creature.

Diagram of how the monster attacked the dog

According to eyewitnesses

All eyewitness stories were scientifically attested. Here are just three of a dozen such stories:

“The family of Evenk nomads was moving to the summer lands. Evening found them on the banks of the Labynkyr. While the elders were preparing for the night, the boy was playing on the banks of the stream flowing into the lake. Suddenly he screamed.

The adults who turned around saw that the child was in the water and the current was carrying him to the middle of the lake. Adults rushed to help, but suddenly some dark creature five or six arshins long (3.55-4.26 meters) appeared from the depths, grabbed the boy with a mouth that looked like a bird's beak with many teeth, and dragged him under water.

The grandfather of the dead boy stuffed a leather bag with deer hair, rags, dry grass and needles, put a smoldering torch in it. He tied the bag to a lasso and threw it into the lake, and fastened the lasso to a large boulder on the shore. In the morning, the waves threw a dying monster ashore - about 10 arshins long (about 7 meters), with a huge, one-third of its height, beak-mouth, with small paws-fins.

The grandfather cut open the belly of the creature, took out the body of his grandson, and the family left the lake. The boy was buried on the bank of the stream, and since then this stream has been called the Child's Creek. And the jaw of the monster stood at Labynkyr for a long time, and under it, as they say, a horseman could ride.

Since local horses are short, the expedition members believe that the length of the jaw could be 2.1-2.5 meters. Where the jaw itself went, no one knows."

And here is another recorded story:

“Once in the winter, the Sakha family was driving along Labynkyr. Suddenly, a few meters from the shore, they saw a horn about a meter long sticking out of the ice. Stopping, people approached it. deer and a few people. And then some creature appeared, dragging people and deer under the water. "

And one more

“Two friends were fishing in the very middle of this lake from a large ten-meter launch. It was late autumn. The lake was calm. And suddenly the boat tilted sharply, and its bow rose strongly above the water. The fishermen were speechless and froze, clutching the sides.

And after a while the boat sank into the water. Someone lifted a heavy barge above the water. Only a large animal can do this. But they didn't see anything - no head, no mouth, nothing at all."

According to locals, a certain Alyams became the only inhabitant on the shores of the lake for a long time. He was a local bliss, this half-mad exile who had served his term and did not want to return "to the mainland." Alyams caught fish, exchanged it with rare helicopter pilots for food and vodka, and then, drunk, told stories that even the experienced ones would drop their jaws.

Drawing according to the description of eyewitnesses. Vadim Chernobrov from Kosmopoisk.

According to him, the "devil" almost every full moon devoured the tribute that he brought to him. The only time Alyams was taken away from the lake was in 1993, when he became seriously ill, and visiting fishermen took him to the hospital.

Having come to his senses, Alyams shouted that it was impossible to take him away from Labynkyr, something now he would definitely die. He died - as soon as he was returned to the shore after urgent requests.

Research

The search for the monster in the lake began after the authoritative testimony of Viktor Tverdokhlebov, head of the geological party of the East Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and geologist Boris Bashkatov, who in their diaries on July 30, 1953, while observing from the Sordonnokh plateau, left the following entry:

"... The object was floating, and quite close. It was something alive, some kind of animal. It moved in an arc: first along the lake, then straight towards us. As it approached, a strange numbness, from which it gets cold inside embraced us.

A dark gray carcass slightly rose above the water, two symmetrical light spots, similar to the eyes of an animal, were clearly distinguished, and something like a stick was sticking out of the body ... We saw only a small part of the animal, but a huge massive body was guessed under the water.

The monster moves with a heavy throw: having risen somewhat from the water, it rushed forward, and then completely immersed in the water. At the same time, waves were coming from his head, born under water.

"There was no doubt: we saw the "line" - the legendary monster of these places."

In the 1960s and 1970s, Labynkyr was visited by several expeditions and tourist groups. However, no one managed to find the "Labynkyrsky devil" or its traces. Interest in the lake monster died down for a long time. For 30 years no researcher has set foot on the shores of the lake.

It is worth noting that during these years, at least twice, divers descended into the lake - and both times "someone" was seen in clear waters.

The researchers found under the surface of the lake underwater - underground mine-type formations. They pass both in vertical and horizontal planes and, possibly, connect Labynkyr with other local lakes. Maybe that's why the monster was not found during the search.

But in the neighboring Labynkyr Lake Gate also repeatedly observed the appearance of a giant animal. However, later an expedition to Gateway Lake managed to prove that there were no monsters in it.

Lake Gate

In the period from October 15 to November 3, 1999, an expedition was carried out to find unknown giant animals in several lakes at once: Dead, Labynkyr, Krasnoe. Its only result was the disappearance of a husky, tied not far from the polynya, without a trace.

According to the researcher Vadim Chernobrov, incomprehensible traces and ice growths - stalagmites - traces of water flowing from a body that crawled ashore were found on the shore of Labynkyr: "Judging by the width of the stalagmites strip, we can conclude that the width of the alleged body from which water flowed ", about 1-1.5 meters. Something, but rather someone, crawled ashore from the water and crawled back. Judging by the size of the stalagmites, it was on the shore for at least a minute."

It was next to these tracks that on the night of October 26-27, the Laika dog disappeared without a trace. She voluntarily lay down to guard the boat on the shore and disappeared the next morning. There were no dog or other marks from the boat. The only way the husky could move away without a trace was towards the water.

The catch is that she was terribly afraid to approach the water. Members of the expedition lured the hungry dog with lard, but it did not come closer than 1.5 meters to the calm surface of the water without waves, despite the fact that already 2-3 meters from the water it calmly pounced on the lard.

“Something on the eve of her was very frightening and she could not overcome her fear and, let me remind you, this is a husky that can not be afraid of a bear! Why did she go to the water now? Or was she dragged into the water? Why didn’t we hear anything?”, - recalls is he.

In 2005, the TV program "Searchers" organized an expedition to the lake, during which they carried out a number of studies and measurements. In particular, with the help of an echo sounder, an anomalous crack was detected at the bottom of the lake, and with the help of a deep-sea telesonde, remains of the jaws and vertebrae of animals were found at the bottom.

In February 2013, a dive was made to the bottom of the lake, the air temperature on the surface is 46 degrees Celsius, the water temperature is +2 degrees. The organizer was the Federation of Underwater Sports of Russia and the Russian Geographical Society, the expedition was called the "Pole of Cold". They never met the Labynkyr devil, but they were able to prove that it is possible to work in conditions of a sharp temperature drop without special equipment and equipment.

lake anomalies

The lake itself is located at an altitude of 1020 meters above sea level, stretched from north to south for 14 km. The width of the rectangular reservoir is almost the same everywhere - 4 km, depth - up to 60 meters. average temperature water in the lake is +9 degrees, in the bottom layers +1 - +1.5 degrees. However, despite such a low temperature, the lake freezes abnormally slowly.

Labynkyr is located in the coldest zone of the continental part of the mainland, a hundred kilometers from the village of Tomtor - the world famous pole of cold. It was here that academician Obruchev once recorded a record low temperature on earth - minus 71.2 degrees Celsius.

Nevertheless, if Labynkyr freezes, it is much later than all other local water bodies, and even in the most harsh winters the ice here is relatively thin. But most often, a noticeable part of the lake still does not freeze, and local residents are forced to go around it along the shore, although all other reservoirs are crossed on ice. Why the lake has such a feature is still unknown to science. No one has found here warm springs or any other circumstances that explain this phenomenon.

From the expedition of Vadim Chernobrov: "Unfortunately, the reality turned out to be more complicated. All the lakes really stood up, but ... not Labynkyr and Vorota. This fact, later told by us in Moscow, greatly surprised all experienced taiga residents, and, probably, it can only be attributed at the expense of the amazing microclimate reigning around or inside these two lakes.

One way or another, but our plans had to be changed right on the spot, instead of locating through the holes, we had to pick up a boat lying on the shore and locate directly from it.

Who lives in Lake Labynkyr?

Some researchers believe that perhaps it is a mammoth. This version is not as surprising as it seems at first glance. When switching to a semi-aquatic lifestyle, like seals, mammoths could easily survive local frosts down to -60 degrees. And polynyas that do not freeze in any frost on the surface of the lake allow it to breathe air. The only thing that confuses in this version is that eyewitnesses describe the animal as a predator.

Other researchers believe that this is a huge relic pike. Here, the amphibious way of life of the "Labynkyrsky devil" confirmed by witnesses, or a surviving prehistoric lizard, is questionable. If we take the version of the lizard as a basis, then this is a plesiosaur, or a creature closely related to it.

Almost all stories testify that the Labynkyr miracle is seen in late autumn or early winter. The descriptions match its dimensions: about nine to ten meters long, twenty meters wide - fifty meters wide. The body is slightly flattened above and below.

A certain bone horn about a meter and a half long sticks out of the body. All narrators note a huge, up to a third of the body length, mouth, similar to a long beak, but with many small teeth.

Often, ice stalactites are seen on the shore, which can be formed from water flowing down from the sides of a lying animal. All meetings take place either in Labynkyr or in the neighboring, much smaller Lake Vorota, and the locals are convinced that these lakes are connected by a long cave.

Similar cases

Perhaps the most famous "relative" of the Labynkyr devil is Nessie - a monster loch ness lake in Scotland.

This animal, whose existence causes a lot of controversy, even has a monument. In Russia, in addition to Lake Labynkyr, there are also lakes in which, according to some eyewitnesses, their monsters live.

Lake Shaitan. The name of the lake speaks for itself, it translates as "hell". The reservoir is located on the territory of the Urzhumsky district of the Kirov region. Locals have long believed that an evil spirit or sea monster lives at the bottom of the lake. It is by the fact that this monster is angry that they explain the rare natural phenomena that occur on the lake. Among them are arbitrary ejections of water on the surface of the lake, floating islands and more.

On the territory of the Lovozero tundra of the Kola Peninsula is located Seydozero. Since the territory is considered an anomalous zone, many legends and stories arise about Bigfoot living on the shores, as well as about sea monster, allegedly sometimes rising from the bottom of the lake.

Local residents, the Sami, have a legend according to which the underworld is located at the bottom of the lake. And the monster that lives in Seydozero must guard the borders between our world (the world of the living) and the world of the dead. The existence of certain creatures living in the lake and on its shores has not been proven.

Lake Brosno is located in the Tver region of Russia. The area of the lake is quite extensive - about 7.5 km. But the lake became known thanks to people who allegedly saw a floating creature on its surface, which they called the Brosna monster.

Lake Chany is located in the Novosibirsk region. For a long time, mysterious cases of the disappearance of fishermen on the lake were discussed on the Web, various hypotheses were put forward, among which was the theory of the existence of an ancient lizard in the lake.

The amazing lake Labynkyr is located. Everything connected with it is covered with legends and mystery. The nearest human dwelling is located hundreds of kilometers away and this is not surprising. Since ancient times, the surroundings of the lake have frightened people, as there is an opinion that a monster of unusual size lives in it. On this occasion, legends and traditions were composed.

The natural reservoir was formed as a result of the damming of the river by a large moraine. Labynkyr spilled over fourteen and a half kilometers, and in width it reaches more than four kilometers. The first mystery of the reservoir is related to its depth. On average, it reaches fifty meters, but there is a fault in its middle. It goes into the bowels of the earth at 80 meters. What is hidden in this cold depth, many scientists tried to find out.

The mysterious lake Labynkyr in Yakutia has a water transparency of up to 10 meters. And then the mystery lives on. The second surprising fact is the frost resistance of water. The location of Labynkyr in one of the coldest regions of the country suggests its severe freezing. This is where the mystery begins. It turns out that water, which has a temperature of no higher than nine degrees in summer, freezes very badly in winter, at minus fifty on the surface. No warm springs were found in the depths. It is surprising that the water does not freeze, while the neighboring lakes are completely ice-bound.

Third natural mystery touches the disappearing island. There are several land areas here, one of which is located exactly in the middle. Despite the fact that the water level remains almost unchanged, the island sometimes completely disappear. There is a scientific version that this is an optical illusion, but for local residents this explanation is not the only one.

The shores of Lake Labynkyr are not the same. If on the north side they are covered with boulders and pebbles, then in the middle rocks rise to the water, and from the south it is surrounded by a plain.

The mysterious lake Labynkyr is covered with legends and tales. Out of fear of the unknown, local residents do not approach the picturesque reservoir. Not a single road has been laid in its direction, so you can only get there by all-terrain vehicles, helicopter or on horseback. It's all the fault of the Labynkyr devil or an incomprehensible creature living in the depths of the lake.

Something huge and alive not only floats on water, but also comes out on land. The animal has a gray color, and its head is so large that the distance between the huge eyes is at least half a meter. This creature attacked the Yakut fisherman on a boat and a hunting dog chasing game, as well as deer who came to the watering hole.

Labynkyr in Yakutia became the owner of his monster long before the appearance of the Scottish Loch Ness monster. At the same time, there is no connection between these lakes, and the locals could not recognize and remake foreign legends.

Surprising is the fact that everyone who met the Yakut monster describes it identically. Huge, with a large head and a light gray color, it terrifies and panics. His approach is stupefying. The blood runs cold in the veins and this happens on a subconscious level.

Eyewitnesses tell about the monster of Lake Labynkyr, which makes its existence an indisputable fact. In some parts of the story, they resemble legends.

An Evenk family migrating to summer pastures stopped for the night near a picturesque pond. The child ran to the stream to play, and the adults began to cook dinner. Suddenly they were deafened by a scream. The stream carried the boy into the lake. Before the parents had time to move, the waters opened up and a monster with a huge toothy beak appeared from them. The boy immediately disappeared along with the terrible creature. Grandfather made a homemade bait with a smoldering torch and threw it into the lake. In the morning, he pulled the rope and pulled the seven-meter monster dead. According to the story, a small horse with a rider could fit under his skull.

On the bank of the Labynkyr, a Sakha family found themselves in winter. Suddenly, everyone saw a horn sticking out of the ice. The youth went to look at this curiosity. In a matter of seconds, the ice broke and everyone went under water, and the carcass of a huge monster flashed on the surface. The old people who remained on the shore managed to see only his back.

Local fishermen, sailing across the lake on a ten-meter launch, were dumbfounded with horror when their boat tilted and began to rise. They could not see anything in the abyss, but argued that only something huge could have such power.

Only one local resident was able to stay on the banks of the Labynkyr for a long time. His name was Alyams. Having drunk vodka in rare times, he told how he feeds the monster with animals. When Alyams ended up in the hospital, where he was taken unconscious, he insisted that he must immediately go to the lake so as not to lose his life. The hunter was brought to Labynkyr, where he disappeared very quickly after his return.

Scientific expeditions to the lake

The monster of Lake Labynkyr in Yakutia could not interest the scientific community. Academician Viktor Tverdokhlebov and Boris Bashkatov became the first researchers of this unusual natural object. They made an expedition and published their diaries in the early 60s. They contained eyewitness accounts who were lucky enough to see incredible creature. The description of the monster completely coincided with what the local legend claims.

For ten years, scientific expeditions were sent to the shore of the mysterious reservoir. Even curious tourists came there. Several times selfless divers descended into the depths of the lake. They claimed to have seen a huge living object, but very vaguely. Animal bones were found at the bottom, which was also surprising.

Over the next thirty years, the Labynkyr monster was forgotten. It did not manifest itself, and interest in the unknown subsided. Scientists managed to find out that there are mines of unknown origin in the lake, which can connect it with other bodies of water. There were rumors among the locals that the monster had reappeared. Now it lives in Gateway Lake. The expedition sent there did not find anything, and the research again subsided.

The next expedition took place at the turn of the century in 1999. Scientists examined several lakes and did not find a monster. But even here there were some surprises. On the banks of the Labynkyr, stalagmites of unknown origin were found. It seemed that someone came out of the water, stood for a while and returned home again. Also, a dog disappeared from the shore, which showed a clear fear of water.

As part of the TV program "The Seeker" in 2005, an expedition was carried out, which was able to detect a fault at the bottom of the lake and the presence of animal bones. Already in 2013, brave divers set off to conquer the depths in a frost of 46 degrees. At the same time, the water had a plus two. The divers were never able to see the Labynkyr monster.

Hypotheses about the belonging of the Labynkyr trait to a biological species

Despite the relative similarity of descriptions of the monster, there are differences. This allows it to be classified as different types. Scientists put forward several basic hypotheses.

In the depths of Labynkyr, a mammoth can live, which leads an amphibious lifestyle. Presumably, his descendants descended into the non-freezing waters to escape the severe cold. The animal can breathe as it rises to the surface. The only deterrent to accepting this version is that the dweller of the depths is a predator.

In another assumption, there is a huge relic pike, which has been preserved intact since time immemorial. The only thing that remains unclear is why the fish can come ashore. Perhaps this is the result of mutations.

Many scientists tend to think that a prehistoric pangolin lives in the lake, which was able to survive thanks to the unique microclimate. If we consider this version, then we can assume that the Labynkyr monster is a plesiosaur.

Lake Labynkyr is a reservoir in the east of Yakutia, which became famous thanks to a creature unknown to science that lives in its waters. Local Yakut residents believe that some huge animal lives in the lake - the "Labynkyr Devil", as they call it. According to the descriptions of the Yakuts, this is something of a dark gray color with a huge mouth. The distance between the eyes of the "devil" is equal to the width of a raft of ten logs. According to the legend, the “devil” is very aggressive and dangerous, attacks people and animals, and is able to go ashore.

Scientists became interested in the Labynkyr monster after the report of the geologist V.I. Tverdokhlebov, who observed a large moving object in the lake. A number of expeditions, however, did not bring any convincing results.
From the records of the expedition of V. Tverdokhlebov on July 30, 1953:
“It was floating quite close. It was something alive, some kind of animal. It moved in an arc: first along the lake, then straight towards us. As it drew closer, a strange numbness that made me feel cold inside took hold of me. A dark-gray carcass, the eyes of an animal, slightly towered above the water, and something like a stick was sticking out of the body ... We saw only a small part of the animal, but a huge massive body was guessed under the water ... "

After scientific interest in Labynkyr and its mysterious inhabitant faded in the 70s, the only inhabitant of those places was a certain Trotskyist fisherman named Alyams, who was exiled to Yakutia during the repressions and did not want to return. It was his incredible stories about the sacrifices he allegedly made to the devil that rekindled curiosity in the late 80s. In 1993, Alyams fell seriously ill and was taken to the nearest hospital. In delirium, he said that Labynkyr would not forgive him for separation and would kill him. What is most surprising, as soon as the fisherman was returned to the lake, he suddenly died.

Cryptozoologists put forward various hypotheses regarding the nature of the "devil": a giant pike, a relic reptile or an amphibian. In 2005, the TV program "Searchers" organized an expedition to the lake, during which they conducted a series of studies and measurements. In particular, with the help of an echo sounder, an anomalous crack was detected at the bottom of the lake, and with the help of a deep-sea telesonde, remains of the jaws and vertebrae of animals were found at the bottom.

Lost world at the Pole of Cold

It was the 12th day of an exhausting journey through the frosty taiga. We have literally less than a kilometer to go to the desired goal of our journey - once known throughout the country, Labynkyr, a place where, as if in a fantastic "Lost World", an unknown and mysterious beast supposedly lived. We got to this beast named "devil", first we flew to Magadan, then we rode on a broken bus along the broken Kolyma highway to the first destroyed bridges, and then all last week- where hitchhiking, but more often on foot - they got to the "den of the devil." The lost point on the map, which attracts us to itself, in reality turned out to be fenced off from the rest of the world by thousands of miles of off-road, taiga, tundra and - most importantly - tens of degrees of temperature difference. As we approached Labynkyr, after each new pass, the frost fell lower and lower, as if striving for absolute zero. The "lost world" of the Labynkyr "devil" by a "happy" coincidence is located at the Pole of Cold of the Northern Hemisphere...

But no matter how much the devil, to which we so aspired to visit, did not delay the moment of meeting, it seems to be coming ... The last rise remained ...

Finally, we crossed the last ridge, and in the gaps between the forest of stunted larches, the brilliant expanse of the lake appeared. Is the ice so clean? Or... open water?! Surprisingly, in the strongest frost, the lake was not frozen! It seems incredible, you want to touch the water to make sure it is real, but you still have to slowly go down to the lake along frozen moss for about an hour. Near the last doubts disappear, the giant bowl of the reservoir to the horizon is really not covered with ice, but due to the complete absence of wind, it seems frozen, as if the lake was covered clear glass. A large lake, almost a sea, and - no wind or at least a small swell? I'm trying to film a fantastic picture, but the video camera is jammed due to frost.

An immovable (but not frozen!) liquid seems like heavy mercury, and in order to destroy the illusion, I throw a stick at Labynkyr; no, it turns out, ordinary water, from a stick in all directions, circles diverge in the water. But the feeling of some kind of unreality, almost theatricality of this "Lost World" continues to alarm. The hunting husky accompanying us bristled and with a loud bark rushed first to Labynkyr, then, not reaching the water's edge - as if something had frightened her there - turned back with a squeal. We don't know what so frightened the husky, which, before fearlessly rushed at the bears, but the joyful delight from contemplating the lake is replaced by a feeling of invisible danger. Looking around, we move away from large stones and cliffs, behind which anyone can hide, to a flat, well-visible beach. Here, the grinning and growling dog, in company with us, nevertheless came closer to the shore, but ... two meters from the calm surface of the water, it again stood up tightly. She was frightened either by the water itself, or by something in the water. At that moment, I did not yet know that these two meters and several hours of life just separated her from death ...

This is how we saw the most mysterious lake in Russia from the next hill, after a week and a half of the journey along the Kolyma tract! We stopped, amazed by this spectacle and could not even utter a word from fatigue ... In a frost of about -50C, the lake was not frozen. But it should be colder on the lake than at the Pole of Cold! The water in the lake has an extraordinary taste. It is drinkable and cold, I can’t say anything more about it. From the cold, the taste is not felt at all. If you scoop up water in a mug from the lake, then during the time you bring it to your lips, the water in the mug freezes. But in the lake for some reason - no!

The short day was rapidly winding down. I had to take care of the fire and food, think about rest and overnight accommodation, but at the same time I just wanted to sit on an unassembled backpack and just relax, enjoying the scenery of a mysterious place. The quiet expanse of water suddenly foamed, a lone wave ran across the flat surface. I grabbed a photogun and held it at the ready until my hands froze (later I discovered that I burned my wrists from contact with a cold belt from a photogun) ... But no matter how much I peered into the gathering twilight, I did not see the cause of the wave . But the landscape (and before that quite illusory), as if by magic, began to gradually change, the water of the lake gradually began to shiver finely and seemed to boil, moreover, the nearest fields and hills also “boiled”. Everything around began to blur, before our eyes the entire "Lost World" seemed to disappear like a boring hallucination. In order not to go crazy, the brains frantically tried to find a rational explanation for what was happening around. Experience suggested that this was just a strong thermal mirage, which had already been observed over a hot desert, but reason drove this comparison out of my head, reminding us that we were not in the desert at all, and there was no heat around, but a terrible cold.

We hoped that when we got to the lake in the WINTER, we would easily find scours in the ice (after all, a predator, if it breathes air, needs to float up and keep the hole in good condition, as seals do). And near the hole we will watch for him. But there was no ice on the lake... I had to watch from the boat and from the shore. With such a frost - a very thankless task!

He took out a thermometer, but, not knowing the temperature, put the useless thing with frozen mercury inside back. And what's the difference: -40 or -50 degrees?! We are at the Pole of Cold, and even in winter! A person who is tormented by thirst sees water, and those who freeze before death begin to think that they are warming themselves. These thoughts made me feel uneasy... It took several terrible minutes before, fascinated by a strange picture, I did not understand that the reason was not at all in tired eyes or clouded mind, but really in a thermal mirage. Only here, unlike hot places, the haze of a mirage was created not by hot air rising from the heated soil, but by cold, almost cosmic frost descending from somewhere above. The cold stream literally pressed down to the frozen ground, made me feel like a laboratory frog thrown into a thermostat with liquid nitrogen for the sake of experiment.

But Lake Labynkyr is not some Loch Ness with a relatively normal climate. Labynkyr is a harsh region even by Yakut standards. This is the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, the Pole of Cold!

A picture of a frog instantly glazing and crumbling into small fragments immediately surfaced in my memory, I shuddered, and on stiff, glassy legs from the cold, I crawled into the tent. Further observation of the lake, and just being on open space became deadly. The only protection - a canvas tent - gave a chance to live until the morning, and then only if the stove-potbelly stove did not go out inside it ... The half-decayed tarpaulin of the tent and the rusted walls of the potbelly stove - for a long night became the only barrier between us and permeated with cold darkness space.

The night has come. In a tent on the shore, we imprudently fell asleep almost instantly. Although, it would seem, they just believed that this terrible place was called the "den of the devil" not in vain. Although I don’t believe in devils, you never know why these places use bad lava ...

Never set up a tent so close to this lake! .. Next time I would advise you to get away from the dangerous water for the night ...

Acquaintance with the lake

Lake Labynkyr (Labyngkyr) is the most famous and legendary Russian body of water, located in the Oymyakonsky district in the east of Yakutia. Here, according to numerous observations, including those made from a helicopter, the "devil" lives - a huge animal, possibly of relic origin. The reservoir was formed on the site of the central moraine amphitheater on the Sordonokhi plateau upstream Indigirka as a result of springing of the river by the terminal moraine. The lake is located at an altitude of 1020 m above sea level, stretched from north to south for 14.3 km, the width of a rectangular reservoir is almost the same everywhere - about 4 km, the maximum width is 4.14 km, the depth is up to 52.6 m, water transparency - up to 10 m (in the northern part). Water temperature even in the hottest summer days does not exceed +9oC, bottom temperature - from +1.3 to +2oC. The shores of the northern part of the lake are boulder-pebbly, the central part is rocky, and the southern part is gently sloping, composed of large-block colluvial material.

The Labynkyr River (a tributary of the Tuora-Yuryakh and Indigirka) flows into the lake and flows out through an ice non-melting dam. There are 3 islands on the lake, one of them, about 30 m in diameter, 5-6 m high, located exactly in the center of the lake, according to the stories of local residents, has a strange property to disappear under water from time to time (however, this is most likely an optical illusion, because The water level in the lake is practically unchanged). Or is it a consequence of an optical illusion in a cold mirage?

Unlike other similar Scottish, Irish and other lakes inhabited by large monsters, Labynkyr is covered with ice for part of the year. However, as our expedition found out, it freezes much later than the rest of the Yakut lakes - when trucks are already freely passing through Myamichi, even a weak crust of ice near the shore has not yet had time to appear on Labynkyr.

But when the lake does freeze over, how will the supposed large animal (if it lives in the lake) breathe through the ice? Local residents - about half of them - say that in winter there are several large polynyas (called "damn windows") on the surface of the ice, next to them are traces of some large animals. The other half object that they didn't see holes in the ice. “But in general, the lake is also large,” they add, and confirm that, unlike other lakes, walking and driving around Labynkyr is extremely dangerous - there are places where the ice is barely thin, it will burst at any moment even in 60-degree frosts.

The lake area is rarely visited by people, the nearest villages - Kuidusun and Tomtor - are 105 km to the north. Residents of other towns and villages of Yakutia-Sakha and the neighboring Magadan region, although they have chosen the nearby lakes Alysardakh, Myamichi and smaller reservoirs for fishing (some are only 5-6 km from Labynkyr), they do not drive up to the "devil's lair". Not because of fear of evil spirits, but rather because of the fear of ruining relations with the locals. For the locals, Labynkyr, although less fishy and more remote than Myamichi, is a place, but the attitude to the sacred lake is more than touching. "The devil is not there, these are all legends, but the lake is unusual, maybe even sacred!" - say both the Yakuts from Tomtor and the Russians from Kuidusun.

First evidence

We were looking for eyewitnesses who saw the "devil" in person for a very long time. In Tomtor and Kuidusun, the locals, of course, were not up to us. What the hell?! When the hell is going on here in the country!.. Maybe it's by chance, but all the old people who know the history of the "Labynkyr devil" by 1999 had departed to another world. The oldest old man today, 80 years old, at a meeting with us only complained: "Recently my neighbor died, he is 20 years older, so he personally saw! The devil knows what the hell is there!"

Yakut grandfather Dima, lighting his cigarette, just waved his hand: "No one is there!" And was it? "Maybe it was, but what is now ... ecology!" So why don't you believe your ancestors? In response to us silence ...

However, some old-timers of Tomtor believe that the animal ("devil") has been living in the lake since time immemorial and behaves extremely aggressively. Once, for example, it was chasing a Yakut fisherman, another time it swallowed a game dog swimming after a shot down game ... The driver Sergey TRUNOV told us that an unknown and elusive "devil" dragged someone's child into the water ...

Rumors and legends about the "Yakut devil" living in the cold lake Labynkyr go back centuries... Old-timers of Tomtor believe that the animal they call "devil" lives in the lake from time immemorial and behaves extremely aggressively

But most often the object of hunting was called deer. An amazing incident occurred when a local reindeer herder decided to tie reindeer team to some kind of tusk sticking out of thin ice, and while making a fire on the shore, I heard a crack - the tusk swayed, the ice fell apart, and something huge carried the deer into the abyss. Fans of the Scottish Nessie never dreamed of such a thing ...

The descriptions of the "devil" are similar, describing the creature as "huge, dark gray in color, with a head so large that the distance between its eyes is less than the traditional local rafts of 10 logs." For Resident middle lane In Russia, this definition, with an average tree diameter of 30-40 cm, approximately corresponds to 3-4 meters in width. Too much! However, as we have seen for ourselves, the local larches are much more modest, 10 mature trunks put together will hardly be 1.2-1.5 m. There are practically no logs of a larger diameter among the local stunted forest (this was first noticed only in 1999).

However, the data on the monstrous size can be considered partially confirmed: the local collective farmer Pyotr VINOKUROV on the northern bank accidentally picked up the jaw of an animal with teeth, the bone was so huge that "if you put it vertically, then a rider would freely pass under it" ... What are the real It is difficult for us to tell the size of the bone; in 1999, they could not find this strangely missing jaw in our presence. She disappeared - as did Vinokurov, who found her.

In Lake Vorota, adjacent to Labynkyr (the depth is the same, 60 m, but smaller in size), the appearance of a giant animal was also repeatedly observed. Among the most authoritative eyewitnesses, one can name the head of the geological party of the East Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. Tverdokhlebov and the geologist B. Bashkatov, who in their diaries on July 30, 1953, while observing from the Sordonnokh plateau, left the following entry: "... The object was floating, and quite close. It was something alive, some kind of animal. It moved in an arc: first along the lake, then straight towards us. As it approached, a strange numbness, from which it turned cold inside, seized me. Above the water, a little - a dark gray carcass slightly towered... 2 symmetrical bright spots, similar to the eyes of an animal, were clearly distinguished, and something like a stick was sticking out of the body... We saw only a small part of the animal, but a huge massive body was guessed under the water.. The monster moves: with a heavy throw, having risen somewhat from the water, it rushed forward, and then completely sank into the water. At the same time, waves were born from its head, born under water. - a hunch flashed ... There was no doubt: we saw the "line" - the legendary monster of these places.

Damn Witnesses

For the first time, a conversation about "northern monsters" was raised by the newspaper "Youth of Yakutia" on December 14, 1958. Two years later, in 1961, the diaries of Viktor Ivanovich TVERDOKHLEBOV, head of the geological party of the East Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, were published, which also provided facts confirming the existence of a large unknown animal in Yakutia.

V. Tverdokhlebov's stories and press appearances served as the main reason for organizing several expeditions to the Gates and Labynkyr at once. In 1961, "Around the World" finally published a story about the lake, which caused the greatest number of responses.

In May 1960, 10th grade students spent about a month on the shore of a picturesque lake.

In the summer of 1963, 18 people, led by B. Bashkatov and other representatives of the Academy of Sciences, arrived on the shore, where they searched for quite a long time.

In 1969, there was a last attempt to find the "line", however, and it did not end with the capture of the relic.

In the 1970s, as far as it is clear from the inscriptions I found on the banks of the Labynkyr, students from Siberia and Rostov-on-Don visited there, who did not set themselves the goal of searching for animals ...

However, as expected, the "northern Nessie" (as the "line" was baptized) so none of them managed to observe or find any traces of the giant.

Legitimate Doubts

In July-August 1962, ichthyologists expressed their doubts about the traditional theory of the existence of a waterfowl lizard and considered that the observed "monster is just the refraction of light in water."

Among the critics of the theory of the "Northern Nessie" one can also mention the researcher of the Institute of Permafrost A.N. Tolstov, who claimed that in fact eyewitnesses observed a catfish about 5 m in size, weighing up to 300 kg (this version turned out to be unviable - there were no catfish in Labynkyr at all ) and A. Pankov, who wrote that an old hundred-year-old pike could easily pass for a "monster" (which is only theoretically possible, because science knows nothing about such giant local pikes for sure).

However, local residents, in particular Nikolai from the Oymyakon airport, told me how a huge pike covered with moss was caught from Labynkyr. Our survey on the fishing theme and the "rating" compiled on its basis showed that over the past 15-20 years, fish of a maximum of 50-60 kg have been taken out of the lake. Vladimir Alexandrovich VORONOV spoke with passion about the capture of a 4-meter burbot. How much truth is here, and how much "fishing truth" - I can't judge, I myself saw "only" 1.5-meter local burbots.

So, the largest fish of the lake is burbot ("master"), besides it, at least 20 species of fish live in Labynkyr (pike, marsh, grayling, lenok, alimba, whitefish, whitefish, char, Dolly Varden...). So there is more than enough food for a potential giant animal in the lake.

Quiet period

After the initial surge of interest in Labynkyr, a long period followed, during which no scientist set foot on its shores for about thirty years. The only permanent resident for a long time was a certain Alyams - a very colorful personality, a local blissful, half-crazy exiled Trotskyist, who had served his term and did not want to return "to the mainland." He did not have to travel far from places not so remote - until the 1950s, the lake area was part of the territory of the GULAG Dalstroy (there were no camps built on the lake itself), and only then Magadan transferred the area to Yakutsk. Probably, only such a Gulag man, worn out by life, could survive in the neighborhood with the "devil". Alyams caught fish, exchanged it with rare helicopter pilots for food and vodka, and then, drunk, he told stories that even experienced Siberians would drop their jaws. It turns out that the "devil" devoured tribute from the local hermit almost every full moon. However, Alyams knew how to capture the attention of listeners, and his stories invariably ended with the invariable asking for tribute - but from his guests ...

The only time Alyams was taken away from the lake was in 1993, when he became seriously ill and was taken to the hospital by visiting fishermen. Having come to his senses, Alyams shouted that it was impossible to take him away from Labynkyr, that now he would "surely die." He died as soon as he was returned to the shore after urgent requests ... (To be fair, it should be noted that the life story of the now legendary Alyams in the stories of different residents of Tomtor varies greatly; what eyewitnesses confidently told Kosmopoisk in 1999 , in 2005 they already had doubts, and in 2009 it was perceived as an ancient fairy tale.)

The second unspoken "owner of Labynkyr" for some time was Joseph DOBRYKIN, a person even more mysterious. Russian, who called himself "the Yakut prince". The Yakuts obeyed the impostor, and his management system (he personally decided who, when and how much to fish on Labynkyr) humbly accepted ... Where Dobrykin disappeared, now no one can say ...

In 1991, according to rumors, an expedition from the Estonian SSR was working on the lake, however, due to the collapse of the USSR, its results were not published in Russia. The Estonians allegedly found a crack about 100 meters deep with an echo sounder, and for about a week they observed the movement of some large object near the crack and inside it. However, how these rumors correspond to reality is unknown, most likely, they were invented from beginning to end ...

In the late 1990s, another owner repeatedly visited the lake - the then head of the entire republic, Mikhail Efimovich NIKOLAEV (led Yakutia until the end of 2001). However, fishing, and even more so fishing for the “devil”, was of little interest to him, and, in his opinion, “Labynkyr deserves to be considered the best resort lake in Yakutia” ... It is not known how much the current head of Yakutia favors the lake .. .

sounding the lake

From October 15 to November 3, 1999, the Kosmopoisk expedition (V. Chernobrov, A. Pavlov) passed on Labynkyr - for the first time in recent years thirty and for the first time in winter. In fact, that winter, the search for giant animals was carried out in several lakes at once: Dead, Labynkyr, Krasnoye (Magadan Region and Yakutia-Sakha), as well as in the lakes of the European part of Russia. The purpose of the expedition: the study and echolocation of lakes, the search for signs of the appearance of relict and other giant animals in them.

The cold season (near the cold pole) was not chosen by chance. Firstly, in our opinion, the places of periodic appearances of a large animal are easier to notice by large scours in the ice (it simply has to take care of the scours so as not to die from suffocation under the ice). Secondly, no one has yet tried to reach the lake for scientific purposes in winter. Since they could not spot the monster on cameras in the summer (this is not surprising, given the huge size of the reservoir), then we would have a chance to do this by setting up an ambush near the ice hole. Moreover, we would have known in advance about the approach of the animal to the hole - with the help of an echo sounder. No one tried to detect the monster on Labynkyr with an echo sounder before us - just 30 years ago there was no such possibility. So we were going to use both winter search and echolocation on Labynkyr for the first time.

In general, having consulted in Moscow with experienced people who lived in Yakutia, we found out that all Yakut lakes are ice-bound in September and early October. Already in mid-October, a car can drive through the lakes, and, therefore, all kinds of research can begin. Later in time, going to Yakutia was dangerous for people, and for instruments, and for transport equipment - at the end of October, severe frosts already begin. So we went exactly at the end of October-November.

Unfortunately, the reality turned out to be more complicated. All the lakes really stood up, but... not Labynkyr and Gates. This paradox, later told by us in Moscow, greatly surprised all experienced taiga residents (if it were not for the photographs taken by us, they would not have believed it), and, probably, it can only be attributed to the amazing microclimate reigning around or inside these two lakes. One way or another, but our plans had to be changed right on the spot. Instead of echolocation through the holes, we had to pick up a boat lying on the shore and locate from it.

Labynkyr was sounded using the Apiko-Fish X-48 echo sounder (radiator with a power of 600 W and a frequency of 192 kHz). With its help, at a depth of 39 m, 1 inclined underground passage and 2 presumably vertical passages were discovered (at least 1 of them connects the lake with one of the neighboring reservoirs, possibly from Lake Vorota). Not a single fish was found in the water near the passages (the entire water column within a radius of hundreds of meters is lifeless!). Is this really the "house" of that same "devil". There was no doubt that quite large animals could fit and move in these underground passages, but there was “that someone” there - the echo sounder was hindered by reflections from the walls. In the future, it will be necessary to lower the TV camera into the "devil's house" ...

Scanning of unfrozen (!) Lake Labynkyr with an echo sounder. On the echo sounder screen, all underwater targets, including very large ones, were perfectly visible. We also found underground voids (caves) at a depth of 40 m, near the entrances to which, by the way, there was no fish at all. In other places of the lake there were a lot of fish ...

Some foreign formations were also recorded at the bottom (probably, as the locals later confirmed, these were cars and a trailer with logs that had gone under the ice a few years ago).

Not far from the underwater grottoes on the shore, incomprehensible traces were discovered. Strange traces, there are practically no dents on the pebbles, first of all I paid attention to ice growths - stalagmites - traces of water flowing down from the body that crawled ashore. Judging by the width of the strip of stalagmites, we can conclude that the width (thickness) of the alleged body (animal), from which water flowed, is about 1-1.5 m. So, something (or rather someone) crawled ashore from water and, .. crawled back. Judging by the size of the stalagmites, it was on the shore for at least a minute (I confirm this after purely experimentally trying to get the same stalagmites from the water on the stones in such a frost).

It was next to these footprints that on the night of October 26/27, our dog Laika disappeared without a trace. She, as always, voluntarily lay down to guard the boat on the shore and disappeared the next morning. There were no dog tracks leading away from the boat or any other footprints near the scene (apart from the described stalagmites). The husky could only move away without a trace in the direction of the water, but the fact of the matter is that the day before she was terribly afraid to approach the water. As we did not lure her, hungry, with lard the day before, but she did not come closer than 1.5 m to the calm surface of the water without waves, despite the fact that already 2-3 m from the water she calmly pounced on lard. Something on the eve frightened her greatly, and she could not overcome her fear (and this, I remind you, is a husky, unable to be afraid of a bear!). Why did she go to the water now? Or was she dragged into the water? And dragged away by the one who crawled ashore? Why didn't anyone hear anything?

But on the next night, around 6-7 am on October 28, someone's loud "satanic" and clearly not human laughter was clearly heard several times around our tent. Inspection of the area did not give anything (at the time of inspection, laughter continued several more times) - there was not a single animal nearby, there were also no traces of them. Either the laughing animal was small (but capable of making loud sounds), or it emerged from the water (our tent was 3-4 meters from the water, the source of laughter was heard in the direction of the water or on the very shore) ... Later I consulted with the hunters, none of them could say - who could make such a sound. The only exception is that partridges can imitate wild laughter, but they do it only in spring, and in autumn and winter partridges are silent ... So I had only to thank the hunters, without satisfying my curiosity ...

No radioactive or other anomalies were found near the lake (the background is within the normal range)... Only weak signs of a chronoanomaly were found, however, the low temperature did not allow for better studies... In addition, in the end, I took samples of water and soil at the bottom of the lake , which upon arrival he gave back for research to ichthyologists and other specialists from Moscow and St. Petersburg ... Noticeable deviations from the norm and, most importantly, traces (pieces of scales, skin) of an unknown large animal have not yet been found in the samples.

Return "from hell"

The temperature dropped lower and lower every night, according to all signs, a clear calm would inevitably lead to record frosts in a few days. It was time to leave the "Lost World", the stay in which fascinated and made you forget about the rest of the world...

Overcoming the distance of 105 km to the nearest village through the taiga and frozen swamps is no longer an easy task, especially since we had to go without food, the limited supplies of which we had already come to an end. There was only one chance to reduce this distance - for this it was possible to risk going not to the village, but to neighboring lakes, where, according to rumors, visiting crews from Mamakan were finishing the fishing season at that time. But if the Mamakans cannot be caught in place, the path to salvation will be even longer and more elusive. And yet, getting up early and hastily getting ready, we lightly took the direction to the lakes. To risk so risk, a canvas tent with a stove - the only salvation in the cold - was left on the shore, hoping to find the fishermen until the evening. We left Labynkyr on foot without a tent, without food (a small supply ran out), without a hunting dog (our husky disappeared somewhere in the abyss of the lake), and, as it turned out in half a day, with almost no chance to get out of the "Lost World".

But, having reached the lakes, we experienced another blow of fate (or simply understood the price of our adventure, call it what you want) - before our eyes, all three Urals with fishermen left towards "civilization". Ten minutes earlier, and we would have gone home in the warmth! Now we are left in the snowy frozen desert without a warm tent and without a chance for a warm overnight stay; to spend the night in the open air at the Pole of Cold was like death, and in order not to freeze, it was necessary to move ... We followed the tracks of trucks all day, then night. It was possible to warm up only on the go, but everything turned out that it would be difficult to overcome several days of travel to the village without stops and rest ... And here it is, a miracle! One of the "Urals" returned for the things lost by the fishermen! You should have seen the eyes of the driver, who did not believe that someone was risking walking in these places on foot. However, in half an hour we were already sleeping in a warm kung near the stove, and the fishermen no longer heard the heated discussion of our fate ...

In Tomtor, I left the hospitable fishermen, who turned east along the Kolyma tract, towards Magadan, while I had to go west, towards Yakutsk. One of the reasons is more than banal: I already didn’t have enough money for a Magadan-Moscow ticket, there was a hope that I would have enough for Yakutsk-Moscow (later it turned out that I only had enough for Yakutsk-Omsk, but also for that Thank you).

The road went through Susuman... On the 7th day of the journey, I found out that there was the same gold mine nearby, where S.P. Korolev once worked. How could you not go?! I found 3 former (?) convicts and one strange type at work. They met me unkindly (whom did the hard one bring there?), but soon they kinder and even let me into the holy of holies ...

After the check, the heart of the former (?) convicts thawed, they treated me to a simple meal (herring with bread). Of course, to be at the Magadan mine and not wash the gold ... It was hard to resist this. Let's say right away - work in the cold at -40 is very ungrateful, the efficiency is about zero!

In Tomtor, I spent the night at a local gas station and waited all day waiting for at least some transport to the west. Then all night and for a couple of days I drove along the highway in the only passing Ural. We spent the night with the driver in the village hospital, which became a shelter for another truck driver, as well as for a woman whose brim was torn off by a bear with a paw, and several unlucky hunters who shot the bear, after which the dead bear got up and ... although he did not even have time to touch his offenders, but from the fear they experienced, they almost managed to break their minds. The evening of hunting stories ended with the fact that the victims of the bear terror unanimously recognized me as the craziest with the whole idea to get along the highway and to the lake by hitchhiking and on foot. However, their correctness was confirmed by the next and last overnight stay on the way to Yakutsk.

My "Ural" turned aside a few kilometers before the next village, and I decided not to go to "civilization", where I would have to wake up in the middle of the night strangers asking for an overnight stay, and until the morning to pass the time by the fire in the forest. Before collecting firewood, I realized that I was far from alone in the forest, a pack of wolves had gathered around quietly and imperceptibly from the darkness. First of all, he loaded his signal pistol with the last remaining cartridge, but there was little hope for him, as it turned out by itself that the fire became the only chance to survive until morning. But he just didn’t want to flare up in any way, all the sticks and branches in the forest were wet and frozen, probably before the first frosts in this area there were endless rains. Matches and supplies of newspapers for kindling quickly disappeared, and when the last match remained, on which it now depended whether wolf pack dinner for the night, I had to tear off the straps and other unnecessary parts from the pea jacket and set them on fire ...

On the last night on the Kolyma tract, as always, I had to spend the night in the forest, but this time the wolves came to visit, they lay down in a circle around me and patiently waited - whether I would light a fire in such a frost or not ... Polite wolves speak English in the morning ( or in Yakut?) left without saying goodbye ...

Finally, the fire started, I put a supply of wet sticks next to the fire to dry, and the silent wolves lay down within a radius of a dozen steps from the fire, clearly marking the boundaries of what is acceptable for me. However, there was enough firewood and branches even two or three steps from the fire, I just had to make sure that the food for the fire did not run out ... At first it was not difficult, I calmly dozed for a quarter of an hour, then I got up, collected damp branches, I threw dried firewood into the fire, forcing the spectators gathered around to squint sleepily, after which, with a clear conscience, I again sat down to warm up and take a nap by the fire. But the morning was still far away, the calm behavior of the wolves lulled to sleep under the crackle of the fire, the mobilizing excitement was replaced by a mood of tired indifference, and the breaks around the fire became longer and longer, until, finally, the fire did not go out completely ... At this moment, fortunately, The phone rang like a loud alarm. Waking up, he took the black ebonite pipe with an unbending hand. Vasily Dmitrievich Zakharchenko, the editor of the Miracles and Adventures magazine, called from Moscow, who inquired about our affairs, I briefly told him about what he had seen on the lake, then Zakharchenko said in a calm voice that he had died, and I, in a sleepy voice, expressed my condolences to him, well and at the end of the conversation, the caller said that my fire had already gone out and advised me to quickly inflate it, since the wolves woke up again. Once again, thanking for the conversation, I hung the cold receiver on the apparatus, standing on a stump, chilly stretched from the cold, and ... finally woke up. Which telephone?! I was looking at the stump on which an old black rotary dial telephone stood a second ago, and it seemed incredible to me not even where it came from at all here in the taiga, but where it disappeared, having evaporated literally before our eyes. However, everything else did not disappear, including the wolves with sparkling eyes, and the extinct coals of the fire. The next five minutes were spent trying to breathe life into the coals and calm the pack. Finally, the fire started up with the same force, and under its lulling crackle, the predatory glitter of the eyes began to fade, then disappeared altogether, the wolves closed their eyes again sweetly ... But now I couldn’t sleep until morning. With the dawn, the flock went about their business, after a couple of hours I also moved away from the saving fire to the road ...

National features of hunting for the trait

How remote are the places in question from civilization? And accordingly - is there a chance for the Labynkyr monster to continue to use its loneliness?

A few words of statistics for a better idea. In total, during the Kosmopoisk expedition, about 18200 km were covered (including about 13500 km by planes, 1540 km by cars along the Kolyma tract and 260 km by other roads, 2800 km by train and 100 km on foot through the taiga at t = -50 .. .-20°C frost). When moving, 19 types of transport were used (including 4 aircraft - Il-62 Moscow-Magadan, L-410 Khandyga-Magan and Tu-154 Yakutsk-Irkutsk-Omsk, cars, snowmobile, boat, train).

During the journey, 37 people helped the members of the expedition with transport and accommodation for the night (including 1 civilian and 1 police chief, or = 5% of the total number of those who helped, 5 policemen = 14%, 8 drunks = 22%); a 11 people interfered (including 2 civilians and 1 police chief = 27%, 1 policeman = 9%, 6 drunks = 55%!).

Thus, having calculated the percentages of both, we once more we conclude that:
1) Drunk people are a big hindrance to expeditions (and not only to them);
2) Bosses are people too, however, more often they are people who do not keep their promises;
3) Policemen should not be afraid, especially when they are far from their superiors;
4) Our people, for the most part, are good, especially when they are sober, far from the authorities and the police, but close to nature;
5) The ratio of 37/11 speaks for itself, we have about 3.6 times more good people than bad ones. This is in general, but among drunks, the ratio of 8/37 and 6/11 suggests that 29% of drunks will most likely help you, but 71% will only harm you in the end, even if they are guided only by good wishes. Although these calculations relate to the Russian population of the Far North, it is likely that in the rest of Russia the ratios are approximately the same ...

Labynkyr "devil" in the 21st century

In the summer of 2000 and in the summer of 2005, groups of journalists went to the lake twice (first - writing journalists, then - the film crew of the "Searchers" program); in both cases, they agreed to go together, but the journalists limited themselves to inquiring about the location of the Labynkyr anomalies. So in the photo and video frames, the journalists re-discovered (moreover, twice) the underground passages (marked with a cross on the map by Kosmopoisk in 1999). The journalists continued to survey the population in the district, which, judging by the voiced interviews, was not easy to do (local residents, under such pressure from the cameras, began to have some doubts whether it was worth revealing "fish places" to the general public) ...

At the beginning of the 21st century, a scientific exploratory expedition to these places, capable of answering basic questions, has not yet taken place ... The Labynkyr "devil", whether it exists or not, still enjoys solitude for sure and certainly does not suffer from excessive attention to itself.

Hypotheses of the origin of lake monsters

At present, there is neither clear evidence of the existence of a relic animal in the lake, nor well-reasoned arguments against it. Less well-known in the press observations of the "line" took place in several other neighboring lakes, therefore, after an expedition to Lake Labynkyr and the discovery of underground passages in it connecting these reservoirs, we can conclude that the "Labynkyr question" is to be resolved (to catch the devil or confirm - only a large-scale complex expedition can refute the very fact of its existence. Possibly, in the following years, such an expedition will be organized by Cosmopoisk, if only by that time, at last, there will be an underwater robot with remote control. Only such a person will be able to fearlessly rush into the underground "damn holes"... The question of what actually lives in the Yakut reservoirs remains open.

The result of incessant falsifications. Unfortunately, the study of lakes and the search for monsters in Western Europe and America has long turned from a scientific problem into a purely commercial activity; in fact, around Loch Ness and the name of Nessie there is a whole extensive infrastructure of the tourist business, which is absolutely not interested in the final resolution of the mysterious phenomena. Every year half a million tourists visit this area who want to personally try to see Nessie, of which 300 thousand visit the official museum of the Loch Ness monster in the village of Drumnadrochit. In just a year, the tourism business generates income of up to 25 million pounds sterling, turning the real "monsters" of the business into millionaires, and the owner of the museum, Ronnie BREMNER, simply into a multimillionaire. To create excitement around Loch Ness and the prosperity of their business, local bigwigs repeatedly resorted to outright forgery and falsification of photographic images, which, of course, does not increase confidence in eyewitness accounts and other information (for example, for 60 years it was considered genuine made by surgeon Robert WILPSON April 14, 1934 photograph of a large monster, until the author himself confessed to forgery before his death). Even the term "Loch Ness Monster" was coined by local newspaper editor Evan Barron. The premiere in London at the beginning of 1996 of the feature film "Loch Ness" also pursued the goal of increasing the hype interest... But this is in Europe, but who would need to arrange expensive falsifications in the African wilds and Siberian thickets? ..

seismic processes. This hypothesis was put forward after studying the seismic conditions at Loch Ness by the Italian geologist Luigi PICCARDI. The appearance in the water and above the water surface of "strange moving bodies and unusual waves" he attributes to "certain seismic processes and their consequences." ["NiZh" 2001, No. 9, p.59]. Indeed, single waves in water and air bubbles can be explained by microshakes and bottom shifts, but how to explain all the other observed effects?..

Water mammoths. Scientists attribute the mammoth to extinct animals 4-15 thousand years ago. Due to the sharp climate change in Siberia and Canada, large northern herbivorous mammals - mammoth, woolly rhinoceros - have lost their usual food and seem to have died out. But why didn't these changes affect the musk ox that is still living... Foreigners who visited Muscovy wrote about the existence of mammoths. The authors of these messages were: the geographer Qian in 188-155. BC, Yermak's companions, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Kolyma Khanty, the Ob Ugrians, the Siberian Tatars, the modern cryptozoologist M. Bykova, pilots of northern aviation and many others wrote about their own or others' encounters with living mammoths ... In the descriptions of eyewitnesses, often a similar description slips through - the lake monsters have a long flexible neck, and behind it a body towering above the water. But maybe it was a highly raised trunk and the head of a mammoth? .. It is known, for example, that during crossings across African rivers, elephants lift their trunks high, and for an uninitiated person, the picture of a stirring trunk sticking out of the water can have a stunning effect ["TM" 2000, No. 3, p.34]. Everything is wonderful in this hypothesis - except that it does not explain the appearance of Nessie in Europe and other parts of the world ...

Miraculously surviving plesiosaurs. There is simply no other opinion among those who firmly believe in living Nessie. From time to time, in the wild corners of the planet, animals are found that are considered long-extinct, so it is reasonable to assume that several ancient lizards may well be preserved in a single reservoir. Currently, 13-14 million species of fauna live on the planet, and only 14 percent of them (1.75 million species) have been studied. Could lizards survive to this day? Recall that in the 19th century they managed to catch a lobe-finned fish, which was considered extinct 300 million years ago. Dinosaurs were thought to have died out much later. But they need a "Lost World" to survive. But it is doubtful that such a "peace" would last for tens of millions of years in a tiny volume of water with all the numerous climate changes. By the way, climate change can play in favor of the version with plesiosaurs - it’s just that the lizards were frozen in the ice all the previous time and came to life and warmed up only during the last retreat of the ice ... And, nevertheless, it would be incredible to assume that such isolated there were several dozen colonies (and there are exactly so many lakes "with monsters" in the world). So, there is some other (external?) reason for the appearance of monsters in lakes around the world ...

Survivors thanks to the anomalous longevity of the lizards. This opinion was expressed by the researcher of the problems of immortality Vasily Feofilipovich KUPREVICH [Kononov Yu.V. Kononova Z.N. "Key to the secrets of life" / Kyiv, 1996, p.251]. How and in what way animals have learned not to die - this is exactly what the monsters have to find out, for this it is necessary, Kuprevich believed, it is necessary to catch the monsters ...

Alien messengers. Indeed, over many famous lakes, entire squadrons of UFOs were seen at different times. The most famous in 1971 were the repeated observations of unidentified objects in the form of an "iron" over Loch Ness. It is difficult for us humans to imagine huge lizards in the role of starship pilots; but it may well turn out that lizards have absolutely nothing to do with UFOs. The aliens have no less than our right to be interested in the life of terrestrial relic animals... However, the proximity of monsters and UFOs may turn out to be generally random - if, for example, aliens are attracted only by faults in the crust, anomalous zones around these lakes...

The result of experiments. According to the contactee and researcher of AY Evgeny Levashov, these phenomena "may be an experiment or side results of the experiments of some External Forces ...

Animals appearing through anomalous "windows". There is almost no doubt that the areas of most of the described lakes are to some extent typical anomalous zones, where in addition to "Nessie" there are other anomalous phenomena and objects. In such places, the formation of chronoanomalies and the wormholes described by theorists in Space is quite possible. Perhaps the monsters actually live in the distant past, or in general in parallel worlds, and are transferred to us through space-time funnels-holes. It is easy to explain the elusiveness of the ancient lizards: today they are here, and tomorrow they are already there, "yesterday"... However, for the same reason, it is difficult to test this hypothesis...

Timelines. This is our last and perhaps the only version that allows us to explain both the extreme prevalence and elusiveness of Nessie. In fact, the monsters in the lakes are just mirages, images of long-extinct animals. Indeed, from time to time, images of long-past events are observed in the sky (mainly bloody battles and the "Flying Dutchmen"), the mechanism of the appearance and action of these images is still not clear. But this does not prohibit the appearance on the water of images of a more ancient origin (lizards of the Jurassic period). Note that both chronomirages and lake monsters are observed in the same countries, literally in the same provinces and districts: the chronomirages described by historians most of all occurred in England and Scotland, in Siberia and in the north North America. We superimpose the map of chronomirages on the map of "settlement of Nessie" and get... the same thing.

Monster Geography

Loch Ness (Loch Ness, Scotland, UK) is the world's most famous "monster haven". The area of the lake is 56 sq. km, length - 39 km, depth - up to 230 m. According to local authorities, since the construction of the road that runs along the shore of the lake since 1933, people have seen the "Loch Ness Monster" more than 4000 times (the first observation in XX century is considered a description of the owners of the hotel spouses McKay). In 1937, eyewitnesses observed the "baby Nessie" for the first time. There are hundreds of documented eyewitness accounts, dozens of photographs of varying degrees of reliability, underwater shooting and echo sounder recordings on which one, sometimes several, swimming lizards with long necks are viewed in whole or in part. Fixed and a large number of fakes. One of the most reliable images of the monster can be called a film made from the air in 1966 by British Air Force specialist Tim DINSDALE, which shows a huge animal swimming in the water. Numerous underwater expeditions have been and are being carried out using the most modern technology and trained dolphins in order to fix (and even capture) Nessie or her cub. In the summer of 1992, for the first time, the entire volume of the lake was combed by sonar, and researchers led by Dr. J. McAndrews were able to find at least 5 large living creatures in the water, which, in their opinion, are giant dinosaurs, somehow preserved to this day. The same opinion is shared by J. Buzer, who photographed Nessie with the help of laser equipment and claims that the underwater lizard he studied is "extremely smart." In 1969, they unsuccessfully tried to use the submarine "Peasies" with a sonar screen to search for monsters, then the submarine "Viperfish", since 1995 the small submarine "Time Machine" has been participating in the research. In February 1997, while patrolling the lake with the help of deep-sea sonars, as officially announced by the officer of the Scottish Coast Guard George EDWARDS, a crevice of considerable size was discovered at the bottom of the lake. The width of the discovered cave is about 9 meters, the maximum depth of the cave is 252 meters.

Lake Quoich (Scotland, UK) - is famous for its own, rather large lake monster.

Lake Lemond (Scotland, UK) - the habitat of an animal like two drops of water similar to Nessie.

Lake Loch Loki (Scotland, Great Britain) - here, according to old legends, lives a lizard-like monster, which has great fame and reverence among the locals.

Lake Moran (Scotland, UK) is practically a copy of the reservoirs described above with a "typical" history and legends about Nessie.

Shiel Lake (Scotland, UK) - and here, according to modern eyewitnesses, a large lake monster resembling an ancient plesiosaur still lives.

Lake Bray (Ireland) - according to legend, the habitat of an old and rather peaceful monster, outwardly similar to an ancient lizard.

Lake Bran (Ireland) - almost an exact copy of Bray.

Lake Glendlock (Ireland) - here eyewitnesses several times noticed the appearance of a large animal resembling a plesiosaur.

Lake Dub (Ireland) - the habitat of a large animal, supposedly similar to an extinct relic lizard.

Lake Cleve (Ireland) - almost an exact copy of Lake Dub.

Lake Lough Ree (Ireland) - the habitat of animals resembling relic lizards, which are referred to in the Irish press as "monsters Piast and Puka".

Lake Loch Max (Ireland) - "local Nessies" are also seen here.

Lake Poppy (Ireland) - here, according to ancient legends, there is a "spirit of the lake", which personifies an animal or animals of large size, with a long neck and a small head.

Lake Nakorra (Ireland) - here numerous eyewitnesses several times observed the appearance of a large animal resembling a plesiosaur.

Lake Neef (Ireland) - again a body of water with "typical" dinosaurs.

Lake Storshen or Stursjo (Sweden) - here, according to numerous eyewitness accounts, a huge monster lives. For the first time, it was widely talked about at the beginning of the 20th century, when a large unknown animal began to get ashore and chase people on the shore. After it tried to catch up with the two girls, the locals prepared a large noose trap on the shore, but the monster safely avoided falling into it. Then a harpooner was hired, who during the year of duty on the shore never saw an animal. However, it is known from local residents that the "Stursher monster" has not disappeared and has been appearing from under the water for many years. In the summer of 1998, after the "Swedish Nessie" was captured on film in June, an unsuccessful attempt was again made to catch or at least see the monster.

Lake Selyur (Norway) is the habitat of the legendary snake monster. Talks about it have been going on for several centuries. The first written evidence of a mysterious snake dates back to 1750, when Gunleik Andersson-Verpe from the neighboring town of Be was boating on the lake and was "attacked by a half-fish-half-horse". In 1880, Bjorn Btorge and his mother Ginhild were killed by a "strange lizard" while they were washing clothes on the banks of the Selyur. In the 20th century, eyewitnesses also described the snake in different ways: some speak of a black "log" with several humps on its back and an eel's head, others - of a snake-like monster with two horns, a snake with a horse's head, a crocodile. There are also amateur videos of the monster, on which some kind of humps (or wave crests) are really visible. According to many witnesses, the kite moves very fast. Some claim that it reaches a length of 25-30 meters. The latter seems completely unrealistic: the size of the lake is 14 x 2 km, the depth is 157 meters, and such a huge animal simply would not survive in these conditions. So they say that the length of the kite, if it exists, cannot exceed seven meters. In 1977, during an expedition organized by journalist Ian Sundberg, some large objects moving in one direction or in different directions were discovered with the help of sound-reflecting devices. At that time, the research had to be interrupted due to lack of funds. An international team of researchers hopes to find new scientific justification for the legend of this elusive creature.

Teriberka River (north of the Kola Peninsula, Russia) - here, in the lower reaches of the river, according to the beliefs of local residents and the stories of a few eyewitnesses, a strange monster lives. In 1994, hydrograph engineer Viktor PRIVALIKHIN from the city of Severomorsk supported this statement with film footage and his own drawings. In early November 1994, news came unexpectedly about the discovery of the body of a huge lizard. But instead of the expected "dinosaur" washed up by the sea on the shore of the Rybachy Peninsula, scientists discovered only the ate body of a giant sperm whale.

Bear Lakes (Russia) - a possible anomalous place, according to the testimony of many eyewitnesses, existing in the northeast of the Moscow region near the village of the same name. Local fishermen said that they saw a large animal with a huge mouth floating on the surface of the water. The animal allegedly came ashore, attacked cows and even people. Numerous eyewitness accounts have been described in several sensational newspaper articles [for example, in Trud]. However, our 73rd Cosmopoisk expedition, which explored the lakes far and wide, refuted the rumors. Most likely, there is no large animal (with the exception of large pikes) in the water.

Lake Heppo-Jarvi (Leningrad region) is a possible anomalous place where strange animals have been observed several times. According to Viktor Zozulin, a researcher at the Institute of Paleozoology, it can allegedly be concluded that a plesiosaur MAY live in the lake - a reptile of the Jurassic period, which was considered completely extinct ...

Lake Blyudechko (Leningrad region) is a small body of water 50 km south of Vyborg in the west of the Leningrad region, where, according to St. Petersburg cryptozoologist Valentin Borisovich SAPUNOV, local residents observed how a big head resembling the monster Nessie. With this appearance, the animal allegedly broke the nets ["ChiP" 2000, No. 10, p.22]. Sapunov himself did not appreciate the reliability of the information received from the fishermen. In March 2001, during the 93rd Cosmopoisk expedition, the researchers visited the lake and did not find any facts that speak in favor of the eyewitness account...

Lake Brosno (Tver region, Russia) is the place of residence of a strange lizard-like creature. Since 2002, the Cosmopoisk expedition has been working here.

Lake Kolodnoye (Vologda Oblast, Russia) is a notorious reservoir; fishermen and hunters disappear without a trace on it and in its vicinity. Few eyewitnesses saw a creature here, reminiscent of a thick black log. Since 2001, the Cosmopoisk expedition has been working here.

Lake Rdeiskoye (Novgorod region, Russia) - the place of residence of a strange "water crocodile". Since September 2001, the Cosmopoisk expedition has been working here.

Chernoye Lake (Republic of Komi, Russia) is a legendary reservoir about which many myths and legends are composed among local residents, many people, among whom there are high-ranking local officials, saw a creature similar to a crocodile on the lake in the 1940s and 50s.

Lake Komsomolskoye (Lviv region, Ukraine) is the place of appearance of a strange animal that sometimes crawls ashore. Its length is about 4 meters, and it moves in leaps and bounds. Scuba divers who arrived in search of a mysterious lizard combed the entire lake up and down, but found nothing.

Keeps up with Northwestern Europe and Asia. In addition to the already mentioned Russian lakes Labynkyr, Vorota, Krasnoe, Khaiyr (Pestsovoe), there are also a lot of other "dragon" reservoirs:

Lake Elgygytgyn ("Lake of non-melting ice", Chukotka, Russia) is a legendary, ideally round, non-melting reservoir, where, according to the legends of the Chukchi, the monster Kalilgu lives. The diameter of the lake is 18 km, the depth of the funnel in the center is 400 m. A group of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR under the leadership of Yevgeny Petrovich GUROV worked on the lake for 3 years in a row, then there was a journalist-geographer Nikolai Makarovich TARASOV, after them - a Soviet-Italian group led by the famous traveler Jacek PALKEVICH, which included the Soviet traveler from Magadan Mikhail Alexandrovich IVELS. None of the above expeditions managed to observe the local monster.

Dragonovo Lake (Tajikistan, South-East Pamir) is a reservoir located in the mountains at an altitude of 3,900 meters. According to the border guards, they repeatedly observed through binoculars how strange fish (or creatures?) 4-5 m long were frolicking in shallow water. From time to time, a rolling loud "sigh" is heard above the surface of the lake. All this gave rise to numerous rumors about a mysterious dragon living in the depths of a mountain reservoir.

Lake Kok-Kol (Dzhambul region, Kazakhstan) is a strange body of water, into which not a single river or stream flows into or out of it, nevertheless, the water in it is constantly clear and fresh, which leads hydrologists to think about the unknown existing here underwater cave systems. If you believe the ancient Turkestan legends, Kok-Kol is bottomless, and indeed, in some points of the lake, hydrological studies have not been able to find the bottom. The same legends claim that the "water spirit of Aidahara" lives in the depths of the lake, the appearance of which on the surface, allegedly, was observed more than once both in antiquity and in our century. Local shepherds have seen more than once how a huge animal dragged under water waterfowl and animals that came to drink. Kazakh local historian A. Pechersky confirmed the existence of some animal in the lake, once saw the moment of its ascent from the depths and described it as a giant snake more than 15 meters long and a meter wide with a head.

Lake Van (Turkey) - here in June 1997, one of the eyewitnesses was lucky enough to film a large 15-meter serpentine body floating near the shore on videotape. Biologists have not been able to identify the animal.

Lake Tianchi (Changbaishan, Eastern China) is a reservoir 370 m deep, about which, since the end of the 19th century, many legends have been composed about a monster allegedly living in it. Sometimes eyewitnesses observe the hefty head of the owner of the depths, comparing the beast either with a dinosaur or with a gigantic bull. Only in 1996 was it possible to see 4 monsters at once, the professional photographer Wang Ying even managed to film a 10-minute "demonstration performance" of these mysterious creatures on a video camera. Together with him, the swim of unknown animals was observed by more than two hundred tourists, who unanimously claimed afterwards that "they had never seen anything like this before."

Khanas Lake (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China) is a winding 25-kilometer body of water where, according to ancient legends and chronicles, animals live, "trying to carry away large animals, domestic animals that come to drink, and even people who take risks into their kingdom." swim in the water." The first modern mention of the mysterious lake inhabitants dates back to the summer of 1980, when ichthyologists of the Xinjiang region installed a net 100 m long and weighing about a ton, but soon a broken net was discovered a few kilometers from this place. Since the gaps reached sizes of several tens of meters, ichthyologists started talking about a "giant animal". On July 20, 1985, students of the geography and biology departments of Xinjiang University noticed several large brown animals that floated up and went back under the water. A constant observation was organized, and the next day the animals were photographed. The subsequent analysis of the images made it possible to assert that "animals with round heads" really live in Lake Khanas, the size of which is 7-10 m.

In America, "lake legends" mainly live in the north of North and in the south of South America:

Lake White (Chile) - the habitat of an animal nicknamed the "Monster of the White Lake".

Bays Lake in Ontario (Canada) - allegedly sheltered a whole colony of huge animals unknown to official science. For the first time, the "river monster" was seen on September 8, 1948 near Fairview Island (another name is "Island with a wonderful view"), eyewitnesses (members of the international Christian community vacationing here) described the animal as "large, blue-black in color, with two triangular growths on the back."

Lake of the Woods (Canada) - a body of water a few miles from Alexandria Bay on Lake St. Lawrence, where in 1929 eyewitnesses observed a 20-foot (7 m) dark green creature with a long (2-3 m) neck and a head with sharp, uneven teeth.

Lake Kouichai (Canada) - the habitat of an animal named Tsinkuau.

Lakes Manitoba and Winnipegosis (Canada) - water system north-northwest of the city of Winnipeg, where, in the 1950s, local fisherman Oscar Frederickson fished a skeleton out of the water and made a wooden copy of it, which were identified as "an 8-foot creature that died out many millions of years ago" (original skeleton, unfortunately, subsequently burned down in a fire along with the owner's house).

Lake Okanagan or Ogopogo (British Columbia, Canada) - the most famous American "lake with a monster", according to numerous eyewitnesses, a large prehistoric monster with a barrel-shaped dark body with fins, a long neck and a small head lives here. Since 1958, reports that an animal of a disgusting appearance appeared in front of people and even pursued them appeared every few months, however, since 1964, eyewitnesses have seen the “monster Ogopogo” almost daily. Okanagan received the unofficial status of "Canadian Loch Ness" and turned into a kind of Mecca for tourists. The surrounding area was declared a nature reserve, and any construction in this area is prohibited "so as not to frighten a possible rare animal."

Lake Poenigeymuk, False Lake (Quebec, Canada) - here, according to numerous eyewitness reports, a huge and "probably unknown to science animal" lives here. In 1958, the head of the Quebec fisheries department, Dr. Vadim VLADIKOV, after interviewing many residents of the large village of Saint-Elut, openly declared the presence in the lake of "an animal 12-18 feet (4-6 m) long, brown or black, with a round meter head and sawtooth fin on the back. Once a bullet fired from a .30 caliber gun failed to penetrate the rough skin of an animal and ricocheted upward.

Lake Sashuep (Canada) - the habitat of the legendary monster Ta-Zam-a.

Lake Sister (Canada) - sheltered, according to eyewitnesses, a large "lake monster" resembling a plesiosaur. In 1965, the mention of this animal in the press instantly made the lake famous throughout the country, then the number of sightings of an unknown creature dropped sharply.

Lake Iliamna (USA) - a haven for another "large lizard-like predatory animal." Thanks to long research and observations by the famous naturalist photographer Leonard R. R. from New Jersey in 1966, the rumors were indeed confirmed, however, it was not possible to identify the animal.

Payette Lake (Idaho, USA) - here, both from the shore and from aircraft, strange large animals resembling relic pangolins were seen several times.

Lake Wateron (Montana, USA) - here, according to the testimony of a huge number of eyewitnesses, huge animals live, called by the locals Coal-Bugles. Wateron is the only one among the mysterious American lakes where, along with "adult monsters", "their cubs" are often observed (the only exception is Loch Ness, where the "cub" appeared twice), and therefore descriptions of the appearance of monsters and their sizes vary somewhat in the stories. , which range from 4 to 60 feet (1.3-20 m).

Flathead Lake (Montana, USA) is the habitat of "classic" lake monsters resembling large prehistoric long-necked lizards. Creature yellow color with a "cow's head on a long graceful neck" were observed by dozens of people and pilots of the US Air Force from a low flight altitude.

In Africa and Australia, there is much less information about monsters. But - primarily because of the inaccessibility of "relic lakes".

Lake Nyasa (Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique) is one of the most mysterious reservoirs in Africa, the periodic and causeless change in the water level of which has not yet been explained. A sharp decrease or increase in the total volume of water in the lake can occur suddenly and in any weather, regardless of whether there were heavy rains or a drought before, and the maximum recorded level difference was 6 m. Scientists have put forward many hypotheses to explain the phenomenon, among the exotic hypotheses, there is one that blames the floods on ... giant animals.

Congo River ( Central Africa) - here, perhaps, monstrous-looking animals resembling ancient large lizards live. Locals believe that in the swampy Congo swamps and in the jungles of Angola live "Mkuu-mbemba" ("Ghosts of Death"), predators larger than the largest hippos.

Lake Waitorek (Australia) - and here, too, local residents have repeatedly observed an animal that supposedly looks like a prehistoric lizard.

Preliminary conclusions

So, an extremely common phenomenon in the world (more than fifty lakes and colonies of lake monsters) speaks primarily in favor of a non-purely biological solution to this riddle. The truth is somewhere at the intersection of biology and physics. And so far it still does not fit into the scientific paradigm familiar to us. Geographic coincidences, some external common features of the location of these lakes and places of chrono-mirages, preliminary physical chrono-measurements carried out by us on the lakes, all this so far cautiously suggests that the version of "monsters as chrono-mirages" needs to be checked with all seriousness.

And officially, so far - "according to modern science" - there are no monsters and there cannot be ... However, if fate pushes you nose to nose with a monster - do not even think about telling him about all this.

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