October 28th, 2011

Today is another topic for the future. A photo expedition conducted in 2010 on the legendary Labynkyr Lake, which is located in the Oymyakonsky ulus of Yakutia. In the future, I plan to tell in more detail about this expedition and show Labynkyr landscapes, the result of a rather long work. In the meantime, as an announcement, an essay on the photo expedition, in an abbreviated, magazine version. And also some photos at the end.

Lake Labynkyr. Touch of a legend.

Among the many basic and non-basic instincts, there is in human nature some kind of simply phenomenal desire and interest in inexplicable and most often unproven phenomena. Probably, this phenomenon is the essence of the construction of various legends. Sometimes people are much less willing to believe in reality than in some kind of legend. And the further people go from nature, the more they become isolated in the life of megacities, the more the world outside the cities is perceived as a completely different planet. And on another planet, anything can happen.

One of these legends, on a global scale, is Loch Ness in Scotland. And, accordingly, some animal unknown to science, as if living in this lake. But Loch Ness monster just the most popular. The world is full of lakes around which such legends have developed. We also have such a lake, in Yakutia, on the territory of the Oymyakonsky ulus. There is also a lot of alleged evidence of visual contact with a similar relic creature that lives in the depths of the lake. The locals simply call him the Labynkyr devil.

In the summer of 2010, I happened to visit this legendary lake. But the tasks of that expedition were in no way connected with the above problem. And the story will not be about what is not there, but what everyone would like to find there, but about a completely real, but still worth it to visit there.

The Labynkyr legend has one very practical application. Potentially, this already existing circumstance can be used to attract some tourist flow here. The flow, of course, is very limited, due to the fact that the object is very difficult to access. And the corresponding infrastructure is not developed in this region. Nevertheless, the local administration intends to use the available opportunities. It was to solve problems in this direction that my photo expedition to Labynkyr Lake took place. The legend is, of course, not a little, but it’s clear what else needs to be shown to the world in the best light and what the lake itself looks like. For this, professional photography of the Labynkyr landscapes was required.

So, the Oymyakonsky ulus is the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the regional center is the village of Ust-Nera, which is on the banks of the Indigirka. It was from this village that my advance to the cherished lake began, except for eight hours on the plane of the Moscow-Magadan flight and 1000 kilometers of the dusty Kolyma highway from Magadan to Ust-Nera. Here it immediately became clear how difficult it is to resolve many issues in these parts, especially transport ones. I had to spend a whole week in Ust-Nera waiting for some opportunity to get to the village of Tomtor, the closest to the lake and where else the roads lead. And this is with the help of the administration.

We drove all night to Tomtor, arrived there early in the morning, and in the evening ended up in a hut of a horse breeding base 12 kilometers from the village. Now the next and final stage of the transfer to Lake Labynkyr is ahead. Only a hundred kilometers remained, but this path must be done on horseback. That is how you can get there. Well, even on an all-terrain vehicle or a helicopter, of course. For some reason and, above all, for financial reasons, the latter options were excluded at that time. But it brought some romantic spirit of a real trip, as in the old days. In addition, the administration also paid for the horses.

I think it is worth saying a few words about Tomtor. This is a typical Yakut village with wooden houses. Well, not quite typical, of course. This is where the pole of cold is located. There is even a stele with a minimum temperature of -71.2°C marked on it. In fairness, it must be said that such a temperature has never been officially recorded in this place. But the possibility of such was once calculated by the famous explorer of these lands - Obruchev. Nevertheless, the winter temperature here often falls below -60°C and even close to -70°C, and even -50°C is considered absolutely normal and lasts for a long time. These territories really have the coldest winters in the entire northern hemisphere, and only Antarctica is colder on the whole planet. And in the summer it is not uncommon for a heat of 30 ° C and even higher. Just this anomalous summer, this happened even in excess. So an annual temperature difference of at least 100°C is obtained. Here is such a contrasting life. And yet, Tomtor, against the backdrop of most of the dilapidated villages of Kolyma, looks quite good. In terms of population, this is the second village in the Oymyakon ulus after Ust-Nera. About two thousand people live here. Previously, the Kolyma highway Khandyga-Magadan passed through Tomtor. Now, a relatively normal road running from Yakutsk through Khandyga reaches only Kyubyume, and then goes to Ust-Nera and Magadan. So the villages of Yuchugey, Tomtor and Sordonokh (Orto-Balagan) remained, as it were, at a dead end. This old section of the road is practically abandoned and is not being repaired. Now there is no bridge across the Kyubyume River at all, and in the summer you can get stuck here for a very long time if the water in the river suddenly rises. Further across the rivers there are still bridges in disrepair, and local residents have to use them at their own peril and risk. Sordonokh in this dead end turns out to be the most extreme village, behind it the highway and especially the bridges have completely fallen into disrepair. So now there is no way to get to Magadan in this way.

All these settlements are agricultural. Here are the Yuchuge residents, for example, grazing deer. Many Evens live in this village, for whom reindeer herding is a traditional way of life that has survived to this day. Horse breeding is very developed in Tomtor. Individual private owners keep up to several hundred horses. So there are quite even wealthy gentlemen here. Keeping horses in Yakut is a relative concept. Yakut horses are very unusual creatures. You can even say that this is not quite a pet, or not at all domestic. They graze with herds on their own and even in winter they get food from under the snow, raking it with their hooves. By winter, they are overgrown with such thick wool that they begin to resemble a mammoth that once lived in these parts. These animals are generally not accustomed to the saddle and some housework, but are used by humans as beef cattle. Sasha, my guide and horse breeder, all rolled into one, does not have many horses. But some other small owners gave their animals to his care. So horse breeding seems to be his main profession.

The village administration agreed with Sasha a week ago, but I still didn’t go. Now, when they brought me to his farm, no unpleasant surprises happened. Fortunately, just three special horses at that time were in the paddock. Horses are really special, because they are somehow tamed and accustomed to the saddle. But even these had to be driven for a long time around the vast paddock before they allowed them to be driven into a narrow corridor built of poles, where they could be tied, and the next day saddled.

All Yakuts mostly have Russian names and surnames. They were given when the Russians came to this territory and began to baptize the local population. At the same time, the names and surnames were given by good, real Russians. Here my Sasha (that's what everyone calls him here), for example, has the surname Diaghilev.

I have at least 100 kilograms of cargo and we tied all this on one, the youngest horse. We are driving the other two. I carry all my photographic equipment, of course, on myself in a photo backpack. Out of habit, it soon enough began to seem that it would shake out not only all the insides, but also the soul. Sasha somehow optimistically spoke out at the beginning that we would get there in a day. A hundred kilometers did not seem like a close distance to me at all. And when I rode a little in the saddle, and even more so I wanted to be in place right now. But it didn’t work out quickly, it turned out painfully. Already at dusk they came to one private farm. Here, in the outskirts, an old man lives with his old woman, keeps cattle. It is forty kilometers from Tomtor, at least 60 more to Labynkyr, and it is completely reasonable to stay here for the night.

The next day didn't go well from the start. We had moved only a kilometer from the hospitable shelter, when the cargo horse suddenly began to kick and in the end, she managed to scatter the entire load around her. And then this happened twice more during the day. About ten kilometers did not reach Labynkyr that day. We stopped on the shore of Lake Miamichi. They are here, lakes, that is, a myriad of them are scattered around the district, but Labynkyr is the largest. There was once a hut in this place, now only a burnt skeleton is observed from it. We will spend the night in my small tent. A certain Alyams once lived in the hut, another legend of Labynkyr. Having been released from places of detention, he settled away from people and lived in a hermitage for many years here and on Labynkyr itself. He also supported the legend of the unknown inhabitant of the lake. They say that already in old age he was not quite adequate, and he liked to hint that he was about to die and there would even be no one to feed HIM.

We made the rest of the way in the first half of the second of August and, having crossed the ford, the Labynkyr River flowing from the lake of the same name, arrived at the base. There is a good house at the northern tip of Labynkyr. It was this house that he considered as a support base for further work.

The next morning, my guide and the only representative of the transport company left his client, and life began alone, alone with the lake and its surroundings, with complete immersion in pristine nature and the comprehension of its beauty.
This expedition lasted more than a month, and all this time no one disturbed my loneliness, except for bears, deer and other animals. In short, everything is just known to science representatives of the fauna and no one else. The state of loneliness was suddenly aggravated by the fact that the satellite phone suddenly stopped working here.

In order to master the lake itself and its surroundings in more detail, of course, it was necessary to move a lot along its shores in a light inflatable boat, as well as to make radial routes on foot. In addition, outside the general program, he made a ten-day hike to the sources of the Labynkyr River, which feeds the lake and originates in the mountains of Suntar-Khayat. From the lake, the sources of the river lie at a distance of about 50 kilometers. At the very source there is a rather large lake Vodorazdelnoye, four kilometers long. It really lies right on the watershed that separates the basins of the Indigirka and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. And if in a global sense, then the basins of the Pacific and Arctic oceans.

Lake Labynkyr is not at all small, almost fifteen kilometers long, up to four kilometers wide, and more than fifty meters deep. It is raised above sea level to a height of just over a thousand meters and is located on the Sordonokhi plateau of the Oymyakon highlands. Like almost all lakes in these parts, of glacial origin. Traces of the activity of the glacier that once dominated here are especially manifested in the form of numerous moraine hills that created a natural dam for lakes.

Even earlier, when preparing for the season, I found some photos from Labynkyr on the Internet. There is very little information, there are no worthy photographs at all. And those that I saw were not very inspiring to work. Not very expressive relief, low hills of the Oymyakon highlands, surrounding the lake with a rare, frail and, most importantly, dead forest, with traces of an old fire. It was this picture that appeared surrounded by the base and the entire northern part of the lake is already in place. A strong and extensive fire broke out here about fifteen years ago. Young trees only make their way so far in places between the dry dead larch trunks, and the dead elfin cedar resembles octopuses or spiders that have spread over the tops and slopes of the hills. Here is such a depressing picture around, not inspiring enthusiasm. However, the distant, that is, the southern part of the lake was encouraging. There, the hills are noticeably higher, the relief is more expressive. And later it turned out that the forest in another part of the lake was preserved. It was there that the creative part received the greatest realization.

There are several small islands on Labynkyr, the largest of which is off the western coast. It is separated from the coast by a narrow strait and as an island it is recognized only in close proximity. But located nearby and as if abandoned in the middle of Labynkyr, a very small, bare island, chosen by seagulls, is not even marked on the map. But it is clearly visible from almost all sides of the lake, and depending on the state of the water surface and the weather, sometimes it seems to disappear or even move. In general, something similar to mirages periodically appears on Labynkyr. Probably, here quite often there is a mixing of air masses and flows, with different temperatures and different directions. I myself observed how in the southern part of the lake the wind often blows from the south, and in the northern part from the north. And such multidirectional movement can occur simultaneously. Here is the basis for you to see something unusual and compose a legend about a monster.

It was time to say goodbye to the lake in mid-September, when an all-terrain vehicle came for me. By that time, the surrounding area was plunged into a bright frenzy of autumn colors, and the bare tops of the hills were already covered with the first snow. The conditions of the lake itself became more and more severe. There was no regret from parting, but for some reason I didn’t notice any special joy about this either. There was simply satisfaction from the work done, from having lived here, albeit a small one, but still some kind of separate and special life, another segment that enriched my whole life as a whole. And also a feeling of some kind of closeness and kinship with the lake, to which he gave a piece of himself, but received a part of it in return.

The Pole of Cold is a special pride of the people of Tomtor. There is even a memorial plaque dedicated to this. Minus 71.2 degrees Celsius. The possibility of such a temperature was once theoretically established for Tomtor by the well-known researcher of this region Obruchev. But in fact, such a temperature has never been recorded, although it is not uncommon for the thermometer here to drop close to 70 degrees.

The village of Tomtor. Do not bypass this settlement if your path lies on Lake Labynkyr.

Before a long journey, it is necessary to carefully prepare the harness. At modern technologies and materials, this attribute in the outback remains unchanged. Not because it is so perfect, but because no one will be engaged in the development and production of improved horse ammunition.

A mountain of bags loaded onto a horse causes remorse and pity for the poor animal. But there is no way out, you can’t carry it all away yourself. For the transportation of goods, a special pack saddle is used, invented in ancient times and since then has not been improved in any way.

Yakut horses on free range. Open semi-steppe areas in wide valleys and intermountain basins are called alas in Yakutia. These are the main pastures.

Our small caravan in the Kuidusuna valley.

Crossing the river Labynkyr, flowing from the lake of the same name.

In the upper reaches of the Labynkyr River. A stormy sky cannot leave you indifferent; it evokes a whole range of completely different feelings in a person.

Lake Vodorazdelnoye at the source of the Labynkyr River. The map shows that it is from this lake that the Labynkyr River originates, but on the spot the picture appeared somewhat different. In fact, the source of the river is located on the slopes of the surrounding mountains, while water from the lake begins to flow into Labynkyr only at a very high level.

In the valley of the Labynkyr River, a little higher than the confluence with the lake, where one more of the icings has been preserved. One of the unforgettable states.

Lake Labynkyr. South coast. Mid August.

There was a massive fire in the northern part of the lake about fifteen years ago. Nature has not recovered since then.

This bay, in the northern part of the lake, was one of the main shooting points.

At the northern end of the lake, the river of the same name flows out of it. Here on the cape there is a house that can accommodate a traveler, and on the very shore there is a bathhouse.

Bay in the northern part of the lake.

There is a fairly large island off the western coast of Labynkyr. It is separated from the coast by a narrow strait and is recognized as an island only in close proximity. Otherwise, it can be mistaken for one of the many capes. Surprisingly, there is also a small lake on the island itself.

Labynkyr motives. Southern part of the lake.

Morning of the first of September.

South coast of Labynkyr. View to the north. In the foreground is a cedar dwarf.

The shores of the lake sometimes have rather bizarre outlines.

View from the north coast to the south. Attracted by a long focal length lens.

Two islands off the eastern shore of the lake.

In the southern part of the lake, on the shore of the bay, there is also an old base. There is a hut with a leaking roof and a bathhouse, as well as some outbuildings that have already fallen into disrepair. This base was the reference point for work in the southern part of the lake.

Autumn motives of Labynkyr.

One of Labynkyr's moods.

In early September, the snowball had already covered the tops of the mountains surrounding the lake.

Lake Yastrebinoye is the largest after Labynkyr in its immediate surroundings.

Wild inhabitants of Labynkyr.

Overview map. Scale in 1cm-40km.

Map scale in 1cm-2km. Labynkyr in the upper right corner. Lake Watershed below.

This is an abbreviated version. You can also read the full version "

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 Lake Labynkyr 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.

In 1727, the registered Cossack Voloshin was sent with a detachment to the Oymyakonsky region of Yakutia to collect additional tribute from the local peoples.

Oddly enough, the Yakuts did not refuse to pay dues, but complained to the “royal man” that, they say, a huge and scary beast, which scared away all the furs. Therefore, with all their sincere desire required amount fur can not be collected.

Voloshin did not believe in a terrible fairy tale, he took with him two Yakut foremen and headed for the mysterious reservoir. Since then, neither the Cossack nor the guides have been seen again.

However, Voloshin's report about the departure to the mysterious lake was recorded in the Siberian order and has survived to this day.

Two hundred years later, at the end of the forties of the last century, Osinnikov, a pilot of a special air reconnaissance detachment of the NKVD, flew over the Oymyakonsky district of Yakutia - he photographed the area for laying winter roads and setting up camps.

He did not have a radio station, and the compass did not work due to magnetic anomalies. In general, the pilot got lost.

Suddenly, right below him, he saw a large lake, into which a huge animal resembling a turtle descends from the shore. Osinnikov turned over the pond to get a better look at the monster, but noticed only circles on the water.

Subsequently, in the seventies, the head of the air intelligence department shared this fact with the listeners of the Mayak radio station: they say, we do not fully know the secrets of Siberia

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 big head that the distance between his eyes is more than a meter.

The name of the lake is translated as "the hidden son of the ship." The Yakuts argue that La Byn Kyr should be written, and this, in turn, is translated as “the hidden son of the fertile island.”

It is rather problematic to get close to Lake Labynkyr, as it is located in the middle of impenetrable taiga.

This causes additional difficulties in the study mysterious place. But, despite this, even today new expeditions go to the famous lake.

A few years ago, members of the film crew of the Seekers program recorded an underwater “roar” of a monster.

The Acoustics Laboratory of the Research Institute of Oceanology stated that the recorded “roar” is unlike any sound known to science.

The Yakut lake reliably keeps its secret, and the shamans strictly forbade the Yakuts to catch the lake dweller.

“We felt a terrible blow. Turning sharply, I managed to capture the next picture. A motor flew through the air, disappearing in the waters of Labynkyr in a moment, and Vitaly, with his eyes closed, tried in vain to find the disappeared tiller with his hand ... "

An excerpt from an article by Sergei Smolnikov
"Secrets of Lake Labynkyr"

The mysterious lake Labynkyr, lost in the vastness of Yakutia, is famous for many stories and legends. Having studied everything that I could find on this topic, I have compiled a digest of the most interesting stories. I present it to your attention.

From the diary of a scientist, geologist, head of the geological party of the East Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences Viktor Aleksandrovich Tverdokhlebov:

The scientist's diaries were published 50 years ago in the magazine "Vokrug Sveta" (No. 2-1961) in the article "A Land Awaiting Researchers". It was then that the general public first learned about the existence of Lake Labynkyr, and about the neighboring, much smaller Lake Vorota. (I want to emphasize that it was in him, and not in Labynkyr, as some media write, that Tverdokhlebov saw unusual creature) .
The sensational notes of the scientist caused such a surge of interest that after a while he even had to change his last name (to Laschenov). However, long before Tverdokhlebov, among the local population, there were rumors about the Labynkyr Devil, as the Evens called him:

“The old-timers of Tom-Tor believe that the animal they call “devil” has been living in the lake since time immemorial and behaves extremely aggressively. Once, for example, it chased a Yakut fisherman, another time it swallowed a swimming dog. Most often, deer were called the object of hunting. They say how a local reindeer herder tied a reindeer team to some kind of tusk sticking out of thin ice, and while making a fire on the shore he heard a crack - the tusk swayed, the ice fell apart, and something huge carried the deer into the abyss.

For a long time, giant pikes have been featured in Yakut folklore, capable of swallowing both a deer and even a person. An interesting story was recorded by Academician A.P. Okladnikov, about “how a huge pike capsized the boat and swallowed the guy who was in it”. His father hacked a pike with an ax and, cutting it open, found his son's bones.

“The old man took the jaw of that fish and left it like a gate on the road that leads from this mountain lake... Through these gates, all the Tungus, riding from the mountains, passed without getting off the deer - the jaw was so high and wide. The old people also say that they saw such a huge pike on the lake: its eyes were visible on both sides of the birch bark boat.

It should be noted that such a jaw is mentioned in many places, and most importantly, in the legend relating directly to Lake Labynkyr. However, it is said there that this is the jaw of the Labynkyr Devil and nothing is mentioned about the pike. Nevertheless, pikes, including very large ones, are found on Labynkyr. On our very first day on the lake, Vadim Georgievich Lobov caught a rather big pike:

A lot of interesting things about Labynkyr are told by modern researchers. A fascinating report was compiled by the Veslo.ru expedition. It is written with self-irony and a good sense of humor, and most importantly, there is also an educational part in it.

"Shadow[referring to echo sounder readings] "was" 15-17 meters under the boat. Based on the pixel size of the echo sounder (132x160) and the table for calculating real lengths, we will assume that our pixel “lives” approximately somewhere in between the indicated 100 and 240. Accordingly, at 15 meters of depth, 1 pixel shows an average of 4 inches, or 10 cm The object is 65 pixels long, that is, 650 cm, or 6.5 meters. In principle, this agrees with the testimony of other expeditions. The fact that this is not a fish, and not a tree, is quite obvious. A fish of this size cannot be (?), But the log looks different, and it doesn’t matter if it swims in the water column ... "

Pay special attention to these lines:

“Algae do not grow in the lake, very rarely - on heated shallows, next to inflowing streams. The bottom of the lake is "dead", stony with sand deposits, it is very cold at a depth. All fish are predatory, and they simply cannot keep such a dense, huge and uneven flock. Anyone who is at least a little familiar with zoology will understand what I mean.

www.veslo.ru

... Therefore, the sudden appearance of a “cloud” of fish glued into a dark object meant nothing more than just a large floating object.”

During the expedition, they made a rather long rowing trip, probing the bottom with an echo sounder, and saw several large unidentified objects:

"The most active appearance of" carcasses "was noted in certain areas of the lake, with a bottom depth of 42 to 60 meters."

“... It was mysterious and incomprehensible. For example, the signal on the echo sounder. Someone was spinning not far from the net with the fish. Someone very big. 7..10 meters, it’s impossible to say more precisely, the speed of the object is unknown ... Yes, and you know, nerves are not made of iron. Together in a fragile rubber boat, and decently to the shore ... They didn’t understand. They took the oars and sailed away from there.
Strange footprints on the water, as if someone large swims and plays shallowly ... Strange island. The middle of the lake, and full of ruined gull nests. Birds were crushed in their sleep, and they could not fly away. Someone was eaten, someone was abandoned... Who?...”

Found in the reports and absolutely incredible action. So, Sergey Smolnikov, who visited Labynkyr in search of Arctic char in 2003, says in the article “Secrets of Lake Labynkyr”:

“... we felt a terrifying blow. Turning sharply to Vitaly Kondakov, who was sitting on the stern, I managed to capture the next picture. A motor flew through the air, disappearing in the waters of Labynkyr in a moment, and Vitaly, with his eyes closed (he was thoroughly doused with gasoline from a torn hose), tried in vain to find the disappeared tiller with his hand.
In all this apocalyptic picture, there was only one positive moment - the transom was intact, which meant that we have a chance for a successful outcome. After all, a torn transom, no doubt, could increase the diversity of the diet of Labynkyr burbots.
An express analysis of our resources showed that we have GPS, one paddle and one board on board. We were a kilometer from the shore… The wind that continued to grow left open the question of whether everything was really lost for the burbots.
…
During the period of our stay at Labynkyr, this was already the second collision with an “unidentified underwater object”. The first collision, which did not cause us any problems, occurred in the southern part of the lake. Double blow - and the "boot" of the motor flew out of the water.
In the first case, there were 14 meters below us, in the second - about 30. And both times we saw nothing in the water, absolutely nothing.”

This incredible information confirmed by at least one of the members of the expedition - Sergey Tamulenis.

It is interesting that Valery Lyushkov, who made a trip to Labynkyr a few years after Smolnikov, found some kind of Yamaha at the bottom of the lake. The depth, of course, is not at all 30 meters there ... Personally, I stopped distinguishing the bottom at a depth of 6 meters ...

Valery Lyushkov

I brought only selected moments from some expeditions. I could write many more stories, but I'm afraid this post is already too long. Finally, I want to recommend a film about the search for the Labynkyr Devil, filmed by the first channel. It is clear that looking at the film is very skeptical, because journalists tried to pull out a sensation in a limited time and with limited resources. But I watched this video with pleasure, because knowing the official reports (which I cited above) you can easily separate the wheat from the chaff:

-link this video-

One of the funny moments in the video is that they show an echo sounder that allegedly “felt” an underground river flowing through an underwater canyon (crack) 40 meters deep, relative to the bottom of the lake. Can you imagine such a difference? I'm afraid that the whole point is that they could not figure out the echo sounder. As I said in the last post, our echo sounder also began to seriously fail in one place, and only after additional research and due to the presence of a second echo sounder in the boat, we realized that this was not a super-discovery. =) Here is another "crack" on our echo sounder - 71.2 meters (last time I showed a depth of 117 meters).

Photo 5

In the last post I was asked a question - what do they say locals, from what cannot be read on the Internet. I did not immediately remember the story, about which, it seems, no one has written yet. This story happened relatively recently, and it was told to me directly by eyewitnesses of the events.

Lake Labynkyr has always been sacred for the Evens. And one day a family decided to build a house out of the stones that surrounded it. I don’t know how much effort it took them to deliver the material to the village of Tom-Tor, but they were able to bring their idea to life. After that, various troubles began to occur in a quiet village. Either someone's house burns down, or people get sick... For a long time, the residents could not understand what was happening, and, since shamanism is very common in those places, they decided to go to the shaman with a question. The shaman said that they had taken something from the lake and they had to bring it back. So they did, every single one, the stones were returned to their place. Since then, things have improved in Tom Tor again. No one has ever taken away the stones of Lake Labynkyr...

Tomorrow I will tell you about our night outing to Lake Labynkyr. The guide, who has seen more than one expedition to the lake, says that no one has done this before you. And the truth is, no matter how many stories I read, there is nowhere a description of nightly explorations of the lake. But, as a wildlife photographer, I know for sure that all the most interesting things usually happen at night, and some animals are completely impossible to see during the day. Looking ahead, I’ll say that we didn’t take a risk in vain: it turned out to be an amazing adventure! To be continued.

***

Let me remind you that I have already cited one of the oldest and most famous legends. All my records about the expedition to Yakutia can be easily found using the tag. It's best to read in chronological order.

"The sides of the world trembled from his roar,
firmament, heaven, earth and mountains"
(Mahabharata).

Expeditions of the Research Association "Kosmopoisk" have already explored more than a dozen lakes, in which legends and folk rumor settled some terrible monsters. In most places (Pleshcheyevo, Chemodanovoe, Dead, Medvezhye and other lakes), the instrumental and visual search for animals did not confirm the rumors, but in some ...

Lost world at the Pole of Cold

It was the 12th day of an exhausting journey through the frosty taiga. We have to walk literally less than a kilometer 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 a broken bus along the broken Kolyma highway to the first destroyed bridges, and then all last week - where by hitchhiking, but more often on foot - we got to the "devil's lair" . 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 basin of the reservoir, gigantic to the horizon, is really not covered with ice, but due to the complete absence of wind, it seems frozen, as if the lake were covered with transparent glass. big lake, almost the 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 screech. 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, moving away from big stones and cliffs, behind which anyone can hide, to a flat, well-viewed 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 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 rise up and maintain 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 of the upper reaches of the Indigirka as a result of the damming 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). The water temperature even on the hottest summer days does not exceed +9°C, the bottom temperature - from +1.3 to +2°C. 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 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 breeder decided to tie a reindeer team to some kind of tusk sticking out of thin ice, and while making a fire on the shore, he 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 adult trunks stacked 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 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 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 water .. The monster moves: with a heavy throw, slightly rising from the water, it rushes forward, and then completely immersed in 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.

The stories of V. Tverdokhlebov and press appearances served main reason organization of several expeditions to the Gates and Labynkyr at once. In 1961, Around the World finally published a story about the lake, which caused largest number 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 "northern Nessie" theory, one can also mention researcher 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 what kind of "monster "An old hundred-year-old pike could well have come off (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 most big fish lakes - burbot ("master"), besides him, at least 20 species of fish live in Labynkyr (pike, swamp, 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 already from his guests ...

The only time Alyams was torn 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 ... (In fairness, 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 of the impostor obeyed, 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 allegedly 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, catching 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 Cosmopoisk 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, Krasnoe (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, it was dangerous to go to Yakutia both for people, and for devices, and for transport equipment - at the end of October, the very coldy. 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 sufficiently large animals could fit and move in these underground-underwater passages, but there was “that someone” there - reflections from the walls interfered with the echo sounder. 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 tracks 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 of her greatly frightened, and she could not overcome 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 emitting 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 that 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 in the samples have not yet been found.

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 reserves 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. Taking risks like that, 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; spend the night under open sky at the Pole of Cold it 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 Thanks).

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 trucker, 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 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 stocks of newspapers for kindling quickly disappeared, and when the last match remained, on which it now depended whether the wolf pack would have 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 - will I light a fire in such a frost or not ... In the morning, polite wolves in English ( 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 looked at the stump, on which an old black rotary telephone stood just a second ago, and it seemed incredible to me not even where it came from 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 sparkle 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

To what extent are the places about which in question, removed 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 again 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 doubt a little whether it was worth disclosing general public"fish spots"...

At the beginning of the 21st century, a scientific exploratory expedition to these places, capable of answering the main 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 mysterious phenomena. Every year, half a million tourists visit the 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 a stir around Loch Ness and flourish 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 in early 1996 also pursued the goal of increasing the hype interest. feature film"Loch Ness" ... 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 other people's 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. Aliens have no less than our right to be interested in the life of terrestrial relic animals... However, the neighborhood 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", other anomalous phenomena and objects are observed. 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 even in parallel worlds, and they 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 movie 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 submarine"Peasies" with a sonar screen, 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 deep-sea sonars, as officially announced by 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 sizes, with 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 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 found 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) - a small reservoir 50 km south of Vyborg in the west Leningrad region, where, according to the St. Petersburg cryptozoologist Valentin Borisovich Sapunov, local residents watched a large head appear from the water, resembling the Nessie monster. 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 reservoir of notoriety; 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 (Komi Republic, Russia) is a legendary reservoir about which many myths and legends have been 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.

Not far behind North-Western 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. 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 no 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 waterfowl and animals that came to drink under the water. 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 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. 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 torn 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 faculties of Xinjiang University noticed several large brown animals that surfaced and again went 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 the island of Fairview (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) - a water system north-northwest of the city of Winnipeg, where, in the 1950s, local fisherman Oscar Frederickson fished a skeleton from the water and made a wooden copy of it, which were identified as "8-foot a creature that became extinct many millions of years ago" (the 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."

Poenigeymuk Lake, 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 differ somewhat in the stories. appearance monsters and their sizes, 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. A yellow creature with a "cow's head on a long graceful neck" was 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) - monstrous-looking animals, resembling ancient large lizards, may live here. 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. Geographical coincidences, some external common features of the location of these lakes and places of chronomirages, preliminary physical chronological measurements performed by us on the lakes, all this so far cautiously suggests that the version of "monsters as chronomirages" needs to be checked with all seriousness.

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

There are many things in the world that scientists cannot yet explain, prove or disprove. In the jungle they find mysterious tribes that avoid meeting with civilization, in the Himalayas someone is looking for evidence of the existence of the yeti, they go to Scotland for a photo hunt, and they come to Lake Baikal expecting to see strange mirages.

The Labynkyr devil is one of those phenomena that someone seems to have seen, someone heard, but they can’t find evidence of its existence.

Labynkyr lake

Just a few hundred kilometers from the cold pole in the Oymyakonsky region of Yakutia is a lake known for its anomalies. A reservoir located at an altitude of 1020 m above sea level in the Sordonokhi plateau on the site of a moraine amphitheater in upstream Indigirka, has a rectangular shape, a width of 4 km and a length of 14 km.

A crack located at the bottom of the lake increases its depth to 80 meters, therefore, if the Labynkyr devil lives here, scientists do not know how to catch it at such a depth or at least detect it. The reason to believe that either a huge sea animal unknown to science, or a prehistoric lizard lives here, was the evidence of local hunters and fishermen back in the 19th century.

In fact, they saw him or not is unknown, but the strength of their belief in his existence is such that there are not only settlements near the lake, but also for ordinary fishing on the reservoir, full of fish the locals don't go. In addition to legends, there are other anomalies that scientists studying Lake Labynkyr cannot explain. The Labynkyr devil, even if he exists, could not survive without them.

lake anomalies

The nearest settlements of Tomtor and Kuydusun are located more than a hundred kilometers from the lake and are well known as places of the pole of cold, so no one is surprised average temperature air in winter (-50 degrees). The scientist Obruchev once recorded here its drop to - 71.5 degrees Celsius.

Naturally, all nearby water bodies, of which there are a great many in Yakutia, are covered with such hard ice that cars drive on it. This does not happen only on the lake, where, according to legend, the Labynkyr devil is found. Scientists cannot answer why it begins to freeze much later than others and never completely covered with ice, leaving large polynyas in the middle of the reservoir.

No thermal springs were found either nearby, underground, or at its bottom. Another nearby lake does not freeze - the Gate, in which a strange animal called the Labynkyr devil was also observed.

The fault at the bottom is a shaft-type tunnels, one of which is horizontal, and the rest are vertical. Scientists suggest that these underwater "corridors" connect both lakes, so the water in them does not freeze completely, they have no other, more scientific explanations.

Description of an unknown animal

According to scientists who have been studying the life and culture of the Yakuts and Evenks for a long time, these people are absolutely incapable of telling lies, they are very naive and straightforward. Therefore, many of them accepted the stories of local old-timers about huge creature living in the waters of the lake, as based on real facts.

Today no one will say where to catch the Labynkyr devil in order to fix its existence, but what is happening on this lake strange phenomena and incomprehensible sounds of animal origin are heard, modern researchers confirm.

According to numerous descriptions given by local residents, this is a large animal with a flattened dark gray body and a large head with a mouth like a bird's beak with huge teeth. In general stories different people were similar, but the description given by the head of the geological expedition of the East Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1953 is considered to be the most reliable.

Geologist Boris Bashkatov and academician Viktor Tverdokhlebov were watching the waters of the lake from the shore in July 1953 when they saw that some animal was swimming along it. What is it exactly creature it was evident from the way it moved - it slightly rose above the water and, as it were, threw its body forward.

Above the surface, a large dark gray carcass was partially visible, on which two light symmetrical spots, similar to eyes, clearly stood out. From the back of an unknown beast protruded something that looked like either a stick or a bone growth.

Based on what they saw, scientists determined that the animal had a rather large massive body, and its head either appeared above the water or disappeared, making squelching sounds. According to them, observers suggested that the beast hunts under water, and its movements caused waves on the surface.

The observation entered in the scientific diary caused a lot of noise in scientific circles, therefore, from the 60s to the end of the 70s, several expeditions visited here, the purpose of which was to catch the Labynkyr devil.

local legends

Since there are no roads to the lake and you can get to its shore either by an all-terrain vehicle, or by horses, or by helicopter, there were few visitors there. Among the local population, for some, these places were considered sacred, for others - cursed.

Several stories have been preserved of incidents in its waters.

Once, a family of Evenk nomads stopped for a halt near the shore, who were moving with their herd of deer to summer pastures. While the adults were preparing everything they needed for the night, their child went to the water, and soon his cry was heard. When the adults came running, they saw how some huge animal with a mouth similar to a bird's beak with many teeth grabbed the boy and dragged him under the water. According to legend, the grandfather made from deer skin stuffed with rags, straw and grass, in which he put smoldering chips, the bait that the beast swallowed. In the morning, his carcass was thrown ashore, and the old man, having torn open his belly, took out the body of his grandson, which was buried here on the shore. The animal was 7 m long, had short flippers and powerful jaws. His bones lay on the shore of the lake for a long time.

And the fishermen, who decided to go fishing on a large ten-meter launch, claimed that suddenly the bow of the vessel tilted, as if someone huge, swimming under it, lifted it.

Whether it was a mysterious Labynkyr devil, just an accident on the water or a collision with a large log, no one knows, but the legends have survived to this day.

The first scientific expedition was organized in 1961 after the publication of the diaries of the head of the geological party, Viktor Tverdokhlebov. They did not manage to find anything, probably because they did not know what to catch the Labynkyr devil with.

They did not find any traces or presence of an aggressive lake predator. In the period from the 60s to the 70s, there were several dives of divers, during which they saw something in the muddy water. Some scientists offered their own versions of who lives in the mysterious waters, but they did not have any scientific justification.

So some assumed that this is a huge five-meter catfish, weighing 300 kg, ignoring the fact that catfish are not found in this lake. Others have hypothesized that it is a large centennial pike, although there has never been evidence that pikes can live that long. The only thing that Soviet researchers discovered was underwater tunnels in which the "monster" could easily hide from curious scientists.

Expeditions in the 90s

Interest in anomalies was especially strong at the end of the 20th century. There were not only special newspaper editions and books devoted to UFOs, yeti and relic animals, but also departments in scientific institutes that sent their expeditions to strange and mysterious places.

The researchers now had special equipment in their hands to help them scan the bottom of the lake and thereby give an answer to who lives there. As the head of one of the teams, Vadim Chernobrov, noted, on the shore of Lake Labynkyr they discovered ice growths formed by drops that flowed from the body of some animal that had come out of the water.

Judging by the distance between the ice growths, the carcass of the animal was up to 1.5 meters wide and stayed on the shore for about a minute, after which the monster crawled back under the water. The experiment helped to determine the time: it was during this time that the drops that the scientists splashed onto the ground turned into ice growths of the same size.

Expeditions in our time

Interest in the elusive animal living in Lake Labynkyr does not subside even today. After using echo sounders it was possible to detect large moving objects under its waters, scientists do not leave hope that the next scientific Russian "fishing" will give a result. It was the Labynkyr devil, or just a large echo sounder did not show, but it fueled the curiosity of the researchers.

With the help of a telesonde capable of operating at great depths, animal remains were found at the bottom of the lake, representing bones, vertebrae and jaws, possibly deer or domestic cattle.

The last expedition, conducted in 2013, also did not find an anomaly.

Fauna of Lake Labynkyr

So far, the mystery of this reservoir has not been solved, but it is of interest in itself, as it is very rich in fish, among which there are quite rare specimens. So, burbot feels like a master here, and besides it live whitefish, Dolly Varden, marsh, alimba, grayling, pike, char and lenok.

Despite the abundance of fish, neither local nor visiting fishermen fish here, preferring calmer and safer water bodies.

Lake in a computer game

For real fans, a version of the game "Russian Fishing, Labynkyr" was created. The Labynkyr Devil is one of her levels that many beginners cannot pass. To catch a monster, you need not only to find the right hole or several, but also to wait patiently, feeding the chosen place.

You can “catch” a virtual devil with a bait or a donk. Too bad it doesn't work that way real world, otherwise the secret of the Labynkyr devil would have been unraveled long ago.