There are many spots and secrets in the history of mankind that arouse the interest of any researcher. We love everything mysterious and inexplicable. Many creatures: mermaids, vampires, werewolves, dragons...
The first three are still rumored to exist. Did dragons really exist?
Myths or reality?
In my youth, as a student of the Faculty of Philology and studying in detail the mythology of the peoples of the world, I noticed that there are characters and images that are repeated in almost all nations.
They may have different names and be slightly different from each other in appearance, but the essence is the same. This got me thinking about how every fairy tale has a fairy tale element to it. And the rest is a veiled reality.
For example, dragons. These creatures are described in different cultures and traditions, in different countries, on all continents.
European knights fought with them, Chinese emperors idolized them, African sorcerers negotiated with them, Aztec priests listened to them...
A little later I realized very much important thing, which later helped me a lot in life: people's thinking is mythological. And this is not just a desire to believe in fairy tales and miracles, these are echoes of ancient times.
Dragons still attract people's attention. Especially children. When my son was little, he was literally sick of dragons and asked a lot of questions about them.
We bought dragons in the form of toys, pictures, watched cartoons and movies about them, and read books. And at some point I felt that I was also drawn to this information.
Studying encyclopedias and Internet resources, I became increasingly sympathetic to these magical creatures and felt more and more connected to them.
Conductors of energies
When one day during a holotropic breathing session I saw myself traveling through Hyperborea, I discovered a dragon there. At first I saw him in a clearing, among huge trees.
It was huge, dark, scaly, on four legs, with a long tail. The ground shook as he moved. And at the same time I was not afraid, I even wanted to touch him.
But in the next moment it seemed to me that I was this dragon. And then I saw how they pass through his body huge flows energies come from somewhere above and flow to the core of the Earth.
Past life as a dragon
When at the Institute of Reincarnation we got to viewing non-human incarnations, I expected to see myself as some kind of animal or even a plant.
Immersed in memories, the first thing I noticed was a strange visual perception: I saw the reality around me as if in a thermal imager.
Everything around was dark, but living beings glowed different colors. This vision was so strange that I involuntarily “stuck” in this process, forgetting that I needed to understand who I was.
When I paid attention to the sensations in my body, I felt that it was someone big and heavy, even a little clumsy when moving on the ground.
I decided to look outside and realized that I'm a dragon. Black, with membranous wings. Large bone scales, like a shell, covered the entire body except the wings.
There were huge trees around, I was in a clearing and interacted with people. Only these were not people like us now, this was a different civilization: very tall, several meters tall.
It felt like I was exchanging some information with them telepathically, and this information was in images, pictures, and not in speech form.
I didn’t live on Earth, I just flew here, to these people, not to all of them, but to some specific ones, like priests.
During the research it turned out that dragons lived on another planet, near the Earth. Then I thought that it might have been a satellite of the Earth - a small planet of irregular epileptoid shape.
Later I read that the Earth, according to scientists, once had 3 satellites, which then either fell to the Earth, causing natural disasters, or, on the contrary, they moved away and disappeared into the depths of space.
The mythology of many peoples also tells about the presence of three moons of the Earth. And there is different versions regarding their origin and disappearance.
In my memory this the planet was in parallel dimension , because during the flight there at some point I overcame a certain barrier, as if I was passing through plasma, and after that my physical body it became just a dense clot of energy.
It was a very strange feeling when crossing the boundary of dimensions - my head was compressed, it became difficult to breathe, and then suddenly an amazing lightness set in.
And during the reverse transition, when the body is condensed to a physical state, a flash of electricity occurs, similar to lightning, and the shell glows and becomes very hot.
It is at this moment that a flame can break out if there are trees nearby. Apparently, this was the source of legends about fire-breathing dragons, burning all living things on the way.
Life of dragons
There were few dragons, and they were asexual; they reproduced by separating an energy clot from themselves. They communicated telepathically, in images.
They lived for a very long time, especially if they flew to Earth infrequently, since these movements took a lot of energy. My request for the date of incarnation received the figure 20 million years BC.
When I looked at the Earth from a flight altitude, I saw 3 continents, and the one I flew to was similar to present-day Eurasia, only larger and extended towards the North Pole, even capturing it.
And in this part of the Earth there was no ice or snow. The second continent was further south, also large, and another whole big continent on the other side of the planet.
In that incarnation, I realized that dragons over time simply stopped taking physical fitness , arriving on Earth because times of persecution had come against them.
Dragon spirits
However, dragons helped the Earth for a long time, anchoring cosmic energies, served as guides. I was able to see this in one of my incarnations in Hyperborea.
I am a conductor of energy and information between the Hyperborean civilization, dragons and gods. I have long hair- to toe
During my rituals, I put on a white floor-length shirt dress, let my hair down, go into a trance and dance strange dances. I hear the rhythm, as if from huge tambourines, but I don’t see the instruments.
In this state, I simultaneously feel myself in three spaces and can transmit information in three directions. Dragons broadcast special energy to me and the Earth and tell me how to maintain the balance of the planet.
Where did the dragons go?
After my memories of the dragons, I wondered what was happening to them now.
Judging by the information that came to my request, they left Earth long ago and moved to another star system in order to support the newly inhabited planet there.
And on Earth, whales and elephants are now guardians of the energy balance. In addition, in the depths of the ocean there are huge reserves of energy created by dragons and their followers.
It turns out that dragons - mysterious monsters with the body of a snake, the wings of a bird, several heads, fiery breath, endowed with intelligence - still live among us!
Great and terrible
According to one ancient description, dated 600 AD. e., the dragon is “the largest of the snakes and, in general, the largest of all creatures living on Earth. It has a large snout and narrow blowholes through which it breathes and sticks out its tongue.”
Dragons were usually depicted as huge snake-like monsters that terrified people. From their roar, they say, the earth trembled. Moreover, dragons feeding human meat, always swallowed beautiful maidens whole, which is why both heroes and knights considered it a matter of honor to defeat the monster on the spot.
However, our ancestors were real philosophers. The charter is afraid of fire-breathing monsters, they simply turned them into an ordinary symbol of water and fire. Historians have gone a little further. According to the hypothesis of scientists A. Leroy-Gourhan and V. Ya. Propp, the dragon is a symbol of the unification of the worlds: the upper (as evidenced by its resemblance to a bird) and the lower (snake’s body).
Only these monsters were not so terrible. There are cases when they went in peace to people. Thus, in ancient Chinese mythology, the winged dragon helped the hero Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, to lay channels for water supply with his tail. The monster also helped two Slavic blacksmiths. They harnessed the dragon to a plow and with its help dug the riverbed of the Dnieper. And Nikita Kozhemyaka managed to pacify the Serpent Gorynych and plow the land on him. Moreover, dragons often gave people the treasures they protected. True, ungrateful people usually killed them out of fear. Only the flying Snake Poluchato from the Volga subethnos of the Katskari always remained alive, since it brought wealth to those who were not afraid of hard work.
By the way, many of the descendants of the Katskars still place a saucer of milk on the windowsill in order to lure the Snake of good luck.
If we consider that the word is material, and myths always have a basis in reality, we can safely assume that the images of such monsters were hardly created from scratch. This is confirmed by many scientists! Recently, researchers from the International Union of Cryptozoologists made an unexpected and sensational conclusion: on the coat of arms of Moscow, St. George the Victorious pierces a real (!) small winged dragon with a spear, and not a mythical one! In general, ancient Russian icon painting is full of monsters of various stripes - blood-red, with clouds of fire flying out of their mouths, and very tiny ones, which are led on a leash, like a pet dog. The head of the scientific environmental program RICANN (Russian Intellectual Corps of Current Scientific Directions), Irina Tsareva, believes that these animals could well live in Russian forests. Even though the authors of epics, epics and icons slightly exaggerated the images of their works, they still used real stories as a basis. It is quite possible that in the European part of Russia there were bloodthirsty monsters tearing travelers to shreds. In any case, such cases were recorded in documents! Thus, one collection of Russian chronicles contains news from Novgorod from 1582: “...In the summer, the Corcodiles Lutia came out of the river and closed the way, eating many people, and terrifying people and praying to God throughout the whole earth. And she hid again, and beat up others...” Since crocodiles were never found in Russia, scientists assumed that the chronicler meant an ordinary dragon.
However, even today there is a lot of evidence of monsters. Thus, in 1958, geologist, paleontologist and writer Ivan Efremov, in his book “The Road of the Winds,” spoke about his journey to Mongolia, where, according to the descriptions of local residents, there is a monstrous yellow worm, the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, whose poison kills people. There have always been many scientific expeditions in these parts, but no one has been able to give intelligible answers to the question: “What kind of worm is this?” French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal once suggested that the Olgoy-Khorkhoi is a giant reptile that lost its legs during evolution and is capable of spraying poison from a distance...
Russia is also full of eyewitnesses of encounters with dragons. For example, along Lipetsk, Novgorod and Leningrad regions Rumors periodically circulate about encounters with underwater monsters spewing flames from their mouths. Ukraine is also not lagging behind. This is not the first year that rumors about the Black Sea monster at the foot of Karadag have excited the imagination. Dragons and giant snakes supposedly they are regularly found in Africa. The stories of Africans about the ferocious predator “tonpondrano” (“master of sea waters”) with a body covered with scales, 25 meters long, are impressive. In the Algerian desert, they also once shot a 20-meter creature. There are frightening legends about the “master of the forests” of Madagascar - a monster with an elongated body and huge claws. In general, stories about modern monsters can be continued for a very long time, but there is still convincing evidence of their existence!
We say dragon, we mean azhdarchid
For example, in South-East Asia, on several Indonesian islands, lives the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on Earth. These huge monitor lizards reach a length of three meters and feed on monkeys and goats. Their ancestors lived on Earth 2 million years ago. Their descendants in the same form live well today, not even suspecting that, according to Darwin, they had to undergo some kind of evolutionary changes.
By the way, on these same islands other living fossils (phylogenetic relics) have been preserved, almost completely corresponding to those that went extinct tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. This, for example, is the tuatara, or tuatara, the only living representative of the subclass of beak-headed reptiles. Its discovery was a big surprise for scientists.
Despite the fact that it is common to consider dragons to be predatory flying reptiles, and modern lizards (monitor lizards, iguanas, agaves, chameleons, etc.) to be their descendants that have shredded and forgotten how to fly, this is absolutely not the case. Of course, paleobiologists consider lizards the most adapted animal species in the planet’s biosphere, and not younger, but older than dinosaurs! True, those lizards that in ancient times lived next to dinosaurs never flew. Unlike pterosaurs, who learned to do this masterfully. Even despite its bulky body (the largest weighed 300 kg, and the wingspan reached 15 m). True, why and how they flew is still a mystery to scientists. However, such creatures really reigned in the skies of our planet for almost 200 million years in a row. And at the same time, scientists have not fully figured out whether they were reptiles.
By the way, when towards the middle Cretaceous period(90 million years ago) pterosaurs disappeared from the face of the Earth, the planet was dominated by the family of azhdarchids - the largest flying lizards in the entire history of the Earth. Giants with long necks glide at speeds of up to 40 km/h, grab unwary game with their powerful mouths and swallow them whole. It is quite possible that the legends about dragons originated from them. Interestingly, paleobiologists call the last azhdarchids Quetzalcoatlus. This is how the Mayan Indians christened their sacred serpent, which is also associated with many mythological stories. However, according to paleontologists, these mysterious creatures became completely extinct about 65 million years ago. I wonder who the Indians saw, who lived much later than the flying lashers?
Paleontologists have suggested that flying kites were either supplanted by more advanced creatures ideally adapted for flight (birds), or they became extinct from global cooling climate that happened exactly 65 million years ago. Only, according to scientists, some individuals could still survive, which is why they became the prototype of dragons and flying kites in Indian culture. And flying lizards could descend from heaven to earth and switch to a sedentary lifestyle. Interestingly, late pterosaurs are surprisingly similar to modern pelicans, which is why the latter are often even called small pterosaurs.
So, by and large, you shouldn’t be surprised if one day while picking mushrooms in the forest or swimming in a river, a cute little dragon jumps out to meet you. Science allows this possibility. “The absence of finds does not mean that such animals did not exist and do not exist, but only that it was not possible to detect traces of their presence on the planet,” says Dr. biological sciences Alexander Dubrov (Russia).
In any case, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, employee of the Institute of Oceanology named after. Shirshov RAS, also admits the possibility that flying lizards actually lived in forgotten times, and their relatives could well have survived somewhere: “The monsters described in ancient texts existed and can actually exist.” For example, "prehistoric lobe-finned fish coelacanth. For a long time it was believed that this species became extinct 200-300 million years ago, but quite by accident in the 1990s the fish was caught off the coast South Africa. It is amazing that over many millions of years it has practically not changed, although it has become smaller. The structure of her skeleton is identical to the skeleton of her ancestors who lived 200 million years ago.”
And yet they were!
But Alexey Rozanov, academician, director of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, smashes the version of the real existence of dragons to smithereens: “Dragons are mythological creatures (...) they are similar to lizards and birds at the same time, and this cannot happen already because lizards "are reptiles, and birds are warm-blooded." Pterosaurs are a different matter. They - " mysterious creatures, about which we know very little, but it is clear that their active flight was possible only when they reached sufficient high level metabolism, and this is an argument in favor of their warm-bloodedness. Today, scientists are inclined to conclude that dinosaurs in general - at least their flying species - were not reptiles. It is quite possible that it was warm-bloodedness that killed the flying lizards.” Reptiles, as it turns out, are better adapted to changing living conditions (evidence from living fossil species - cold-blooded lizards and crocodiles). However, in rock paintings primitive people In Australia, the image of a dragon-like creature is often found. Paleontologists confirm: this is megalania, large lizard, similar to a monitor lizard that once lived on the continent. Only cryptozoologists are absolutely sure that this reptile still leads the life of a hermit in the thicket of the Australian bush. Eyewitnesses described Megalania as a 4-6 meter monitor lizard with huge claws and a brown spotted body color. Although the dragon scares Australians, it never behaves aggressively. Or maybe there are simply no witnesses to his bad temper? But the megalania bones remain. They are still found in different places. Although paleontologists have not yet discovered a complete skeleton, they have already collected about 80% of the skeleton of the Australian dragon from fragments.
But astrologers sincerely believe that dragons are real and incredibly powerful! Only they live not in the real world, but in the astral world! But we are ready to help always and in everything! A friendly dragon will always become a protector of the home, allow you to look into the future and allow you to use its inexhaustible energy. That is why people have come up with many rituals to channel dragon power in the direction they need.
According to D. J. Conway, American writer, dragons help a person gather his inner strength, successfully resist imposed control, negative psychological programming and get rid of the pressure of people who cause heartache. By the way, followers of the Fairy tradition, a pagan system of myths based on the lunar Celtic calendar of the Beth-Luis-Nyon trees, also speak about the existence and power of dragons.
According to their view, dragons have a body and are found everywhere, literally in every object. Any action may be a consequence of dragon power. However, it is believed that dragons do not interfere in the affairs of people, considering them to be inferior creatures. Only when something terrible threatens a person, only then will the dragon intervene and definitely provide help. By the way, some dragons love to communicate with children, especially those endowed with parapsychological abilities.
And since living dragons have not yet been recorded either on the ocean floor or in the impenetrable jungle, we can assume that they could well be hiding somewhere...
Dragons are integral characters in the fantasy genre. They can be found in films, computer games, books, they are present in the mythology of many peoples... But dragons are fictional creatures, and nothing will force them to become reality. But perhaps omnipotent evolution could have taken place in such a way that, as a result of some reason, real, rather than fictitious, dragons appeared on Earth?
If you take a closer look at the animals that have ever inhabited the planet, or living on it in this moment, some of them have body fragments characteristic of a standard fantasy dragon. If we can “assemble a dragon” from animals, then it is quite possible that evolution could, under certain circumstances, do the same.
The first thing a dragon must do is fly. If you study the vertebrates common on our planet, you will notice that none of them have three pairs of limbs. No such animals were discovered during archaeological excavations - apparently, nature does not even consider the possibility of the existence of vertebrates with three or more pairs of limbs. Therefore, the wings that are usually painted on the back of dragons most likely could not appear. But instead of them, the dragon could well have webbed forearms and elongated front paws, which would allow it to fly, as, for example, the one that existed about 65 million years ago flew Quetzalcoatlus.
No vertebrate has three pairs of limbs, so the dragon has only one ability to fly - webbed wings.
But what about the body and armor that swords and arrows cannot take? In this case, dragons can borrow protection from a crocodile: it is known that the reptile’s back has such strong armor that it is difficult to pierce it with a sword or arrow. True, crocodiles have weakness- the underbelly, but the main thing is that a living creature, in a living example, can have quite thick and at the same time movable armor.
The crocodile armor on the back is strong enough to withstand blows from bladed weapons for some time And, of course, any dragon has deadly weapon- a fiery breath that incinerates entire armies. Of course, none Living being cannot maintain so much in his body high temperature. However, we are very familiar with bombardier beetles, which can shoot a self-heating chemical mixture that reaches a temperature of 100 ° C.
The bombardier beetle shoots a self-heating chemical mixture reaching a temperature of 100 ° C Such a jet can leave serious burns on human skin. Why shouldn't the dragon adopt this defense mechanism, but spit out the mixture not from the abdomen, but from the glands located in the mouth? And if you get creative and add a system for igniting the mixture to the dragon (for example, associated with electrical discharges, which produce electric eels), then you get that same fiery breath that kills entire armies.
Of course, all of the above is pure theory, which may encounter unforeseen limitations when tested in practice. But the presence in real animals of features and mechanisms inherent in fairy-tale dragons gives us the opportunity to think that at the next round of evolution, under certain circumstances, real dragons could appear on earth.
Modern people are skeptics by nature. Maybe it happened because they grew up reading, listening and watching fantastic stories, and then discovered that real life is much more prosaic? Monsters aren't real. Magic does not exist, just like Father Frost, Snow Maiden, Baba Yaga and Brownie. But just because Santa Claus is not some all-powerful magical overlord does not mean that real life There was no person who would not selflessly do something good for humanity and would not leave behind a lot of good things.
Let's put our skepticism aside for a second and take a look at ten things below (plus a bonus) that are considered mythical but either actually existed or had an equivalent in real world.
10. Dragons
Theories about what inspired the stories of dragons rely on lost bones of crocodiles and dinosaurs. However, we cannot name these creatures real dragons because humans have never encountered dinosaurs and crocodiles are too small in size. And that's where Megalania, an ancient relative of komodo dragon who terrorized the Australian Aborigines. It grew up to 8 meters in length and weighed up to 1.9 tons. Her poisonous saliva, containing an anti-clotting agent, caused her victims to bleed to death.
9. Hobbits
During excavations carried out in a limestone cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia, a skeleton approximately 1 meter high was discovered, the skull of which was only one-third the size of the skull. ordinary person- hobbit. Researchers have discovered the remains of nine such individuals, with the youngest skeleton dating back approximately 12,000 years. They also discovered tools and other signs of civilization. There are skeptics who believe that hobbits are simply people who suffered from some kind of growth-suppressing disease, such as microcephaly. However, the widespread opinion among scientists is that hobbits are actually separate species, the same as the Neanderthal species that shared a common ancestor with humans. In addition, there are active volcanoes in Indonesia, where, if necessary, you can throw the ring...
8. Kraken
There is an opinion that the image of the Kraken was inspired by an encounter with a huge squid. It can't help but be frustrating, can it? With eyes the size of beach volleyballs, the giant squid is truly enormous, but it lacks monstrousness. He doesn't look like the kind of creature we might imagine tearing apart a boat.
However, recently it was discovered in the Southern Ocean Colossal squid. It is believed that its body length reaches fourteen meters, and its beak and eyes are much larger than those of giant squid. What sets it apart from other squids is that in addition to the suckers, its limbs are covered with sharp hooks, some of which are curved inwards and some of which end in three claws. This is truly something that can cause significant damage.
7. Amazons
You've undoubtedly heard of the Amazons, an all-female tribe who were fierce warriors. They are also known from legends about the exploits of Hercules. The Greek historian Herodotus described the fate of the Amazons as follows: he said that they were captured and transported to another territory, then they overthrew their captors, were shipwrecked and ended up on the Eurasian steppe, where they fought with the Scythians. Believing that the Amazons could be strong wives, the Scythian men decided to fight them only in the field of love. Having survived all these ups and downs, the Amazons agreed to marry Scythian men, but only on the condition that they would allow their daughters to continue the proud tradition of their mothers and become warriors.
Herodotus is known for his love of embellishing history, so he should not be believed unless his words are backed up by archaeological evidence. However, they are backed up. Excavations of ancient graves on the Eurasian steppe have shown that a significant proportion of Scythian women had the bone damage associated with battle, and that they were buried with swords, bows, daggers and other weapons of warriors.
6. Dire Wolf
The dire wolf has appeared in many role playing games, and maybe you even just recently read or saw him in Game of Thrones. In real life, dire wolves coexisted with early man in megafauna during the Pleistocene era. They were larger and stronger than a normal wolf, and their teeth were sharper.
However, when the megafauna began to die out, dire wolves lost their main source of food. They were too slow to hunt the kind of prey that modern humans hunt. Gray wolves, which forced them to become scavengers - although they were not adapted for this. They eventually became extinct.
5. Scylla and Charybdis
One day on his journey, Odysseus was forced to direct his ships through a narrow cave, on both sides of which terrible monsters awaited him and his crew. On one shore, Scylla, a multi-headed monster, was waiting for his ship, who dragged part of Odysseus’s crew off the deck. On the other side, waiting for him was Charybdis, a sea beast that sucked ships to the bottom using a funnel. Odysseus decided to sail near Scylla, believing that it would be better to lose a few people, but allow everyone else to survive, than to lose the entire ship and all his people.
The Straits of Messina runs between Sicily and mainland Italy. It was here, according to legend, that Skilla and Charybdis lived. Charybdis is actually a funnel, only there is no monster in it and its flow is much calmer than described in the legends. On the other side of the strait there are rocky shallows, which inspired people to create the legend of the heads of Scylla. In fact, Odysseus would have been better off choosing Charybdis.
4. Berserkers
Berserkers are not just heroes taken from screenshots of the game Skyrim - the first mention of them can be found in old Norwegian poems. They were quite fearsome warriors in their time. But how did they get supernatural strength and invulnerability? Surely their legendary madness in battle was nothing more than an embellishment of history? But no, this actually happened. They took drugs before the fight, most likely hallucinogens, which made them fearless, strong and immune to pain and danger. Researchers have found that the drug bufotenine can replicate the effects of their violent anger.
3. Tower of Babel
Unlike Hanging Gardens, the construction of the Tower of Babel is evidenced by archaeological finds that were found at the excavation site of Babylon and prove that Nebuchadnezzar II received the right to erect it.
However, it was not a place where people talked nonsense that God destroyed. It was a ziggurat called Etemenanki, a temple to the god Marduk, which was later destroyed by Alexander the Great. He wanted to rebuild it as he saw fit, but died before he could do so. After this, many people tried to rebuild the temple according to their own ideas, each time demolishing what had been built before in order to start all over again. But no one managed to finish anything. It turns out that this place, after all, may be a symbol of human inability to work together.
2. Moby Dick and Captain Ahab
Moby Dick was based on stories about a real-life giant white sperm whale. Moreover, the real sperm whale was much cooler than in the book. In fact, his name was Mocha Dick, probably because he lived near Mocha Island. He won battles with hundreds of whaling ships, smashing some of them to pieces and sending them to the bottom. One day he fought three whaling ships at once and won.
The character of Captain Ahab was also based on real person, who lived around the same time as Mocha Dick. Captain Pollard did not seek revenge after the whale destroyed his ship. He and his crew had to resort to cannibalism to survive. But, he went to sea again, as a captain on a new ship...which also sank, this time due to a storm. He spent his remaining years working as a night watchman.
1. Imoogi or Korean Dragon
Korean legends tell about Imuji - huge pythons that were considered young dragons. According to legend, the Imuji lived in water or caves, and had to live on earth for a thousand years before they could ascend to the heavens and become true, fully formed dragons.
Although he lived in South America, and not in Korea, such python gigantic size really existed. He was so huge that we could have mistaken him for a young dragon. Titanoboa was approximately 14 meters long and weighed more than 1 ton. He strangled his victim with a force of 400psi, which is equivalent to if the Brooklyn Bridge fell on you, only 1.5 times heavier. Such a python could swallow a person even without its body expanding anywhere as the person's body moved along it. digestive system. They became extinct many years ago, but I would like to think that they ascended and became dragons.
Bonus:
Dwarka - Kingdom of Krishna (Krishna’s City of Dwarka)
According to legend, Krishna (the Hindu equivalent of Jesus) ruled the city of Dwarka until the city was swallowed up by the sea. Finding the lost city of Dwarka would be tantamount to our discovery of the Holy Grail or Noah's Ark.
Archaeologists have indeed discovered a sunken city off the coast of India. The stone reliefs found in this city have not only confirmed that this is actually Dwarka, oldest city in history, but also that it was under the control of Krishna.
Almost all the peoples who inhabit our world describe dragons in their traditions, myths and legends. Moreover, regardless of the habitat of a particular people, all these legends are very similar to each other. Scientists explain this similarity by the fact that people invented dragons in order to show their fear of snakes, because they are found everywhere, and people are afraid of them everywhere. However, it is impossible to say that such an explanation is plausible, since most descriptions of dragons are more reminiscent of crocodiles, which are covered with scales, rather than snakes. Therefore, scientists have put forward another hypothesis, according to which dragons are descendants of dinosaurs that lived until the advent of humanity. It must be said that this hypothesis is also supported by the church. But, at the same time, we note that the dating of the fossil remains of dragons does not coincide in time with the “religious” moment of the creation of the world. But from somewhere, something appeared on Komodo Island that looks very much like a dragon, only it doesn’t spit fire and doesn’t fly. There is also evidence of sailors and travelers who have repeatedly seen living lizards in the seas and oceans.
One might, of course, think that all this is fiction. But then the question arises: why do people, and even in large groups, inventing such things,?
It is known that in ancient mythology, dragons took a direct part in the creation of the world, and then controlled the elements. The Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans depict a large dragon as a symbol of major holidays. It is noteworthy that according to European beliefs the dragon is evil, but according to Eastern beliefs it is good.
The first reports about dragons appeared a long time ago, long before the beginning of our era, with the appearance of the first written sources. Thus, Herodotus wrote about the existence of dragons. According to him, a dragon lived off the Crimean coast, the length of which was 20 meters. He had a large, dark-colored body, a crest located above his head, and a a long tail, clawed paws, red glowing eyes, as well as a creepy mouth with several rows of sharp long teeth. The animal moved very quickly and at the same time made piercing sounds.
In addition, there are many records that indicate that in ancient times, mysterious creatures that resembled lizards densely populated our planet, living next to people. They were called by different names, but the most famous of these names is “dragon”, given by Europeans.
Interestingly, for the most part, descriptions of dragons almost completely coincide with descriptions of dinosaurs. Therefore, scientists who study dragons are inclined to think that we're talking about about the same creatures. Probably, people found the remains of ancient reptiles and came up with legends about terrible mysterious monsters. Dragons are often depicted in rock art, and legends about winged serpents that descended from heaven are present among many peoples. Scientists are sure that dragons existed because ancient people could only judge what they saw in reality and what they encountered.
Perhaps people would have continued to identify dragons with dinosaurs if not for one sensational discovery that was made in 1972. Not far from an ancient Aztec settlement, the remains of a creature that closely resembled a dragon were discovered. During further excavations, it was established that the remains belonged to the largest flying animals in the history of the Earth, whose wingspan was 15 meters. Outwardly, this animal resembled a giant bat. After the remains were examined, scientists concluded that they were pterosaurs. Based on these studies, scientists hypothesized that these creatures were the progenitors of dragons. But it remained unclear why different peoples who had never crossed paths in their lives had descriptions of dinosaurs that almost completely coincided. Therefore, scientists suggested that people initially mistook the dinosaurs that lived next to them for dragons.
So, what were dragons and dinosaurs?
In ancient times, they were called Megalania - huge lizards that lived on Earth many thousands of years ago. Their average length was about seven meters, and their weight reached 400 kilograms. They attacked animals, they could even cope with a rhinoceros. However, incredibly, but true - the last giant lizard killed a man. According to scientists, this species became extinct almost immediately after people settled the Australian continent. Some scientists are sure that Megalania are dragons. As evidence, they cite legends about fire-breathing creatures. Despite the fact that Megalania were not capable of casting fire, some of them had a strong poison that left wounds similar to burns on the victims' bodies. According to scientists, dragons, in addition to the lungs and nasal sinuses, had sacs in which hydrocarbons accumulated. When erupting, it combined with oxygen, resulting in a flame.
There is also evidence of encounters with a sea serpent. So, in 1893, off the coast of Scotland, the London doctor F. Matheson met with sea devil. According to him, the weather was wonderful that day, when suddenly something incomprehensible grew out of the water right in front of the boat: a creature large sizes, with a long neck, which resembled a large lizard. The creature was brown in color and had a black stripe under its head.
There is a lot of evidence of sea lizards in Russia. So, one of the most famous waterfowl lizards that is found in Russia is a creature that lives in Ladoga. This phenomenon has been described famous writer and ethnographer Alexei Popov. In his book there is evidence of encounters with an unknown monster: in the summer of 1973 he was fishing on Ladoga. It was a calm, sunny day. Suddenly, on the smooth surface of the lake, an object appeared that glittered in the sun. At first, the fishermen thought it was a capsized boat, but later noticed that the object was alive. The creature swam slowly along the shore, gradually approaching the boat. The fishermen hurried to the shore in fear, from where they continued observing. People saw that the animal was approximately 10 meters long, had a massive body, and dark gray skin color. The animal's head was large and rested on a long neck. The eyes were wide apart, and the gaze was angry and ferocious. Then suddenly the animal dived under the water and did not appear again.
The fact that the Ladoga lizard really exists is evidenced by local traditions and legends that are associated with the Valaam Monastery. In these ancient sources, one can often find references to unknown animals of gigantic size, which repeatedly emptied the trap nets that the monks set, without ever getting caught in them.
There are many legends about the existence of water dragons. So, if you carefully study the myths different nations who lived on the shores northern seas, you can see that each of these peoples has its own scary monster which lives in water. So, for example, in Iceland there are still rumors that a mysterious animal lives in one of the lakes, which local residents nicknamed Scrimsl. Notes have repeatedly appeared in the Swedish press about the existence of mysterious animals in six reservoirs, and in Ireland, in 1945, unknown animals were simultaneously seen in four lakes. In Canada, almost every person has heard at least once in their life about Ogopogo, who lived in Lake Okanagan. According to eyewitnesses, in appearance it resembles a log, its length reaches six meters, and its thickness is 60 centimeters. The animal's head resembles the head of a horse. The first mention of the appearance of Ogopogo dates back to 1872.
Another very popular one water lizard, which throughout long period Mythozoologists are trying to track down time - this is known to everyone Loch Ness monster, or Nessie, as he is affectionately called. According to legends, Nesie is a sea serpent that lives in Scotland, 40 kilometers from Inverness in Loch Ness (hence, in fact, its name). Despite the fact that scientists are plagued by failures, the local population assures that meetings with Nesi have occurred regularly since the mid-eighteenth century. In addition, biologists know for certain that there are snakes in the sea huge size. Previously, they are believed to have lived in forests, but later moved to the sea and bays.
Currently, almost every lake in Norway has its own legend about big snake. True, they are seen very, very rarely. But in the Middle Ages they were encountered much more often. Thus, in Bollarvatn there lived a sea serpent, which was as thick as a calf. There was also a known case when huge snake crawled onto the rock, but got stuck between the stones. The animal looked terrifying: its eyes were the size of the bottom of a barrel, and its mane hung from its neck. The snake was killed with several shots from a bow into the eye, the ground around it was completely saturated with green blood. And the corpse made such noise bad smell that the local population burned it.
Even in Walter Scott's novel "The Pirate" there is a description sea serpent rising from depths of the sea, pulling long neck covered with a mane and leading with large sparkling eyes in search of a victim.
The most detailed description of the monsters living in the Norwegian sea waters, written by Eric Iontopidian. He claims that the so-called dragons live deep under water and only rise to the surface in warm, windless weather. One of his books gives a description of the snake: a head that resembles a horse’s, a black snout, the rest of the body is gray, very large and black eyes, a long white mane. The body is very thick and long.
Oddly enough, dragons also exist in the modern world. Don't believe me? Here is the definition given in one of the encyclopedias: a dragon is a genus of reptiles from the order of lizards that reach a length of 30 centimeters, have a long tail, a narrow and flattened body. They have the ability to glide up to 20 meters using skin folds located along the edges of the body. There are 14 known species of dragons, all of them have bright variegated colors, live in trees, feed on larvae and insects.
If we talk about creatures that are more like ancient dragons, then they exist. True, they are called a little differently. Thus, on the island of Komodo (which was mentioned above), living dragons were found, that is, monitor lizards up to three meters long. In addition, researchers have found that there used to be much larger monitor lizards - up to 10 meters. They lived in Australia. And in New Guinea, according to the testimony of the local population, there lives a terrible monster of enormous size. However, when we managed to photograph it, it turned out that the “monster” did not even reach three meters in length...
Thus, we cannot exclude the possibility of the existence of an entire civilization of lizards that periodically show themselves to people. All that remains is to wait for the right moment to photograph at least one of them and prove that dragons really exist.
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