There are many mysterious phenomena in the world that scientists cannot yet explain, prove or disprove. Mysterious tribes are found in the jungle 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 for the Loch Ness monster, and people 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 district of Yakutia, there is a lake known for its anomalies. The reservoir, located at an altitude of 1020 m above sea level in the Sordonokhsky plateau on the site of a moraine amphitheater in the upper reaches of the Indigirka, has a rectangular shape, a width of 4 km and a length of 14km.
A crack located at the bottom of the lake increases its depth to 80 meters, so if the Labynkyr devil lives here, scientists don’t know how to catch it at such a depth or at least find 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 did not see him or not, but the strength of their belief in his existence is such that there are not only settlements near the lake, but also locals do not go for ordinary fishing in a pond full of fish. 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 Kuidusun are located more than a hundred kilometers from the lake and are well known as places of the cold pole, so no one is surprised by the average air temperature in winter (-50 degrees). The scientist Obruchev once recorded here its drop to -71.5 degrees Celsius.
Naturally, all the nearby water bodies, of which there are a great many in Yakutia, are covered with such strong ice in winter that people drive cars 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 pond.
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 mine-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
As scientists say, who have been studying the life and culture of the Yakuts and Evenks for a long time, these people are absolutely incapable of telling a lie, they are very naive and straightforward. Therefore, many of them took the stories of local old-timers about a huge creature living in the waters of the lake as based on real facts.
Where to catch the Labynkyr devil in order to fix its existence, today no one will say, but the fact that strange phenomena occur on this lake and incomprehensible sounds of animal origin are heard is confirmed by modern researchers.
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, the stories of 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.year.
The story of Soviet scientists
Geologist Boris Bashkatov and Academician Viktor Tverdokhlebov were watching the waters of the lake from the shore in July 1953 when they saw that an animal was swimming along it. That this particular living creature was visible from the way it moved - it slightly rose above the water and, as it were, threw its body forward.
A large dark gray carcass was partially visible above the surface, on which two bright symmetrical spots, similar to eyes, clearly stood out. Something that looked like either a stick or a bone growth was sticking out of the back of an unknown beast.
Based on what they saw, scientists determined that the animal has 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 animal hunts under water, and its movements caused waves on the surface.
The observation recorded in a scientific diary caused a lot of noise in the scientific community, so 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 survive of accidents in its waters.
Once upon a h alt nearOn the shore, a family of Evenk nomads stopped, who moved 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.
Expeditions in the Soviet era
The first scientific expedition to Lake Labynkyr 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. Between the 60s andIn 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 found 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 dedicated 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. An experiment helped to determine the time: it was during this time that the drops that splashed onearth scientists, 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. The Labynkyr devil was either just a large school of fish, the echo sounder did not show, but it fueled the researchers' curiosity.
Using a telesonde capable of working 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 found no anomaly.
Labynkyr lake fauna
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 Dolly, swamp, alimba, grayling, pike, char and lenok.
Despite the abundance of fish, neither local nor visiting fishermen fish here, preferring calmer and safer waters.
A lake in a computer game
For real fans, a version of the game "Russian Fishing, Labynkyr" was created. 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 alsowait patiently, feeding the chosen place.
You can "catch" a virtual devil with a bait or a donk. It is a pity that this does not work out in the real world, otherwise the secret of the Labynkyr devil would have been solved long ago.
